Christa Pike is conscious and speaking.

NASHVILLE — Christa Pike is conscious and speaking, her lawyers said Tuesday, six days after Tennessee failed to execute her. She is 50. The state gave her two doses of pentobarbital on Sept. 30 and then moved her to a hospital. On Friday her lawyers said she was still unconscious and on a ventilator. On Tuesday they wrote: “Against all odds, Christa Pike is conscious, speaking, and continues to receive critical medical care.” Her arms were badly damaged. She is still handcuffed and shackled to the bed. They called the recovery medically unprecedented and said the prognosis is unclear. They expect a long one.

Pike was sentenced to death for the 1995 murder of Colleen Slemmer, who was 19. She was to be the first woman executed in Tennessee in two centuries. During the attempt she was heard gasping and crying. At one point she said, “My arm feels like it’s about to burst open.” Her lawyers said the failed intravenous lines left both arms swollen, burned, and blistered after the drug seeped into the tissue. Reuters, USA Today, and The Washington Post reported that she is awake.

Against all odds, Christa Pike is conscious, speaking, and continues to receive critical medical care.

The photograph is a Tennessee Department of Correction portrait. She is in a hospital and has not been photographed there for publication. The States desk files Tennessee. It is not a Miami story. The enrichment terms are the front.