“The IV team gave up on trying to place a typical line into Carruthers after several failed attempts, according to DeLiberato’s account. Following protocol, physician Mark Fowler, a contractor for the state’s prison system, then tried to place a central line in a deeper vein. That’s a quasi-surgical procedure in which a plastic tube is inserted in the chest, groin, or neck. Fowler used a series of syringes, trying to insert the tube under Carruthers’ collarbone and then through his shoulder. In an October 2025 deposition, Fowler said he hadn’t done such a procedure in the 12 years since he had stopped working in an emergency room, and didn’t know that placing a central line could be among his execution duties.”
After Failed Execution, Health Workers Say State’s Rules Flout Medical Ethicskffhealthnews.orgRead the second paragraph twice. The doctor Tennessee relied on to place a central line in May hadn’t done one in 12 years, since he left an emergency room, and didn’t know it could be part of the job. I don’t think that’s one bad contractor. It’s a protocol that needs a skill most of the people who have it are told by their own ethics code not to bring into that room.
““Placing a central line is not just sticking a needle in a person’s arm,” he said.”
After Failed Execution, Health Workers Say State’s Rules Flout Medical Ethics· kffhealthnews.orgA retired Nashville hematologist said it more plainly than I can.
“The state’s lethal injection protocol orders the prison to keep a curtain over the media witnesses’ viewing window until the IVs are established, so none of them could offer a visual account of the failed execution attempt.”
After Failed Execution, Health Workers Say State’s Rules Flout Medical Ethics· kffhealthnews.orgAnd nobody outside the room got to see any of it. The witness curtain stays down until the IVs are in, which is exactly the step that failed in May. WPLN is one of the outlets suing over that rule.
“The state's execution protocol calls for a secondary set of drug syringes to be administered “if the inmate is not deceased” after the first set. It does not spell out what happens if the subject is alive after the second set.”
Tennessee governor halts executions after Christa Gail Pike survives lethal injection attemptabcnews.com
Two doses of pentobarbital, and she left the prison alive in an ambulance. This is the line I keep rereading. The protocol has a step for when the first set of syringes doesn’t work, and nothing written for when the second one doesn’t. In my world every protocol says what to do when plan B fails. Tennessee’s ends at B, and a hospital had to pick up from there.
“Gov. Bill Lee said in a statement that he has ordered “a comprehensive, third-party review to determine exactly what occurred” and that the remaining scheduled execution will not take place this year.”
Tennessee governor halts executions after Christa Gail Pike survives lethal injection attemptabcnews.comThe governor has now called off the one execution left this year and ordered an outside review. Good. I hope the reviewers start where more than 40 doctors and nurses started in their letter: take health workers out of it.