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Suspicious death of mother of two mine families against doctor husband

Suspicious death of mother of two mine families against doctor husband

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Sarah Shanks was found and fought to breathe in her driveway in Knoxville, Tennessee. Everyone agrees that it should be alive, but the agreement ends there.

When doctors arrived shortly after 2:40 a.m. on January 20, 2023 in the home of Sarah and Ryan Shanks, the otherwise healthy mother of two children alone was passed out when they tried to breathe.

The situation worsened. Sarah never gained consciousness and nine days later she took her last breath.

What happened in Knoxville, Tennessee that night is full of speculation. Everyone agrees that Sarah should still be alive, but the agreement ends there.

Almost a year after her death, Ryan Shanks, an emergency doctor for emergency rooms, submitted a lawsuit against the first aiders and the hospital, who took care of her and killed her actions or inactivity Sarah. In January, Sarah's parents submitted his own lawsuit and said Ryan endeavors to stop Sarah, to apply for divorce and was responsible for her death.

The complaints that were both submitted in front of the Knox County Circuit Court illuminate what happened.

Ryan Shanks accuses first aiders and the hospital

Ryan's lawsuit is short and in a nutshell: Anyone who is involved in Sarah's care is responsible for their death. Had first aiders from the American medical reaction and the fire brigade of Knoxville, who dealt more effectively with Sarah's care, would be alive. The same applies to the employees of the Fort Sanders Regional Medical Center, he says in the lawsuit.

He says that Sarah's respiratory tract has not properly intubated, did not do HLW and did not bring her to the hospital with urgency. Overall, they pursued non -acceptable care practices.

Ryan's lawsuit provides sparse details about what he called 911 at night when Sarah Kurz became breaths or how her condition deteriorated. It is not mentioned that marriage problems have problems or that he and Sarah were separated.

Fort Sanders, Covenant Health (to which Fort Sanders belongs), American Medical Response and the city of Knoxville, all denied that they were refused to respond to the complaint of Shank's misconduct in legal applications.

Sarah Shanks' family: Ryan Shanks wanted to divorce at all costs

Sarah had separated from Ryan and borrowed money in the months before her death to keep a divorce lawyer, her family says in her complaint. They say in the lawsuit he said friends that divorce would be “impractical” and “unaffordable”.

The two argued about the care of their two children in primary school age, and Sarah's family called Ryan Controlling. He cloned Sarah's phone – essentially a copy he could see on a separate phone – so that he could get a “better picture of his marriage”, a friend of the family later told the police.

The lawyer of Ryan Shanks, Gavin Shepherd, announced with Knox News, part of the USA Today Network, a statement that described the family's complaint against “false, defaming and malicious people”. Ryan Shanks submitted an application to dismiss the family's lawsuit.

“Dr. Shanks has never been charged with a crime in connection with the death of his wife, and he is confident that the true facts associated with their death will continue to be unveiled in the pending lawsuit that he submitted,” said Shepherd.

The night medicine care was called

During the night, Sarah Shanks was taken to the hospital, Ryan called her parents separately and said to everyone that he was considering buying a weapon after Sarah's Familie Familie, and he had “thoughts of suicide”.

Later that night Sarah and Ryan come into a dispute over the calls. Ryan told the police that Sarah had drank several glasses of wine and took sleeping pills after the family's complaint. (Sarah's blood alcohol level was later reported at 0.1 in accordance with the family's lawsuit, which is considered legally drunk.)

Around 1:30 a.m. Sarah Ryan woke up to tell him that she fell into the bathroom and, according to the family's complaint, injured her in his neck, which refers to comments that Ryan made to a friend of Sarah about the events that night. She returned to bed, but got up because she had a panic attack. He told the police, Sarah told him that she thought she died, the family said.

Finally Sarah made his way outside to avoid waking her children. As a paramedic, according to the family's lawsuit, she was alone on the entrance and passed out. Ryan Shanks told the police that he had joined briefly when they arrived.

Twelve minutes after the paramedics had arrived, Sarah got into cardiac arrest, and the doctors started breast compressions and brought them to Fort Sanders.

The family of Sarah Shanks indicates other details about their condition

  • Sarah's blood gas -h value was alarmingly low according to the lawsuit. This shows that it suffers from a severe lack of oxygen, the lawsuit says.
  • According to the family, the emergency room of the emergency room in Fort Sanders was concerned about a foul after a cat scan had resulted in tissue damage around the neck and an “abnormal air pocket” in her chest.
  • The family says that an MRI has shown that Sarah suffered a “global anoxic injury”, which occurs when the brain is withdrawn from oxygen.

Ryan Shanks did not charge there, but described Sarah's death as “very suspicious”

The family complaint contains an indication of a reference to the Knox County district prosecutor, Charme Allen everyone, on the Detective of the Knoxville Police Department, which checked the case from which a copy of KNOX News received a public recording.

Everyone found that they were intended to submit no charges because Sarah's autopsy was “not conclusive”. It called the case “unsustainable”. Her hands were bound.

All called Sarah's death “very suspicious” and said that Ryan was the only other adult with her in the hours before her injury. Everyone pointed out “evidence of instability in their marriage” and concerns about the mental health of Ryan Shanks, which led to the death of his wife.

Also included is an explanation by Knox County's chief inspector, Darinka Mileusnic-Polchan, who checked the Shanks case in December.

Sarah's extended hospital stay and the donation of her organs after her death made it a challenge to find out what happened, said the medical examiner. Sarah's cause of death will be classified as “not to be determined” in her death certificate.

“We were unable to prove or rule out the foul, based on the lack of solid physical evidence of trauma,” wrote Mileusnic-Polchan.

When Sarah's mother was reached by phone, it declined to comment. The family's lawyer, Don Bosch, did not answer a note that applied for a comment.

Tyler WheStone is an investigative reporter who focuses on journalism of accountability. Connect to Tyler by sending it to tyler.whestone@knoxnews.com by e -mail. Follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter, @Tyler_whstone.

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