In the case of Dr. Out July 15, Dr. Death introduces viewers to Christopher Duntsch, a real-life Texas-based surgeon who in 2017 was sentenced to life in prison after maiming and even killing almost all of the nearly 40 patients he operated on between 2011 and 2013. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); 2012-2023 On Secret Hunt - All Rights Reserved Once back in the operating room, his work resulted in the same deadly consequences, according to Texas Medical Board records. In one, Duntsch tells the story, over stock footage of an operation, of a taxing back surgery he performed on an older woman. Dr. Death: The Shocking Story of Christopher Duntsch, a Madman with a Death, Surgery Records. [48], In 2019, Duntsch was the focus of the premiere episode of License to Kill, Oxygen's series on criminal medical professionals. And what stops another physicianfrom turning into the next Dr. Death? Christopher Duntsch: The Remorseless Killer Surgeon Called 'Dr. Death' He is a graduate of Evangelical Christian School in the Cordova suburb of Memphis, where he starred in football.[7]. Before going to medical school, Duntsch wanted to be a pro-football player. To add to this, his so-called Ph.D. at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center may also be dubious. However, the proportion of successful operations compared to those which resulted in injury or death remains unclear. Before going to medical school, Duntsch wanted to be a pro-football player. Now keep in mind, Morgan herself was at the wrong end of some of these suits. During this time period, he was accused of recklessly endangering the lives of at least 33 patients, causing serious injury to five patients, and killing two others through his negligent care. Required fields are marked *. 'Dr. Death' clings to the wrong part of a true story - Mic He later told Glidewell that it was clear Duntsch had tried to kill him. But I think whats terrifying for me, as an audience member, is like, how did you get away with it for so long? But even that database is limited. This May Be the Most Horrifying Surgery Story You've Ever Heard Your email address will not be published. Van Wey also told American Greed that in the state of Texas, hospitals face greater risks of receiving a lawsuit from someone unfairly reported to the physicians data bank than they do from a patient themselves, making officials leerier of reporting claims. He wrote grants and secured more than $3 million in funding. And she saw how he was manipulative and sort of narcissistic. He took out so much of his spinal cord that he couldnt keep his head up. The story of Duntsch is featured in a new Peacock show titled Dr. Death, unleashing the terrifying reality. Mary Efurd was one of these victims; she underwent surgery to treat her back pain in July 2012 but instead suffered an irreparable spinal cord injury that left her permanently paralyzed from the neck down. Ex-surgeon, who allegedly said he wanted to be a serial killer - Chron I think some of them he probably did intentionally.. He later appealed his case, but lost when his conviction was upheld 2-1 in the Fifth District Court of Appeals . Prosecutors put a high priority on that charge, as it provided the widest sentencing range, with Duntsch facing up to life in prison if convicted. Dr. Death (2021 TV series) Dr. Death is an American crime drama miniseries created by Patrick Macmanus, based on the podcast of the same name, focusing on the titular Christopher Duntsch, a neurosurgeon who became infamous for permanently mutilating his patients, killing two of them. Troy was left barely able to speak above a whisper, had to be sedated for weeks and had to be fed through a feeding tube for some time as food was getting into her lungs. All Duntsch got was a slap on the wrist while his blood-soaked foray into the OR continued. The other survivors suffered damage, disability,and excruciating pain. The lead investigator on the case later revealed that she wanted Duntsch's license suspended while the ten-month probe was underway, but board attorneys were not willing to go along. According to ProPublica, Boop was aware of a complaint Duntsch used drugs before seeing patients. He felt that anyone with a basic knowledge of human anatomy would know that he was operating in the wrong area of Efurd's back. Out of his 38 surgeries, only three had no complications. A string of arrests for DWI, shoplifting, and more followed. [4], Upon applying for work, he looked extremely qualified on paper: he had spent a total of fifteen years in training (medical school, residency and fellowship), and his curriculum vitae was twelve single-spaced pages. Who is Christopher Duntsch and what did he do? | The US Sun Death, an eight-episode series on the terrifying true story of neurosurgeon Christopher Duntsch, notifies the viewer that certain parts have been fictionalized solely for dramatic purposes. Christopher Duntsch - Wikipedia But for his victims, the judgment was a big relief. Duntsch was granted temporary surgical privileges at Dallas Medical Center, while hospital officials waited for his medical records to arrive from his former post. B. Ellis Unit outside Huntsville. GQ calls it the scariest podcast of 2019. "It was as if the person doing the surgery knew what he was doing but did everything wrong," Dr. Christopher Daniel Duntsch (born April 3, 1971) [1] is a former American neurosurgeon who has been nicknamed Dr. D. and Dr. Death [2] for gross malpractice resulting in the maiming of several patients' spines and two deaths while working at hospitals in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex. Currently, Discgenics has no mention of Duntsch at all, his history with the company, or that he's the massive elephant in the room. Ellis Unit outside of Huntsville, Texas. 'Dr Death' Stars Share Why They Think Christopher Duntsch - TheWrap Between 2011 and 2013, Christopher Duntsch operated on 37 patients in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Not only did he harm his patients, but he kept trying to practice. If youre a big fan of NBCs stable of shows, want to catch up on some past hit movies or just dont want to shell out the cash for Netflix or Hulu, the free version of Peacock is great. Is it Safe To Jump On A Trampoline While Pregnant? The charges brought against Dr. Duntsch stemmed from a series of botched spinal surgeries that he performed between 2012 and 2013. Duntsch jumped from hospital to hospital, none of which reported his botched procedures to a national database of physicians designed to protect against such instances. Saul Elbein writes in the Texas Observer that Dr. Hendersonsent him a recording of his complaint to the Texas Medical Board. [4], Longtime spine surgeon Robert Henderson performed the salvage surgery on Efurd. ", "Surgeon who wrote of becoming killer is denied bail reduction", "Elderly couple attends court hoping for justice in Duntsch case", "Who Were The Victims Of Dr. Christopher Duntsch, Who Earned The Ominous Nickname 'Dr. Board chairman Irwin Zeitzler later said that complications in neurosurgery were more common than most laymen believe, and it took until June 2013 to find the "pattern of patient injury" required to justify suspending Duntsch's license. [42] The four hospitals that employed Duntsch have ongoing civil cases against him. As Dr. Dubrow made clear in a 2015 interview with Allure, he and his partner in crime dont work for free on Botched, particularly as it takes up so much of their time. Hospital officials were exasperated when Duntsch refused to delay Efurd's surgery, and asked him multiple times to care for Brown or transfer her out of his care. At the time, Kane was dating Jerry Summer, a childhood friend of Duntsch. He decided to turn to neurosurgery, which can be a lucrative field. For instance, he came to work wearing the same tattered scrubs for three days in a row. B. Ellis Unit of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice in Huntsville. The very first complaint should have triggered an investigation. So come on over and explore our wide range of content today! She had come to Duntsch for cervical spine surgery to ease her worsening neck and shoulder . 33 of his 37 surgeries were botched, with two dead and 31 injured for life. To become a neurosurgeon, one typically has to complete over 1000 surgeries in residency, but somehow, reporter Laura Beil discovered that Duntsch only completed 100. At Baylor Regional Medical Center,after botched surgeries and complaints from fellow doctors, Duntsch resigned. It is an unfortunate reminder that even highly educated medical professionals are prone to human error when it comes to practicing medicine. An Analysis of Christopher Duntsch, Dr. Christopher Duntsch was just a regular guy who became Dr. Death after he decided to be a neurosurgeon. Thats the question on everyones minds, including Beils, the reporter who initially broke the story on her Wondery podcast. After getting his undergraduate degree in 1995, Duntsch enrolled at the University of Tennessee at Memphis. Death Showrunner Breaks Down Turning Hit Podcast Into New Drama Series On Peacock, AnnaSophia Robb Stars In New Series Dr. It was as if he knew everything to do, Henderson, (played by Alec Baldwin in the Peacock series) toldProPublica, and then hed done virtually everything wrong.. Why Did Dr. Death Do It? 'Dr. Death: The Undoctored Story' Explains [31][16] The inquiry went nowhere until 2015, when the statute of limitations on any potential charges was due to run out. 'Dr. Death' Series vs. the True Story of Dr. Christopher Duntsch And you are one of the lucky ones." With Ignatova and Kukekov in tow, he filed patents under a company he founded. Her response echoed what she shared on the podcast. Yes, Dr. Christopher Duntsch made his friend, Jerry Summers, a quadriplegic. That seems like something that goes far beyond. [18] Despite this, Duntsch was retained by South Hampton when new owners bought it and renamed it University General Hospital. Death: The Undoctored Story launches July 29. He was held in the Dallas County jail for almost two years until the case went to trial in 2017. Jerrys death is particularly tragic as it is linked to the surgeon from the podcast series Dr Death. After hearing about the shocking death, vascular surgeon Dr. Randall Kirby (portrayed in the series by Christian Slater) reported Duntsch to the Texas Medical Board. No, Dr. Duntsch did not know what he was doing. Out of those surgeries, two patients were killed. Muse woke up in considerable pain, but Duntsch convinced him it was normal. In it, he is yelling at Maria Lopez, the medical board investigator assigned to Duntsch's case in January 2013, demanding to know why he was still practicing. You can also watchAmerican Greedon CNBC, and Oxygen's own "License to Kill," which profiled Duntsch's deadly malpractice. Efurd was left paralyzed. If that weren't enough, Page once happened across a drawer at Duntsch's house. Why was Dr Duntsch so bad? While psychopaths are classified as people with little or no conscience, sociopaths do have a limited, albeit weak, ability to feel empathy and remorse. Ignatova believes this to be deliberate. [23][19][24], While operating on Efurd, Duntsch severed one of her nerve roots during spinal fusion surgery while operating on the wrong portion of her back, twisted a screw into another nerve, left screw holes on the opposite side of her spine, failed to remove the disc he was supposed to remove, and left surgical hardware in her muscle tissue so loose that it moved when touched. Yet, instead of saving lives and using his knowledge for good, the opposite happened. In 2012, Summers underwent spinal surgery performed by Dr. Duntsch in an effort to improve his neck and arm pain. Duntsch is a former neurosurgeon born in 1971 in Montana . Unfortunately, it became the patients' burden to bear. However, he closed Glidewell with the sponge in place despite others in the operating room warning him about it. He was subsequently convicted of all charges in February 2017 and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. CHRISTOPER Duntsch, also known as Dr. Death, was a doctor who seriously harmed and killed patients during surgeries in hospitals across Texas. Death limited series, neurosurgeon Dr. Christopher Duntsch (played by Joshua Jackson), maimed and killed so many patients who came in for complex but routine procedures. Surprisingly, his superiors at The University of Tennessee also gave him glowing reviews. His father, Donald, was a physical therapist and Christian missionary, and his mother, Susan, was a schoolteacher. And there were plenty of other signs as well. Christopher Duntsch, is responsible for paralyzing two patients in Texas over the course of two years through botched operations. He was arrested for DUI in Denver, taken for a psychiatric evaluation in Dallas during one of his visits to see his children, and was arrested in Dallas for shoplifting. [30], Henderson and Kirby feared that Duntsch could move elsewhere and still theoretically get a medical license. [8] Duntsch returned home to attend Memphis State University (now the University of Memphis). Duntsch wrote that he accepted he was a cold-blooded killer. Barry Morguloff, the owner of a pool service company, was left with bone fragments in his spinal canal after Duntsch tried to pull a damaged, Jerry Summers, a longtime friend of Duntsch's, came to Plano to have, Kellie Martin was undergoing a routine back operation when Duntsch cut through her spinal cord and severed an artery. [16] Kirby also recalled that Duntsch's skills in the operating room left much to be desired; as Kirby put it, "he could not wield a scalpel".[4]. He was running research labs and had ambitions of becoming a successful surgeon, but thigs soon took a turn for the worse. At Health Grades Duntsch had 4.3 out of 5 stars, "above [the] national average." [29] Texas Attorney General and current Governor Greg Abbott filed a motion to intervene in the suits to defend Baylor Plano, citing the Texas legislature's 2003 statute that placed a medical malpractice cap of $250,000 and removed the term "gross negligence" from the definition of legal malice. For instance, he upbraided him for missing the signs that Martin was bleeding out, saying that, "You can't not know [that] and be a neurosurgeon. [9] Duntsch completed his undergraduate degree in 1995, then continued on to an ambitious MDPhD program. But that isn't the scariest part. Dr. Robert Henderson, a spinal surgeon who later took over Efurds care, would later testify that Duntsch had operated in the wrong place in her back, amputated a nerve root and botched the implantation of a device meant to stabilize her spine. Once he'd arrived in Dallas, it quickly became apparent Duntsch wasn't the hotshot surgeon he had claimed to be. He also reported shooting pains throughout his body. SIGN UP FOR OUR FREE DAILY NEWSLETTER, FIRST TAKE, How Dr Death Star Joshua Jackson Learned to Perform Spectacularly Bad Surgery, Why Dr Death Showrunner Used Dual Timelines to Unravel Duntschs Occams Razor Email. During his residency program for neurosurgery, he completed fewer than 100 surgeries despite the expected 1,000 operations for a typical resident. Dr. Henderson (Alec Baldwin), Dr. Kirby (Christian Slater) and the nurse Josh Baker, played by Hubert Point-Du Jour, these are the professionals who are speaking up. He grew up in a middle-class suburb with a teacher mom and a missionary/physical therapist dad. Passmore says the space above a disc in his lower spine had been blown out in the first surgery, and Duntsch returned to . Death'? There is a complexity tohim at times and a kind of tragedy. He harmed the very people who trusted him. According to ProPublica, Duntsch's residency and fellowship records show less than 100 surgeries. Dr. Death - Series Premiere Discussion : r/television - Reddit The difference between Season 6 and the other seasons is it took me more than one surgery on several of the patients to get them fixed. Gena Lee Nolin: From Baywatchs Neely to Sheenas Queen! The Peacock TV series Dr. Through his career, reports of him doing rounds under the influence were commonplace. [18] He damaged patient Philip Mayfield's spinal cord, drilling into it and leaving him partially paralyzed from the neck down. But as the ultimate betrayal, some doctors violate this code of conduct in the worst possible ways. The Link Between Chris Benoits Health and CTE, Dr. Phil Breaks Silence on Medical Condition, The Legacy of Attila: From Wu-Tang Clan to Hollywood, Britney Spears Journey from Star Search to Superstardom, Danielle Colbys Pivotal Role in American Pickers, Alligators Eating Humans: The Truth Behind the Myth. Dr. Christopher Duntsch came to Texas with an impressive resume. [47] A follow-up docuseries, Dr. Death: The Undoctored Story, was later released on Peacock on July 29, 2021, featuring interviews with some of Duntsch's patients and colleagues, as well as with Henderson, Kirby and Shughart. Create your free profile and get access to exclusive content. His negligence resulted in two patients becoming paralyzed, leaving them unable to move any part of their body below the injury site due to a loss of sensation and motor control. My take on it is, for him, it was hubris, Jackson told TheWrap. ", "Greg Abbott Enters Fray in Lawsuits Involving "Sociopath" Doctor", "Abbott sides with Baylor hospital in neurosurgeon lawsuit", "Who Are Robert Henderson And Randall Kirby, The Surgeons Who Tried To Stop 'Dr. At one point, he was only able to eat small bites of food at one time. And how many other doctors who arent as insane as Dr. Duntsch like, there are multiple seasons of Dr. The hospital saved face and avoided any lawsuits. [3] Because of a valuable patent the company owned, they let him through the gates and out into the world. I really wish I knew she said. Additionally, the broken disco ball and the damaged bumper on his car suggest that Dr. Duntsch was not overly concerned with following standards of professionalism, which may explain why he neglected to wear any undergarments beneath his scrubs. 33 of his surgeries went horribly wrong. [6], Christopher Duntsch was born in Montana and spent most of his youth in Memphis, Tennessee. Philip Mayfield, one of Christopher Duntsch's patients, who was paralyzed after his surgery. Duntsch's initial presentation bowled him over. When the Texas Medical Board revoked his license, Duntsch's reign of surgical terror had run its course. Kenneth Fennell, the first patient Duntsch operated on at Baylor Plano, was left with chronic pain after Duntsch operated on the wrong part of his back. The financial incentives are a huge part of what was driving him and what was driving the people all around to continue to believe in him in and invest in him despite the fact that there were all these red flags, Shugart said of Duntsch'sability to continue to gain employment. Death', "Texas Jury Imposes Life Sentence on Neurosurgeon", "The Making and Breaking of Dr. "Christopher Duntsch" (Dr. Death)", "Season 14 of CNBC's 'American Greed' Premieres Monday, January 18 at 10PM", Dr. Death: The Texas Surgeon Who Paralyzed his Patients, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Christopher_Duntsch&oldid=1149133921, American prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment, Prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment by Texas, University of Tennessee Health Science Center alumni, Short description is different from Wikidata, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0. As the eldest of four, his parents remember him as a precocious boy. There are 31 people left alive today, irreparably damaged by Dr. Death's grievous malpractices. As a result, Duntsch was removed from his role as founder, president, and chief science officer at DiscGenics, Inc., as well as his seat on the board. This was the time when Dr. Christopher Duntsch started to turn intoDr. Death. Duntsch could have turned it into something good and meaningful. You can also watch all eight episodes of Dr. Death without ads through its third tier Premium Plus plan, which costs $9.99/month. A Surgeon So Bad It Was Criminal ProPublica Henderson sent Duntsch's picture to the University of Tennessee to determine whether he actually had a degree from that institution and received confirmation that Duntsch, in fact, did. Had he been fired, that would have been reportable to the national data bank, so he was able to circumvent a major safety feature in the system, neurosurgeon Dr. Martin Lazar told American Greed.. By this time, however, Brown was brain dead. However, by the time he met Young, Duntsch was over $500,000 in debt. [9] Texas Medical Board Revocation Order. Was Dr Christopher Duntsch board certified? Only three of Duntsch's surgeries were performed with no complications. In it,was a mirror with cocaine and a rolled-up dollar bill on top.