Death-row inmate Christa Pike woke up “angry and confused after surviving two failed lethal injections”, her lawyers have said.

Pike, who was supposed to be killed by the state of Tennessee on September 30, is now receiving critical care in hospital after surviving two doses of the barbiturate pentobarbital.

When she first regained consciousness, she asked: “Where am I and who are you?”

She then asked questions about the family of the women she murdered, Colleen Slemmer.

The death-row killer is still experiencing cognitive impairment, but is “aware of what they did to her”.

She has a blood clot in one of her arms, pneumonia and is not able to swallow yet.

Her lawyers said on Tuesday evening: “Against all odds, Christa Pike is conscious, speaking, and continues to receive critical medical care.

“Despite the severe damage she endured to her arms, she is still handcuffed and shackled to the bed.”

Despite two attempts at administering a lethal injection, the convicted murderer was “audibly snoring” in the death chamber, a journalist who witnessed her failed execution attempt has told LBC.

She was injected with two lethal doses of pentobarbital on Wednesday but remained alive, her lawyers said. She was then sent to hospital in an ambulance.

Pike’s representatives added: “Her recovery is medically unprecedented. Her prognosis remains unclear but, at a minimum, we expect a long recovery.

“Christa is a survivor and will take recovery one day at a time.”

Tennessee’s prison chief, Frank Strada, resigned after overseeing the botched execution, Governor Bill Lee said on Saturday.

Pike was found guilty at age 18 of killing classmate Colleen Slemmer in 1995. Now 50, she was to be the first woman executed in Tennessee in 200 years.

While Pike admitted guilt, her supporters and legal team have argued that the state should have considered her history of being the victim of severe childhood sexual violence and her diagnoses of bipolar disorder and PTSD, which she received after her verdict, before sentencing her to death.

She was granted a reprieve before her scheduled execution, but the US Supreme Court struck it down.

Tori Gessner, a reporter at Nashville news website WKRN who has witnessed five executions, told Tonight With Andrew Marr last week that Pike was still “talking and singing” after the first execution attempt.

She said: “She did mention a couple things. She asked if this was supposed to happen this way during the first round of the pentobarbital going into her system?

“And she mentioned her arm burning, but it seemed to me like she was sleeping. That’s what it looked like, at least with the snoring. You could still see her, her chest rising and falling as if she was breathing.”

Dr Joel Zivot, a professor of anaesthesiology and surgery has said that while Pike’s recovery “bodes well,” she could be left in a condition that would make her questionably eligible for execution, due to her level of competency.

People present at the execution reported as many as seven needles being used to apply the lethal injection, including one which bent while being removed from her arm.

Former prison chief Strada said: “I look forward to doing everything I can to help determine exactly what occurred.”

Her lawyers are continuing to lobby the state government to change Pike’s sentence to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole, not execution.

Pike’s former boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp, was also convicted of killing Ms Slemmer when he was 17 years old.

Shipp received a life sentence with the possibility of ​parole.