Chris Yates pleaded with nurses and counselors to save his wife’s life.

The 49-year-old had rushed his wife of 23 years, Kim, to AdventHealth Shawnee Mission Medical Center in Kansas after she tried twice to kill herself in April 2021.

First, she tried to unlock the door of a moving car as it barreled down the highway at 65mph.

Days later, Yates caught her moving a bench toward an open second-story window, in what he believes was an attempt to jump out.

‘There was no reason for Kim to have done that other than in an attempt at self harm,’ Yates,’ lawyers told the Daily Mail.

The couple spent seven hours waiting for doctors to perform a mental health check on Kim, who had spiraled after she suffered a stroke five months prior.

But despite the agonizing wait, a licensed professional counselor and nurse practitioner spent less than 30 minutes with her before insisting she be discharged. 

Though Yates demanded Kim be placed on a mandatory hold, his pleas fell on deaf ears.

Kim died three days later by suicide on April 14, 2021. 

Now, four years later, a court in Kansas has found the hospital and the two workers who discharged Kim at fault for her death. 

The court awarded Yates $5.7million, the largest payout in Johnson County, Kansas, for medical negligence.

A spokesman for AdventHealth Shawnee Mission Medical Center told the Daily Mail: ‘Our hearts go out to everyone affected in this case; and our prayers remain with the family.

‘We are unable to respond to the details of this case due to the legal nature of this matter.’

Yates and Kim were married in 1998 and welcomed twins Zachary and Megan, who are now 21, several years later.

Working as a marketing executive for candy company Russell Stover, Kim had a love for musicals and traveling the globe, but she also spent her free time volunteering for charities such as the American Heart Association and Girls on the Run. 

Her children were Kim’s biggest accomplishment. Yates, now 53, said: ‘She made sure that no matter what was going on, she prioritized her children and her family over work or whatever else was going on in her life.’ 

‘She gave us a great life. She introduced us to so many different things,’ he added.

Kim also exercised frequently and ate a healthy diet, which made it even more shocking when she suffered a stroke in November 2020.

Strokes, which occur when blood flow to the brain gets cut off, are usually caused by poor lifestyle habits like high blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease, smoking and obesity. 

Kim recovered ‘almost instantly,’ but in January 2021, Yates noticed a shift. ‘I think she just started questioning herself,’ he said.

‘She had gone back to work full time and she had discussed not feeling like her old self. She was trying to be perfect again and she just wasn’t there.’

Kim confided she thought she was failing in her job and feared what her colleagues thought about her.

She worried she was not providing well enough for her family and became bothered by small tasks or issues around the house.

In February she took a leave of absence from work to focus on her mental health. She sought out psychiatrists, tried massage therapy and underwent acupuncture, but her depression and anxiety continued to spiral.

Yates said: ‘I could tell that she was just acting different and not being herself, and she was confused on things that she was doing and some of the actions that she was taking. My wife for 20 plus years wasn’t the person that I knew at the time.’

Strokes have been shown to damage areas of the brain responsible for processing emotions and behavior, which could lead to mood and personality changes. 

Scott Nutter, one of the lawyers working with Yates, said: ‘What came through loud and clear at trial is most of this was in Kim’s own mind.

‘A lot of this was just Kim’s own self confidence and anxiety triggered by the injury to her brain.’

At the hospital, Yates told multiple workers his wife needed to be evaluated immediately and be admitted for her own safety. ‘I don’t feel like I was heard,’ he said.

Nutter added: ‘Our investigation was unanimous in supporting that there was negligence on the part of the hospital and the mental health providers. Kim has numerous red flags upon examination.

‘She was guarded. She saw no path forward. She lacked emotion… Hopelessness is a major red flag for suicidality.’

Kim told the workers her husband had misunderstood the situation, claiming she moved the bench toward the window so she could see outside more easily. 

Nutter said: ‘She denied that she was suicidal, but that’s where a properly trained mental health professional can see through the explanation and understand that it just didn’t make any sense and give greater weight to Chris’ explanations, which were very detailed and very compelling.’

The lawyers said a big issue in the case was the amount of time that was spent with the suicide risk assessment.

The counselor who evaluated Kim claimed on the stand that she spent two to three hours with her, but Nutter and fellow attorney Daniel Singer’s investigation of electronic logs and medical records told a different story. 

Hospital rooms for suicidal patients are monitored with video surveillance and a nurse is supposed to check every 15 minutes and log who was in the room. 

The evidence showed the counselor had actually only spent between 15 and 29 minutes with Kim. 

The counselor and nurse practitioner also failed to involve supervising emergency room doctors or psychiatrists who are ‘more extensively trained in medicine and behavioral health,’ Singer told the Daily Mail. 

‘They also could have initiated a 72-hour hold had Kim not wanted to be admitted. But at a base level, they never even offered admission.’ 

Instead, she was discharged, despite Yates insisting she be admitted, and died by suicide three days later.  

Following Kim’s death, Yates took time to help his children finish high school and get ready to start college. In fall 2022, he contacted Nutter and Singer to initiate legal action. 

Nutter said the hospital ‘denied everything’ throughout the entire legal process, leading the case to go to trial earlier this summer.

Yates’ twins, Megan and Zachary, testified on their mother’s behalf. 

Yates told this website: ‘Just the courage that took, it made me feel that it was completely worth it, knowing that they were they were willing to get up there and fight for their mother and to try to find justice for her.’

The testimony has also stuck with Nutter and Singer. Nutter said: ‘I will never forget how moved I was by their testimony. They were just so smart, so articulate, just so powerful about how they described their mom and the impact of her loss.

‘After hearing those kids, losing wasn’t an option. We knew we had to win this case.’ 

On June 20, the court found the counselor treating Kim 88 percent responsible and the nurse practitioner assisting 12 percent responsible.  

Yates said: ‘It was just an amazing relief that I felt come over me. And that’s all I needed to hear. I didn’t hear anything else that [the judge] really said.  

‘And once the verdict was read, I know that being able to share that with [the kids], it gave them a little peace that we did everything we possibly could to help Kim.’

Yates is now focusing on soaking in his son and daughter’s upcoming senior year of college and watching them volunteer for the causes their mother dedicated her life to. 

He said: ‘They’re such a true reflection of their mother and I know they will continue to honor her throughout the rest of their lives and the things that they do. It just makes me proud that I see so much of Kim in them.’ 

Nutter told this website because this wasn’t a criminal case, it’s unlikely either of the providers responsible will have their licenses revoked or suffer consequences.

‘The hope is that they’ve learned a lesson from this, and that they work and they improve and they get better,’ he said. 

However, both lawyers are hopeful the verdict will prevent other mothers like Kim from taking their lives.

Nutter said: ‘We hope this never happens again. We hope no 17-year-old would have to lose a parent in as tragic a circumstance as Megan and Zachary did. 

‘Hoping that it never happens again is probably unrealistic, but we do hope that we can at least save some people.’