His father, Donald, was a physical therapist and Christian missionary. Duntsch is at the O. He thought surgery might give him some relief and stop his need for drugs. His father, Donald, was a physical therapist and Christian missionary. Updated Dec 9, 2022 at 3:25pm. The staff told Duntsch that Brown, his patient from the day before, was in critical condition. At the time, Duntsch was accused of injuring 33 out of 38 patients in less than two years before the Texas Medical Board revoked his license. [7], While in Memphis, Duntsch began a long-term relationship with Wendy Renee Young. Trusty was never told she was participating in an infomercial and believed Duntsch had been selected as the top neurosurgeon in Dallas and was participating in a video about the award. There are many sick people in the world, but Duntsch takes the cake for me. Advertisement. He graduated from a top-tier medical school, was running research labs, and completed a residency program for neurosurgery. A neurosurgeon in Dallas, Texas, who once described himself as a "stone cold killer" was sentenced to life in prison on February 20 for maiming a woman named Mary . Duntsch had also installed hardware into her muscle, not her bone, so loose that it moved when you touched it. The Judge overseeing this case is GINSBERG, CARL. They have two sons. Before his license was revoked by the Texas Medical Board, he was accused of injuring 33 out of 38 . Duntsch also received forty percent of all revenue he generated beyond $800,000 each year. However, St. Jude says there was no such program at the hospital. But, she never reported Duntsch up the ladder or told anyone about the horrors she witnessed in the operating room. Legacy Surgery Center in Frisco (now Frisco Ambulatory Surgery Center). ", "Doctor Guilty of Felony Medical Malpractice", "Disciplinary actions against doctors have plunged during the pandemic, but that doesn't mean they are behaving", "An Update on Dr. Death Victim Philip Mayfield", "Jeff Glidewell Today: Where Is Dr. Death's Last Patient Now? During his short tenure, he spent little time in the operating room. According to D Magazine, a doctor at the hospital where Duntsch worked said that Duntsch had been sent to an impaired physician program after he refused to take a drug test. Evil Lives Here: Shadows Of Death is investigating the numerous crimes of former neurosurgeon Christopher Duntsch, who was nicknamed Dr. Death after causing pain, suffering, and even death to multiple patients over the course of two years. Several of Duntsch's surgeries at Baylor Plano resulted in severely maimed patients: Baylor Plano officials found that Duntsch failed to meet their standards of care and permanently revoked his surgical privileges. 2-Dr.Randall Kirby, a hero. Jerry Summers Was 'Dr. Death's' Best Friend. He declared bankruptcy after listing debts of over $1 million. [14] He persuaded Young to come with him; Young agreed, since she had grown up in the Dallas area. Duntsch had his surgical rights temporarily suspended after his botched surgery on Summers and his first patient back was 55-year-old Kellie Martin. 3-Jeff Glidewell, another victim of Duntsch's. 4-Michelle Shugart, the woman who brought this all to fruition . Henderson sent Duntsch's picture to the University of Tennessee to determine whether he had a degree from that institution and received confirmation that Duntsch was not a fraud. In September 2012, Jeff Cheney went to Duntsch to relieve the pain that had moved from his shoulder down to his arm. 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. "Dr. Death" is based on the chart-topping podcast of the same name that, in turn, is based on the horrifying true story of Christopher Duntsch. [4] In an article for The Texas Prosecutor, the journal of the Texas District and County Attorneys Association, Shughart and the other members of the trial team recalled that their superiors were initially skeptical when they presented the case, but eventually found themselves in "overwhelming disbelief" that a surgeon could do what Duntsch was accused of doing. Not only was he not qualified for and held no privileges to perform brain surgery, but Dallas Medical did not have the proper equipment or personnel for such an operation. Duntsch boasted to his assistant and mistress, Kimberly Morgan, that he was " ready to leave the love and kindness and goodness and patience that I mix with everything else that I am and become a cold-blooded killer." At one point, an assisting surgeon named Dr. Hoyle observed Duntsch performing such alarming and erratic behavior; he grabbed his hands and pleaded with him to stop. The Texas Medical Board would later conclude that Brown died of excessive blood loss and a stroke, according to The Texas Observer . Lazar was scathingly critical of Duntsch's work. In 2017, Duntsch was sentenced to life in prison after being found guilty of maiming one of his patients. According to his lawyers, Duntsch had not realized how poorly he had performed as a surgeon until he heard the prosecution experts tell the jury about his many blunders on the operating table. However, part of the problem was proving that Duntsch's actions were willful as defined by Texas law. It was determined during the repair surgery that Dr. Duntsch had not even been operating on the correct part of Jeff Glidewell's spine. They met with an assistant DA but got little traction. In December 2012, Jacqueline Troy was left barely able to speak above a whisper after Duntsch cut her vocal cords and one of her arteries. Her husband could not hold himself up; he had no support of his own and could barely speak. Duntsch was in a long-term relationship with Wendy Renee Young, after the pair met at a bar in Memphis when she was 27 and he was 40. The operation should have taken less than ninety minutes; it ultimately lasted four and a half hours. The indictments were made four months before the statute of limitations ran out. [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. His pain management specialist advised against an operation but referred him to a neurosurgeon named Christopher Duntsch. Jeff Cheney later learned that part of his spinal cord had been cut during the operation. [18] He damaged patient Philip Mayfield's spinal cord, drilling into it and leaving him partially paralyzed from the neck down. Your trust is important to us. The Legislature has also made suing hospitals difficult. Duntsch pierced and blocked her vertebral artery with a misplaced screw and refused to stop despite the massive blood loss. On April 9, 2013, Phillip Mayfield was scheduled to have a simple 45-minute operation to alleviate his back pain. Just weeks after permanently maiming Morguloff, Dr. Duntsch operated on his lifelong friend and roommate, Jerry Summers. The night before his surgery, he read online about Kellie Martin's death just months earlier. Duntsch, once a neurosurgeon, is the focal point of the new streaming Peacock docuseries "Dr. Death." D Magazine gave him the nickname in its reporting in 2016. Mayfield died of COVID in February 2021; according to his wife, he had been vulnerable to the virus due to complications caused by Duntsch's botched surgery. Dr. Fulton never worked with Duntsch again. [46], Dr. Death, a TV mini-series based on the podcast, began streaming on Peacock on July 15, 2021. "[45], Wondery Media launched a ten-episode podcast series named Dr. Death, focusing on Duntsch. This time on 53-year-old Mary Efurd. Fennell is in constant pain, and it took several months of rehabilitation before he could begin to walk with a cane. Fennell required months of rehabilitation to be able to walk with a cane, and was left unable to walk for more than 30 feet or stand for more than a few minutes without having to sit down again. A deranged surgeon runs amok, maiming and killing multiple patients, unhindered by a medical community sworn to police itself. Trusty would later find out there was no award and it had just been a paid advertisement. No diagnostic imaging studies were ordered, and no reasonable explanation was offered for his condition. 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.". Although he wasn't a talented athlete, he trained for hours on his own and made it as a linebacker on his high school football team at Evangelical Christian School in Memphis. 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. [19][25][7] She later recalled waking up feeling "excruciating pain", a "ten-plus" on a scale of 1 to 10. Duntsch told his friends and family that Passmore would be fine in a day or two and to not worry about it. DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) - Former neurosurgeon Christopher Duntsch has been sentenced to life in prison for a series of botched spinal surgeries, reports CBS . Christopher Duntsch was sentenced to life in prison in February 2017 for his heinous acts. By this time, Duntsch was almost penniless, and the judge had to appoint a lawyer for him. I dont know if hes there to harm me or what his true intentions were, Wendy Young said of the harrowing alleged encounter with Christopher Duntsch. A Texas neurosurgeon accused of intentionally botching multiple spinal surgeries, resulting in the death of two . Written by Patrick Macmanus, the show will only be available exclusively on Peacock. Dr Death, un nuevo programa que llegar a Peacock el jueves (15 de julio), se basa en la historia de la vida real de Christopher Duntsch, un ex neurocirujano que era, como dijo un famoso titular de ProPublica, "tan malo que era criminal".. Joshua Jackson interpreta a Duntsch, que ahora tiene 50 aos y cumple cadena perpetua despus de ser condenado en 2017 por mutilar a uno de sus . Promising Beginnings. Baylor wanted Duntsch operating quickly and often so they could be reimbursed for the monies they had advanced to him. Kirby was shocked; he called the owner of University General and warned him that Duntsch would hurt someone, and the hospital would be over. He proved to be Duntsch's last surgery; University General pushed him out soon afterward. He is very caring and took the time to help me understand my pain issues. Unfortunately, when Fennell woke up from surgery, he was paralyzed from the waist down. He will not be eligible for parole until 2045, when he will be 74-years-old. The criminal conviction of Christopher Duntsch, MD, PhD, holds important lessons for risk managers. Unfortunately, it's all too real. [27], While attempting to remove degenerated discs in Marshall "Tex" Muse's back, Duntsch left surgical hardware floating between the spine and muscle tissue. However, Mayfield still woke up with paralysis on occasion. Christopher Daniel Duntsch was born in Montana on April 3, 1971, and raised alongside his three siblings in an affluent suburb of Memphis, Tennessee. Mary Efurd: While Brown was dying, Duntsch was operating on Mary Efurd, a 71-year-old anxious to return to her treadmill after surgery to relieve her back pain. Duntsch is a former Dallas neurosurgeon who, through . He has taken Baylor Plano to court over changing the Texas law requiring patients to prove that a hospital intended to harm them when it granted privileges to someone unsafe. Christopher Daniel Duntsch was born in Montana on April 3, 1971, and raised alongside his three siblings in an affluent suburb of . ", "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. His first and only surgery with MISI was on a Thursday in September 2011 at Baylor Plano. That same month, the two began an affair. [40][41] On May 8, 2019, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals refused Duntschs petition for discretionary review. Around 2006 and 2007, Duntsch began to become unhinged. His resume looked brilliant on paper," journalistMatt Goodman said of Christopher Duntsch's ability to continue to gain employment at Texas hospitals despite a deadly track record. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Duntsch, https://www.propublica.org/article/dr-death-christopher-duntsch-a-surgeon-so-bad-it-was-criminal, https://www.dmagazine.com/healthcare-business/2021/10/a-witness-to-dr-death-in-the-presence-of-a-sociopath/, https://www.dmagazine.com/publications/d-magazine/2016/november/christopher-duntsch-dr-death/, https://www.oxygen.com/true-crime-buzz/who-were-the-victims-of-dr-christopher-duntsch, https://www.dallasnews.com/news/investigations/2014/03/02/planos-baylor-hospital-faces-hard-questions-after-claims-against-former-neurosurgeon/, https://www.texasobserver.org/anatomy-tragedy/, https://www.dallasnews.com/news/crime/2015/08/25/7-chilling-thoughts-of-jailed-neurosurgeon-christopher-duntsch/, https://www.texasmonthly.com/the-daily-post/greg-abbott-enters-fray-in-lawsuits-involving-sociopath-doctor/, https://www.dmagazine.com/frontburner/2017/02/a-jury-now-controls-the-fate-of-neurosurgeon-christopher-duntsch/, https://www.thedailybeast.com/victim-of-real-life-dr-death-believes-there-are-others-like-him-out-there?ref=scroll, https://www.oxygen.com/true-crime-buzz/what-happened-to-discgenics-co-founded-by-dr-death-christopher-duntsch, https://www.texasobserver.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/Morguloff-Complaint.pdf. Dr. Death in surgery. His mother, Susan, was a school teacher. When Morgan asked Duntsch about the woman in his house, he said she was just his secretary and friend. However, during training for neurosurgery he followed a research path and did fewer operations than most trainees. Over this period, Duntsch performed back surgeries that left his patients in a worse condition, paralyzed, or deceased. Just one day after his suspension had ended, Duntsch operated on Kellie Martin. [30], Henderson and Kirby feared that Duntsch could move elsewhere and still theoretically get a medical license. Death' found guilty of maiming woman during surgery", "Former neurosurgeon sentenced for purposely maiming patients", "Doctor convicted of botched surgery gets life in prison", "Christopher Daniel Duntsch v. The State of Texas Appeal from Criminal District Court No. Kirby arrived and transferred Glidewell to a top-tier hospital to perform an emergency operation to remove the sponge. executive producer explains how Christopher Duntsch could have avoided prison. Dallas-based surgeon Christopher Duntsch was also the subject of a Wondery podcast titled "Dr. Death." (Dallas County Jail) The indictment accused Duntsch of wide-ranging malpractice, including . The first season of Dr. Death, which launched in 2018 and ran for seven episodes, examined the life and horrific crimes of Christopher Duntsch. Duntsch initially attended Millsaps College to play Division III college football, and later transferred to Division I Colorado State University. During surgery, Duntsch damaged Summers' vertebral artery causing it to bleed uncontrollably. On November 7, 2011, Dr. Duntsch was scheduled to perform his first surgery at Baylor Plano on Kenneth Fennell for his back pain. Even if a plaintiff wins the maximum award, after you pay your lawyer and your experts and go through, potentially, years of trial, not much is left. His older son had been born back when he was at Baylor Plano. Duntsch had removed part of his femoral nerve. Despite this refusal, Duntsch was allowed to finish his residency. D Magazine gave him the nickname in . He Was Also His Victim. Duntsch's trial has been called a precedent-setting case, as it's the first time that a physician has been convicted on criminal charges for actions in the course of their medical work and malpractice involving botched surgery. [38] Shughart countered that the 2011 email, sent after his first surgeries went wrong, proved that Duntsch knew his actions were intentional. There are a lot of explanations proposed for why the real-life subject of Peacock's "Dr. Death" limited series, neurosurgeon Dr. Christopher Duntsch (played by Joshua Jackson), maimed and . "[20][4] Under heavy lobbying from Kirby and Henderson, the Texas Medical Board suspended Duntsch's license on June 26, 2013. Yet, in April 2012, he returned to work just four months after surgery. As a result of the 2017 trial, Duntsch was convicted and sentenced to life in prison. This was the time when Dr. Christopher Duntsch started to turn into Dr. Death. He hoped to play football, but his multiple transfers revoked his eligibility. [7], Henderson later recalled wondering if Duntsch was an impostor; he could not believe that a real surgeon would botch Efurd's surgery so badly. Death. Christopher Duntsch was born in Montana on April 3, 1971. Christopher Duntsch is confirmed to have injured 31 patients and killed two . However, red flags surfaced early on, as nurses wondered if Duntsch was under the influence of drugs while on duty. D MagazineChristopher Duntsch a.k.a. Pic credit: Dallas County Sheriff's Office. He earned his M.D. is a beautiful and populous city located in Montana U.S. . She said she thought that he was going to make millions, Kimberly Morgan's friend once said her attraction to Christopher Duntsch. [38][39] On December 10, 2018, the Texas Court of Appeals affirmed Duntsch's conviction by a 21 split decision. An anesthesiologist and Dr. Anson Fulton, who assisted with the surgery, warned Duntsch about the blood loss, and he continued to ignore them and operate. That's why it really shined down to me," Kissinger said in an interview. [36] On February 20, 2017, he was sentenced to life in prison. Dubbed "Dr. Death," the case gained national attention, revealing Dr Deathis a new limited series about the rise and fall of Duntsch. Christopher was raised along with his three younger siblings in a wealthy suburb in Memphis, Tennessee. 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. Had Duntsch been fired, Baylor Plano would have been required to report him to the National Practitioner Data Bank (NPDB), which is intended to flag problematic physicians. [4], Early in his tenure at Baylor Plano, Duntsch made a poor impression on his fellow surgeons. Duntsch moved to Denver, Colorado, and went into a downward spiral. July 19, 2021. Christopher Duntsch. He knew this couldn't have been a one-time mistake. Film & TV 'Dr. Death' Condemns Christopher Duntsch, but the Real Culprit Is Texas's Broken Health-Care System I helped break the story on the convicted surgeon, but Peacock's dramatized . He was tragically mistaken. [8] Duntsch returned home to attend Memphis State University (now the University of Memphis). Duntsch's next patient was Jeff Glidewell. His father was a missionary and physical therapist and his mother was a school teacher. Duntsch, 40 at that time, bought an appletini for Young, 27, and they started their relationship. He's serving a life sentence for gross malpractice that resulted in two direct fatalities and the maiming of more than 30 neurosurgery patients, as told by Laura Beil, the journalist who hosts the Dr. Death podcast, on which the eponymous show is based. He recommended fusing two of her vertebrae and the insertion of "hardware" in her spinal area. [7] While operating on Jacqueline Troy, Duntsch cut one of her vocal cords and an artery and also damaged her trachea. So as Duntsch operated on Efurd, he quarreled with Kissinger and his supervisors, insisting on a craniotomy for Brown. He realized he'd seen that hole for three straight days Duntsch hadn't changed his scrubs all week. Jerry Summers, who grew up with Christopher Duntsch in Tennessee, was left a quadriplegic after agreeing to let "Dr. Death" operate on his neck. "[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. [43], The conviction of Duntsch has been called a precedent-setting case, as it is believed to be the first time that a physician has been convicted on criminal charges for actions in the course of their medical work. 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, He was put on probation for three weeks and told to stick to relatively minor procedures when he returned. Morgan didn't follow Duntsch after he left, however. All the while, the operating room staff questioned whether Duntsch was putting hardware into Efurd in the right places and noticed he kept drilling and removing screws. Duntschs career started off bright. Christopher Duntsch was a neurosurgeon who radiated confidence. However, he closed Glidewell with the sponge in place despite others in the operating room warning him about it. She also said they snorted cocaine from a small pile he kept on a dresser in his home office. Floella Brown went under Dr. Deaths knife in July 2012 and shortly after her surgery, she suffered a massive stroke caused by Duntsch slicing her vertebral artery during surgery. by Saul Elbein. 2020 THE SUN, US, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED | TERMS OF USE | PRIVACY | YOUR AD CHOICES | SITEMAP, Duntsch, aka Dr Death, was sentenced to life in prison in 2017, Dr Death - Trailer for the Peacock series based on the true story of Christopher Duntsch. He was smart. Duntsch also appears in no yearbooks during the time in which he says he earned his Ph.D. In 2006, Duntsch teamed up with two Russian stem cell scientists: Valery Kukekov and Tatyana Ignatova. In July 2015, Duntsch was arrested in Dallas and charged with six felony counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, five counts of aggravated assault causing severe bodily injury, and one count of injury to an elderly person. After his license was revoked,Duntsch fled from Texas. The director of neurosurgery at UT Southwestern, Carlos Bagley, testifying for the defense, said that "the only way this happens is that the entire system fails the patients." If you had back pain, and had tried everything else, Dr. Duntsch could give you the spine surgery that would take your pain away. He said even a person with the most basic sense of human anatomy would know they were operating in the wrong area. Due to these legal hurdles and costly lawyer fees on the plaintiff's part, few hospitals end up having to pay out after facing a malpractice lawsuit. Young let him buy her an appletini, and they felt a connection; eventually, she went home with Duntsch. According to the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education, a neurosurgery resident does about 1,000 operations during training. "He said the patient died from having an allergic reaction to the anesthesia." Kirby claimed that it looked as if Duntsch had tried to decapitate Glidewell and contended that such a botched surgery has not happened in the United States of America before. Peacock's Dr. Death is a chilling dramatization of the real-life story of former neurosurgeon Christopher Duntsch. Glidewell was reportedly still suffering the ill effects of Duntsch's operation years later and has undergone more than 50 procedures to correct the damage. Troy was sedated for weeks and forced to eat through a feeding tube because food was getting into her lungs. Summers remained quadriplegic for the rest of his life. Left: WFAA-TV, Right: D MagazineLeft: Christopher Duntsch in surgery, Right: Christopher Duntschs mugshot. MISI representatives stated he would brag about his capabilities and be critical of the work of other surgeons. Then, on December 6, 2011, he operated on seventy-four-year-old Mary Efurd. Mr. When Kirby learned the details, he immediately asked the doctor who referred the case to him about the surgeon: "Is it a guy named Christopher Duntsch?" To avoid the costs of fighting and possibly losing a wrongful termination suit, hospital officials reached a deal with Duntsch's lawyers in which Duntsch was allowed to resign in return for Baylor Plano issuing a letter stating that there were no issues with him. Passmore says if he settles, he is allowing the hospital to continue to get away with their negligence. Henderson then cleaned out bone fragments and discovered that one of Efurd's nerve roots was gone entirely. Boop said that Duntsch spent his final year as an attending physician and could not operate independently. Glidewell was left with only one vocal cord, permanent damage to his esophagus and partial paralysis on his left side. Around this time, Christopher Duntsch's behavior became noticeably erratic. Several people who were in the operating room for Efurd's surgery suspected that Duntsch might have been intoxicated, recalling that his pupils were dilated. Efurd eventually gained back some control and mobility, but she now uses a wheelchair and suffers chronic pain. It told the unfortunately true story of Doctor Christopher Duntsch, who was eventually sentenced to life in prison for maiming an elderly patient. The deal required Duntsch to attain privileges at Baylor Regional Medical Center in Plano. In effect, plaintiffs have to prove a tough case without access to the necessary hospital records. Unfortunately, when Morguloff woke up, he began to experience continuous pain, paresthesia, and loss of sensation in his left leg. 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. Duntsch, who had been listed as the founder, president & chief science officer, was being sued by the former chief operating officer and was dismissed from his roles and seat on the board. [4][49], Last edited on 14 February 2023, at 04:48, University of Tennessee Health Science Center, Baylor Scott & White Medical Center Plano, Texas District and County Attorneys Association, "Dr. Duntsch defense expert: "The only way this happens is the entire system fails the patients", "Plano Doctor Suspended After Two Patient Deaths", "Former Neurosurgeon Faces Life In Prison After Guilty Verdict", "What Was Dr. Christopher Duntsch's Background And Why Were People So Impressed With The Man Later Known As 'Dr. Thankfully, this ended up being Dr. Christopher Duntsch's last operation. She was transferred to a Dallas hospital after suffering from a severe infection, and Randal Kirby was asked to operate on her.