Christa Pike's first words after failed execution as she recalls memories from hospital bed

Christa Pike was able to recall her own name after waking up from her botched execution, but when she was asked what the date was, she guessed that it was still September, according to a doctor advising her legal team.

Dr Joel Zivot, an anesthesiologist, told the BBC that Pike has since come off the ventilator she relied on for nearly a week.

Pike, 50, regained consciousness on Tuesday, six days after the attempt, and she remains in a critical condition after being injected with two doses of the lethal drug pentobarbital.

Her lawyers have confirmed that she is awake and able to speak after spending nearly a week unconscious.

The US Sun reports that her legal team issued a statement on Tuesday about her condition.

“Her recovery is medically unprecedented. Her prognosis remains unclear but, at a minimum, we expect a long recovery,” the team said.

What does Christa Pike remember about her botched execution?

Zivot offered more detail on what Pike can and cannot recall since she woke up.

“She has some memories of being in the hospital but no memory, I believe, of the execution attempt,” he said.

That matters because of how the attempt went. Pike was injected with two doses of pentobarbital, and she remains in critical condition about a week after her scheduled execution date.

Pike's lawyers say she was struck with at least seven needles, and that she has suffered severe damage to her arms as a result. Despite those injuries, they say she is still handcuffed to her hospital bed.

Her execution had been scheduled for September 30.

Had it gone ahead as intended, Pike would have become the first woman executed in Tennessee in more than 200 years.

Instead, the procedure failed, and the month it was due to take place is the one she believed it still was when she first woke up.

In total, Pike spent nearly a week on a ventilator after the failed procedure in Tennessee, and she is still being treated in hospital.

Why was Christa Pike on death row for 30 years?

The botched lethal injection has pushed a decades-old case back into the spotlight. Pike was sentenced to death for the 1995 murder of her college classmate Colleen Slemmer, who was 19 years old.

Slemmer was tortured and bludgeoned, and Pike carved a pentagram into her body and took part of her skull as a souvenir. Pike went on to spend 30 years on death row, and she was still there when her execution date of September 30 arrived.

Slemmer's mother, May Martinez, spoke out soon after the news emerged that Pike had woken up. She told NBC affiliate WBIR that she does not believe the state will try to execute Pike again. Her comments came shortly after Pike's legal team confirmed that the inmate was awake and able to speak.

“It doesn’t matter what I think,” Martinez said. “They’re going to do what they’re going to do.”