Christa Pike, who survived two doses of a lethal injection drug last week during a botched execution in Tennessee, is conscious and speaking, her lawyers said in a statement on Tuesday.
Ms. Pike continues to receive critical medical care at a Nashville hospital, the lawyers said. The prognosis remains unclear, they said, but they expect a long recovery.
“Christa is a survivor and will take recovery one day at a time,” the lawyers said.
Ms. Pike, 50, is believed to be the first person to have survived doses of a lethal injection drug. She has been hospitalized since the execution attempt on Sept. 30, after it became clear to witnesses that she was still breathing after two doses of pentobarbital, the drug used in lethal injection executions.
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Ugh, like a chemical bronze bull… yeah it’s freaking horrifying.
I looked up this bronze bull of yours, and it’s nasty.
(For others who didn’t know, apparently this ancient Greek tyrant put people inside a hollow bronze bull, closed the lid, and lit a fire underneath, so that while the person inside cooks to death their screams bellow out of the Bull’s mouth)
Yeah I felt pretty gross even mentioning it, but basically the “genius” of the device was making the suffering more palatable to those on the outside of it, so it reminded me of the mentality behind injections today.
According to anecdote and/or legend, the inventor was the first victim.
Yeesh. :(
“Palatable”. I’m thinking, there was exactly one person in the empire who enjoyed employing the Bronze Bull, and one only. In some lead infused craze he’s super giddy about roasting someone alive, but also- haha! So much fun, because it sounds like the screams are coming from the pig’s face! LOOOL! So much fun for everyone, must have smelled fantastic. I mean that, human flesh probably smelled like any other barbecue, so you would not only get the visceral PTSD inducing horror of hearing someone cooking to death, but you will also forever connect it with the sweet smell of fried meat.
The old Persian “death by canoe” springs to mind, because it feels like that is what a psychotic child brought up in the most impossible of circumstances and cutthroat competition as the sole survivor of the dynasty would come up with. Like, some poor kid perpetually manipulated and gaslighted by all the people around them vying for their piece of the power cake as it were, until they were molded into these monsters. Kind of like Caligula, you know? Little Boot? And it always felt like, to me… That it was a punishment invented by either a maladapted child, or extremely traumatized older prince.
It’s childish.
It’s like, “Sire, what would you have done with these traitors before you?” “The most horrific punishment in the Universe!” “And what is that, m’lord?” “Well… What if… We put them in a canoe, and then but another canoe on top, but also make sure their arms and legs are exposed to the sun, and then, and then, and then, then you force feed them milk and honey until they are about to burst and hit their bellies with rods, and push them out into the reeds, so that they waste away over weeks being eaten alive by insects”.
My little brother could come up with some shit like this for a DnD campaign, it’s just… Bizarrely childish, and childishly bizarre. Anyway that’s my three dollars fifty cents.