I don't think it is legal for a phlebotomist to access a femoral artery. Cardiologists access the femoral artery when performing a procedure placing a coronary stent in the heart. Only the physicians and perhaps a PA (Physician Assistant) is qualified to access a femoral artery. It is a matter of expertise and license.
I don't care if Mr. Lockett's autopsy occurs in Texas. But, I do care whom exactly is performing it. I would demand the FBI forensics to conduct it and they would have to come from another part of the country where there is no political conflict of interest.
Reversing an execution requires 'Emergency Medical Services' to immediately establish an airway. They administered paralytics to stop the diaphragm. He would have to be vented on artificial breathing machine.
Reversing potassium overdose, of which execution drugs definitely are. That is why the requirement for emergency medicine. The execution as defined by Oklahoma is a drug overdose. So, the protocol would require support for body systems about to fail. Versed (midazolam) was being used as a sedative of which is it's licensed application. It probably wasn't an overdose of the Versed. Versed is very short acting. At the most 15 minutes, that is why he woke up.
Okay. Let's see if I can weed through this.
Let me first describe an overdoes of a sedative. It would cause LABORED breathing. Labored breathing of a sedative is evidence of an overdose. A sedative in an execution is not suppose to cause distress. So, if Versed is being used in these executions and what is resulting is labored breathing that is torture.
Versed is used for minor and short medical procedures requiring CONSCIOUS sedation. Conscious sedation is a very low level sedative effect. There is no change in pupil size or any distress to breathing. It lowers the awareness of pain. Creates a tolerable pain level which once the patient wakes up completely they don't remember any pain, discomfort or the procedure either. It causes amnesia. It is a hypnotic.
Reversing a potassium overdose is a bit more involved. It requires administration of insulin to move the potassium from the blood into cellular spaces. But, there has to be a glucose intravenous drip at the same time to prevent a hypoglycemic coma with the insulin intravenous administration.
It is my estimation at this point that if the intravenous access was the femoral artery and it had an 'exploded' appearance it was due to migration of blood under pressure out of the artery into the local tissue causing a hematoma. If the drugs were administered through this intravenous access they would have migrated out of the artery along with the blood. Some would make it into the blood stream but not the entire dose.
If this was the ONLY access to administration of drugs, something other than the execution protocol killed Mr. Lockett. The Versed caused some sedation, allowing him to wake up after it wore off, the paralytic would have caused some decrease in breathing potential if it made it into his blood stream at all in any significant amount and the potassium chloride would have stopped the heart. The potassium chloride probably migrated out of the artery as well contributing to an 'exploded' appearance.
Something killed the man and it wasn't the execution drugs.
One other thing, Oklahoma is performing these executions on the cheap. A nurse trained in Advanced Cardiac Life Support (ACLS) could easily stand by and administer the emergency medicine in time to reverse any execution process. The prison would have to bring their emergency cart from the medical office to the execution room for such an emergency.
I do assume the prisons have 'Crash Carts' by chance a prisoner actually experiences a medical emergency. I mean prison is never suppose to be a death sentence. That is left for the execution chamber.
