And its all because of one surgeon named Christopher Duntsch a.k.a. Everything went perfect in there." Christopher Duntsch was a neurosurgeon who radiated confidence. [3], Duntsch was accused of injuring 33 out of 38 patients in less than two years before his license was revoked by the Texas Medical Board. But police say an email Duntsch wrote in 2011 points to his mind-set in the months before he "intentionally, knowingly and . Those are the words that Dr. Christopher Duntsch, a Dallas neurosurgeon, wrote to his girlfriend in 2011 in the midst of a two-year period that left 33 of his 38 patients maimed, wounded or . However, part of the problem was proving that Duntsch's actions were willful as defined by Texas law. So, Summers used the only thing he had left, his voice, to scream and yell, even telling the nurses that he and Duntsch had done an eight ball of cocaine the night before his surgery. After undergoing physical rehabilitation, Mayfield was able to walk with a cane but continued to experience paralysis on the right side of his body and in his left arm. This is the True Story of 'Dr Death' Christopher Duntsch The databank was established in 1990 and tracks malpractice payouts and adverse actions against doctors, such as being fired, banned from Medicare, handed a lengthy suspension, or having their license suspended or revoked. In addition, a neurosurgeon hired to review Brown's case found that Dr. Duntsch had misdiagnosed the source of her pain and was operating in the wrong place. 0:57. Passmore met with Dr. Duntsch and was impressed by his confidence; he would fix him. Of those 38, 31 were leftparalyzed or seriously injured and two of them died from surgical complications. B. Ellis Unit outside Huntsville. Dubbed "Dr. Death," the case gained national attention, revealing In January 2013, Kenneth Fennell was scheduled for another operation because he was still experiencing extreme pain in his back. Over the course of two years, Christopher Duntsch operated on 38 patients in the Dallas area. Duntsch recommended fusing Morguloff's L5-S1 vertebrae, and the surgery was scheduled for January 11, 2012. Updated Dec 9, 2022 at 3:25pm. But based on documents gathered by the DA, when Duntsch finished his residency, he had operated fewer than 100 times. He will not be eligible for parole until 2045, when he will be 74-years-old. Following his blunders, Duntsch resigned from Baylor Plano in April 2012 before they could fire him. He later told Glidewell that it was clear Duntsch had tried to kill him. He had a bedroom upstairs in their Plano house. Dr. Christopher Duntsch became the subject of a Peacock original series for all the wrong reasons. Plans start at $4.99/month. Who Is Christopher Duntsch, The Man Nicknamed 'Dr. Death' Who Injured Dr. Duntsch assured Muse that the pain was normal and prescribed him, strong pain killers, causing him to spiral into an addiction. [16] In 2021, he was profiled on CNBC's American Greed. Board chairman Irwin Zeitzler later said that complications in neurosurgery were more common than most think. Where is Christopher Duntsch AKA Dr. Death now? When he began at MISI, Duntsch hired an assistant, Kimberly Morgan, and she started on August 29, 2011. The first season of Dr. Death, which launched in 2018 and ran for seven episodes, examined the life and horrific crimes of Christopher Duntsch. As a result of the 2017 trial, Duntsch was convicted and sentenced to life in prison. Baylor officials took Summers' accusation seriously and ordered Duntsch to take a drug test. He didn't wear underwear. Passmore had a herniated disc in his lower spine pressing on a nerve causing him pain. He was held in the Dallas County jail for almost two years until the case went to trial in 2017. Christopher Duntsch - Wikipedia Shughart argued that Duntsch should have known he would hurt others unless he changed his approach and that his failure to learn from his past mistakes demonstrated that his maiming of Efurd was intentional. Did Christopher Duntsch have a wife and kids? Advertisement. Over the span of a few years, he managed to maim and injure over 30 patients, with two more dying during and shortly after undergoing surgery with him. Dr. Death in surgery. As he lay there in agony, Duntsch was nowhere to be found. Gaps in medical, legal systems may allow other 'Dr. Deaths' to practice He recommended fusing two of her vertebrae and the insertion of "hardware" in her spinal area. "I called Dr. Duntsch up, and I said, 'I saw this online.' A Texas neurosurgeon accused of intentionally botching multiple spinal surgeries, resulting in the death of two . After this look at Christopher Duntsch a.k.a. 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. Vaccinated people who catch Covid are reporting unique symptoms - the 4 signs to watch for, Man, 34, charged with murder after woman, 63, killed in house fire as family vow 'you'll never be forgotten', Six dead after private jet crashes and explodes in fireball between two houses sparking forest blaze near golf course. They created a method for culturing the stem cells of intervertebral discs outside of the body. It was then that Christopher decided to switch his career to medicine. Finally, Dr. Kirby received a call from Hassan Chahadeh. He was smart. He said, "Randy, you were right. Christopher was raised along with his three younger siblings in a wealthy suburb in Memphis, Tennessee. She came in to have two vertebrae fused, but when she woke up she experienced severe pain and couldnt stand. Death. [7], Shughart argued that Duntsch should have known he was likely to hurt others unless he changed his approach, and that his failure to learn from his past mistakes demonstrated that his maiming of Efurd was intentional. During his short tenure, he spent little time in the operating room. Boop said that Duntsch spent his final year as an attending physician and could not operate independently. Dallas Magazine states that Duntsch became key in supplying samples to scientists for research. Advertisements. Caroline is a writer and Florida-transplant currently living in New York City. Ellis Unit outside of Huntsville, Texas. She also said that he kept a pile of cocaine on his dresser in his home office. Summers asked Duntsch to fix his chronic neck pain from a high school football injury that had gotten worse after a car accident. When Morgan asked Duntsch about the woman in his house, he said she was just his secretary and friend. Jeff Glidewell came across Dr. Christopher Duntsch in 2013 while searching for a neurosurgeon . Christopher was raised along with his three younger siblings in a wealthy suburb in Memphis, Tennessee. When Henderson saw the imaging from Duntsch's surgery, he was certain that there would be legal action, and had the salvage surgery recorded. Passmore told D Magazine during an interview that he is uncomfortable receiving any attention but knows he must do so if anyone is going to listen. The two soon began dating and moving in together within three months. He was a genius. Christopher Duntsch, the onetime Dallas neurosurgeon whose butcher-like techniques killed two patients and permanently injured more, feels made to exist at the center of a work of fiction; perhaps, Summers had a credit card in his name connected to Duntsch's account and would drive him around, balance his checkbooks, and pick up his dry cleaning. Unfortunately, it's all too real. Then, on December 6, 2011, he operated on seventy-four-year-old Mary Efurd. This was the time when Dr. Christopher Duntsch started to turn into Dr. Death. "[3] A neurosurgery expert for Duntsch's defense team himself said, "The conditions which created Dr.Duntsch still exist, thereby making it possible for another to come along. I thought he was either really, really good, or hes just really, really arrogant and thought he was good, Hoyle said. The bad doctor: A health care worker doing harm - Plano Magazine The surgery was scheduled for December 30, 2011. Dr. Death in surgery. On May 24, 2011, Christopher Duntsch signed a physician services agreement with Rimlawi and Won's Minimally Invasive Spine Institute (MISI) in Dallas. At the time, Duntsch was looking for operating prospects in Dallas, San Diego, and New York. Christopher Duntsch was born in Montana on April 3, 1971. Martin would become Duntschs first casualty when she bled out in intensive care unit after her relatively common procedure. During surgery, Duntsch damaged Summers' vertebral artery causing it to bleed uncontrollably. [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. That same month, the two began an affair. According to D Magazine, Duntsch did so well in medical school that he was allowed to join the prestigiousAlpha Omega Medical Honor Society. Dhruv Trivedi. [7] He lasted for less than a week before administrators pulled his privileges after the death of a patient, Floella Brown, and the maiming of another, Mary Efurd. "Based on a hit podcast and inspired by the terrifying true story of Dr. Christopher Duntsch, a young and charismatic star in the Texas medical community," Peacock explains about the series. He stalled at first, telling administrators he got lost on the way to the lab. He Was Also His Victim. Three holes had been poked into Efurd's spinal column where Duntsch had tried and failed to insert screws. Dr Deathis a new limited series about the rise and fall of Duntsch. His father was a missionary and physical therapist and his mother was a school teacher. His father, Donald, was a physical therapist and Christian missionary. Mayfield also suffered from random fainting spells that happen every few weeks. 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.