USA Today carries, "Anesthesia shortage may delay executions," by Jessie Halladay,
A nationwide shortage of several anesthesia drugs has left several states scrambling to find enough doses to carry out lethal injections — potentially delaying executions well into next year.Kentucky announced this week that it would not be able to carry out two executions, despite pending death warrants, because the state has only enough sodium thiopental, also known as Pentothal, to perform a single lethal injection.
"We have reached out to some other states, but that has not been fruitful," said J. Michael Brown, secretary of the Justice and Public Safety Cabinet. "We've had other states call us trying to find it."
And:
Hospira, based outside Chicago, the sole U.S. manufacturer of sodium thiopental, says manufacturing problems have hindered production of the drug, though spokesman Dan Rosenberg declined to elaborate.
"We are working to get it back on the market as soon as possible," Rosenberg said.
Rosenberg said Hospira won't have more of the drug available until sometime in the first quarter of 2011.
The lack of sodium thiopental developed after a more commonly used anesthetic called Propofol grew scarce, said Bona Benjamin with the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists. The shortages have led to major disruptions for hospitals, doctors and patients, who have postponed some elective surgeries as a result.
Benjamin said that with the shortage of Propofol it didn't take long to start seeing shortages in drugs that could be safely substituted. "It just sort of trickled down where anesthesiologists are being very challenged right now."
The article also reports:
Kentucky has 9.5 grams of sodium thiopental available, according to Department of Corrections documents. Execution requires 3 grams, plus an additional 3 grams for backup injection.
Moreover, Kentucky's dose of sodium thiopental expires in October.
Earlier coverage of the drug shortage begins here.
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