Christa Pike's lawyers issue new update on her condition following court appearance

Christa Pike has taken further steps towards recovery but remains 'foggy', her lawyers have said.

Having survived a botched lethal injection execution last week, it was unclear if Pike would wake up after being rushed to hospital for life-saving treatment.

On Monday (October 5), Christa’s aunt Carrie Ross claimed she was told her niece was brain dead and would be taken off life support.

Ross told the Daily Mail: "They were going to let her go - let her die - at 1 o'clock."

But in a twist that has yet to be given an ‘explanation’, Pike regained consciousness on Tuesday, nearly a week after two doses of the lethal injection pentobarbital failed to kill her.

Ross said: 'It's been up, down, up, down. I have cried more tears in the last week than I've cried in my whole life.

"This whole week has been a blur."

Christa Gail Pike has been behind bars for 30 years (Tennessee Department of Corrections)

Speaking at a press conference on Wednesday, Christa’s lawyer Randy Spivey said: “I do not have an explanation for what happened between Monday night and Tuesday morning, but what we do know is Christa has a long road to recovery."

Another of her attorneys Stephen Ferrell said he had not spoken to Christa directly, but had learned her arms were swollen and barely functioning. He added that she was able to take her first steps around her hospital room.

Speaking to the BBC Radio 4's Today program yesterday (October 7), he said: "What's been described to me is that physically there's quite a bit going on, that her arms are very injured and she's not able to use them very much."

Ferrell added: "She is up and walking for the first time today, but just around the room, not very far."

He then said of her mental health: "I think it's kind of good and bad. Good that she is fairly with it, but she's also somewhat foggy. She can lose her train of thought really easily and forgets where she's going."

Ferrell went on to say of her future health: "I assume [the situation for Pike] will keep improving, but there could be some permanent damage. We don't know that yet."

The Christa Pike case in numbers (UNILAD/Tennessee Department of Correction/WBIR-TV)

He added that the team wanted her to get some psychological support, claiming it ‘clearly is necessary now.’

In light of her failed execution for the 1995 torture and murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer, Christa’s lawyers are now petitioning to Tennessee governor Bill Lee to downgrade her sentence to life in prison without parole.

For now, Lee has ordered a pause on all executions in the state until next year while an investigation is launched into the execution failure.

Yesterday’s court hearing saw judge I'Ashea Myles order that ‘anything that was in the actual room needs to be preserved and maintained’ as evidence and that the state should take ‘special care’ in not deleting or misplacing potential evidence.