‘I’m dying’: Ruskin man pleads for new liver after brutal attack

TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — December 26, 2022, is the day that changed Christopher Schanz’s life forever.

“It’s horrible,” he cried. “I’m dying.”

“They really don’t know why I’m alive right now,” he continued. “They really don’t.”

Schanz reached out to 8 On Your Side for help after a brutal attack left him hospitalized.

“Patient just came into the ER saying he got jumped two days ago and was beat with a pipe,” the 911 call audio said.

Court documents detail the vicious beating off 5th Ave. NE, less than a block from Largo High School.

“They hit him with a pipe and knocked him out,” the 911 audio continued. “He might have some broken ribs”

It’s an attack that has haunted Schanz ever since and landed 50-year-old Richard Mullins in prison.

“I walked in and Richard came at me,” Schanz recalled. “He was short.”

“I picked him up and slammed him like a basketball,” he continued. “He was out for a second.”

That’s when Schanz said 51-year-old Karie Mullen came up behind him with a metal pipe and beat him with it.

“My air just went out of me like a balloon,” he cried. “She just sat there for 10 minutes slamming me with this laugh going hehehehe.”

“She kept on hitting me over and over,” he continued. “I have night terrors.”

That’s when Schanz said Mullins woke up.

“[He] leaned on the kitchen sink backwards kicking me like a donkey with his boots for another five minutes. He was kicking me in the head,” he recalled.

According to Largo police, the pair also stole $285 from Schanz who suffered numerous injuries including multiple broken ribs, a broken jaw, a bruised heart, and a collapsed lung.

Mullins was sentenced to 8 years in prison.

Mullen pleaded guilty but was released from custody on time served.

Schanz told 8 On Your Side that he doesn’t think justice was served, but now he’s focused on grappling with his new reality.

Schanz said his doctors told him every minute he lives is borrowed time.

“I need a liver,” he cried out. “I’m on a list, but I don’t have two years.”

“It’s a lot of money and I need help,” he continued. “I can’t take the pain anymore.”

If you’d like to donate to Schanz’s hospital bills and possible liver transplant, you can find his GoFundMe here.

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