Christa Pike’s rare cancer has been made public, and courts were told months before execution

Nine months before Christa Pike’s attempted execution, her legal team filed paperwork that detailed a rare form of blood cancer called myeloproliferative disorder. 

Myeloproliferative disorder is classified by the World Health Organisation as a rare form of blood cancer, affecting roughly 20,000 new people in the United States each year. People with the disease suffer complications born from their bone marrow producing too many red blood cells, white blood cells, or platelets. 

Though it’s unclear when she was officially diagnosed, on January 8 2026, her legal team filed a complaint arguing that an execution was against the First, Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments. According to People, which gained access to the court filings, Christa’s  “platelet count is significantly elevated, likely due to a rare form of blood cancer called myeloproliferative disorder.” 

They argued that the execution would be “very likely to result in unnecessary and superadded pain and suffering, terror, and disgrace.” They further claimed that an attempt could result in severe pulmonary edema, a buildup of fluid in the lungs, because of her thrombocytosis. 

“A pulmonary edema is not simply painful or uncomfortable; it can create a sense of suffocating or drowning that has been likened by experts to the sensation intentionally induced by the practice of waterboarding—an unambiguous form of outright torture,” her team said in the filing. 

Credit: Tennessee Department of Correction

Christa Pike’s legal team also noted her damaged veins 

Outside of the cancer diagnosis, Christa Pike’s lawyers pointed to several issues with her veins. One issue was “a history of difficulty with blood draws and needle insertion.” 

Most Read

It’s out! Who gets married and who doesn’t at Love Is Blind season 11 weddings has leaked

I know where it went wrong with American Horror Story, and it’s all about Ryan Murphy’s ‘type’

The 14 UK universities producing the most employable grads in 2027, according to hiring managers

As we now know, doctors at the execution had trouble finding a vein, trying for an hour before it was wrongly inserted into subcutaneous tissue. They went through 10 needles in total. 

Christa Pike’s future remains unclear at this point, though her lawyers are attempting to have her capital punishment sentence reduced to life without parole. Amidst that, Tennessee Governor Bill Lee said her execution will stand unless challenged by the courts. 

More information is expected in the coming weeks. 

For more, like The Tab on Facebook. 

Featured image credit: Tennessee Department of Correction