Associated Press - November 24, 2009 4:25 PM ET

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) - As an Ohio execution team tried to find a vein during an unsuccessful lethal injection attempt, prison staff called on a doctor for help.

In a federal court deposition, Dr. Carmelita Bautista says she tried to insert an IV catheter into Romell Broom's foot on Sept. 15.

Professional and ethical rules generally prohibit doctors from involvement in capital punishment. In the deposition, she says she had never before been involved in an execution because doctors "are supposed to heal people."

Bautista works at the Lucasville prison medical office occasionally and was asked by an administrator to help with Broom.

Reached at her home in West Virginia on Tuesday, Bautista said she does not feel she assisted in the execution.

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