# Execution survivor discharged to prison

> Christa Pike, the first person to survive lethal injection during an execution, has left hospital and returned to the women's prison where she was held for 30 years.
- Title: Execution survivor discharged to prison · Fortune | Shortify
- Summary: Christa Pike, the first person to survive lethal injection during an execution, has left hospital and returned to the women's prison where she was held for…
- Keywords: christa pike, lethal injection, tennessee execution, debra k. johnson rehabilitation center, colleen slemmer, bill lee, Execution, survivor, discharged, prison, Fortune
- Source: Fortune — https://fortune.com/2026/10/10/christa-pike-discharge-hospital-prison-lethal-injection-execution
- Author: The Associated Press
- Read time: 1 min
- Topics: christa pike, lethal injection, tennessee execution, debra k. johnson rehabilitation center, colleen slemmer, bill lee
## Pike survives execution attempt
Christa Pike, fifty, survived Tennessee's lethal injection execution on September thirtieth. She received two doses of pentobarbital while being executed for the nineteen ninety-five beating and stabbing death of classmate Colleen Slemmer.
## First to survive lethal injection
The Death Penalty Information Center says Pike is the first person to survive after receiving lethal injection drugs during an execution.
## IV line problem suspected
Medical and lethal injection experts focused on whether a problem with the IV line caused the drug to pool in her tissue instead of entering her bloodstream.

> apparently at no point did any member of the execution team realize that the IV lines were not correctly placed.
## Pike discharged, review ordered
Pike has been discharged from hospital and returned to Debra K.Johnson Rehabilitation Center, the women's prison where she was housed for thirty years.
## Key takeaway

Christa Pike, fifty, survived Tennessee's lethal injection execution on September thirtieth and has been discharged from hospital back to Debra K. Johnson Rehabilitation Center after recovering from two doses of pentobarbital.