Sadistic Shanda Vander Ark’s cruel campaign of hell against teen son

Send us Fan MailPut your seatbelt on, we didn’t know some of these cases could get any wilder but apparently, they can. From doctors behaving badly to a tragic story of child abuse, we’re running down some cases you’ve probably heard of and some you haven’t. The worst medical malpractices cases in the state are piling up in North Florida and stretching to the Panhandle. Dr. Thomas Shaknovsky is accused of accidentally removing an Alabama man’s liver instead of his spleen at a hospital in Miramar Beach.In Jacksonville, an orthopedic surgeon, the late Dr. David Heekin, is at the center of one of the largest mass-medical malpractice actions in Florida’s history with 522 lawsuits. Both incidents happened at Ascension hospitals and the executive in charge during Heekin’s tenure when he was accused of botching patient surgeries, Tom VanOsdol, has been promoted to the national leadership team where he oversees “the strategic integration of Ascension's mission and values…across all organizational policies, programs, and culture.”From executives and doctors who patients trust to a mother of five who is expected to protect her children, sometimes alleged “bad actors” turn up when you least expect it.Mom and former law clerk Shanda Vander Ark was an abuser who cruelly ended the life of her 15-year-old special needs son through cruel, atrocious, and systematic abuse.On the surface Vander Ark appeared highly successful, a bit of a know-it-all, and a gruff, no-nonsense person.She graduated from law school with honors, clerked for two judges, and aced the bar exam.Then she ended up being tried for the murd3r of her son, Timothy Ferguson, in the same courtroom where she had previously worked, turning the trial into a circus with delays, motions, and shenanigans. But there was no distracting from the terrible facts that she starved, t0rtur3d, and ended her boy's life with the help of another son and his older brother. Join us for the latest episode of the Gulf Coast Confidential Podcast, “Sadistic Shanda Vander Ark’s cruel campaign of hell against teen son,” but it comes with a sensitivity warning. Support the show