COLUMBUS, OHIO ? A condemned inmate asked prison officials to find another way to execute him as they struggled to administer a lethal injection after an intravenous line failed, prison records show.

“Can you just give me something by mouth to end this?” convicted killer Joseph Clark asked during the 90-minute delay, according to accounts written by members of the execution team and obtained by The Associated Press.

The May 2 execution was plagued with problems from the beginning, when team members struggled for several minutes to find a vein. After inserting a shunt in Clark’s arm, the vein collapsed, leading Clark to push himself up and say, “It don’t work.”

The team then attached a shunt to Clark’s other arm but apparently tried to administer the lethal drugs through the first shunt by mistake, the reports said.

A team member noticed the error when Clark continued to move his left foot, said prisons spokeswoman Andrea Dean.

Clark, 57, was executed after officials switched the drugs to the proper line.