“My body and soul ache”: Christa Pike speaks for the first time after a failed execution in the U.S.

U.S. inmate Christa Pike stated this Friday that she feels constant pain, both physical and mental, after surviving two lethal injections on September 30 in the state of Tennessee (United States).

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"There has not been a single moment since that night where I have not felt pain. My body hurts. My arms hurt. My hands hurt. My throat hurts. I still have trouble speaking," Pike expressed in her first statement since the events, transcribed by her lawyers and reported by the American press.

"The pain is not only physical. I feel pain in my mind and in my soul," she explained.

Pike was sentenced to death in 1996 for the murder, a year earlier, of her fellow student Colleen Slemmer, and was to be the first woman executed in Tennessee in more than 200 years.

After surviving the two lethal injections she was administered, she was taken to a hospital, where she spent several days unconscious and developed pneumonia.

In addition, she had a blood clot in her arm.

Pike assured in the statement that she is recovering and becoming "stronger and stronger," but noted that "recovering is not the same as being well."

She also explained that on the day her execution was scheduled, she was prepared to die and that she "had not thought about life beyond that night."

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"I am looking for meaning in what happened to me. (...) I don't know why I survived that night or what will come next. Some days it is harder for me to find hope than others," she indicated.

For now, she said, she is trying to recover: "I am clinging to the love and kindness of so many people who have reminded me that I am not alone."

Pike also assured that she continues "thinking about my victim's family and the terrible pain and loss they have suffered."

Tennessee has executed 17 inmates since the reinstatement of capital punishment in the United States in 1977, according to data from the Death Penalty Information Center, an organization that compiles statistics on these sentences across the country.

Currently, 42 people are on death row in Tennessee.