Christa Pike's execution doctor throws prison staff under the bus as she cites 'incompetence'

NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE: The physician who oversaw Christa Pike’s failed execution is speaking out about what he saw in the death chamber, and he is pointing at the prison staff around him.

Dr Mark Fowler told New York magazine, in an interview published on Friday, October 30, that the team missed a warning sign and should have paused.

He also defended his own skills, saying he is not incompetent, even as lawyers and critics circle.

In her first statement since the execution failure, Pike had expressed disappointment and said she was “deeply hurt by the incompetence that has put so many people in this terrible position.” Pike had not named Fowler in the statement.

Mark Fowler recounts Christa Pike's execution failure

Fowler said he had sensed trouble when 45 minutes passed with no word from the warden. Executions, he noted, rarely take more than 10 minutes.

When he was called into the chamber, he found Pike strapped to the gurney and gasping for air, having already received two doses of pentobarbital. The warden told him she was not dead.

At first, Fowler said, he assumed she might simply be reacting slowly to the injection and waited a few more minutes.

Another half hour went by. By then he feared she could survive with permanent brain damage.

He examined her and found she was comatose, and the deputy commissioner ordered the execution halted.

Fowler’s task shifted from pronouncing her dead to trying to save her.

He called for oxygen, and an ambulance took Pike to Vanderbilt University Medical Center, where she was placed on a ventilator and treated for severe burns and blistering on her arms.

Fowler said the IV had not been placed correctly in her veins, so the substance went into the tissue of her arms instead of her bloodstream.

Pike regained the ability to walk and talk after about 10 days and was returned to the women’s prison.

He also faulted the staff. Pike had complained of arm pain during the procedure, and he said someone should have responded.

“They should have stopped and reassessed, and they didn’t,” he told New York magazine.

Mark Fowler defends against 'incompetence' claims

Fowler pushed back hard on the idea that he is not up to the job. He told the magazine he is neither uncaring nor incompetent, and that his conscience is clear.

The scrutiny began in May, when he took part in the failed execution of inmate Tony Carruthers. Critics seized on his admission that he had not placed a central IV, a line into a large vein near the chest, in roughly twelve years.

Fowler said he has done it successfully before and likened the skill to riding a bicycle.

He also flatly denied a claim by Carruthers’ sister that her brother suffered a stroke during the procedure.

Pike’s lawyers had raised similar doubts before her execution.

They argued in court that Fowler was not qualified to place a central line if her veins could not be used, pointing to his own sworn testimony and saying the state went to lengths to keep his identity hidden.

Fowler may now face further legal fallout.

One of Pike’s lawyers says her family is likely to sue him and the state, but he says he is not worried.

He sees his job as carrying out the state’s sentence, whatever his own view of the death penalty, and says he is willing to do the work that others will not.