Advertisement. In September 2012, Jeff Cheney went to Duntsch to relieve the pain that had moved from his shoulder down to his arm. To see the rest of Dr. Christopher Duntsch's murder and maiming spree, and the fight to stop him, you'll need to purchase Peacock premium. I can't believe that you're accusing me of killing someone,'" Muse recounted. She came in to have two vertebrae fused, but when she woke up she experienced severe pain and couldnt stand. and Ph.D. from the University of Tennessee Health Center. While there, he damaged patient Jeff Cheney's spinal cord, leaving him without feeling on the right side of his body. 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. Duntsch's next stop was at Dallas Medical Center. Soon afterward, he severely maimed Jeff Glidewell after mistaking part of his neck muscle for a tumor during a routine cervical fusion, severing one of his vocal cords, cutting a hole in his esophagus and slicing an artery. 0:57. He recommended fusing two of her vertebrae and the insertion of "hardware" in her spinal area. However, the surgery had to be moved to November 14 because Duntsch had failed to order the appropriate surgical hardware and equipment. He later recalled that he read about Martin's death on the day before the surgery, but Duntsch cursed him out when he called to ask about it. They met with an assistant DA but got little traction. He did his surgical residency at the University of Tennessee in Memphis, spending five years studying neurosurgery and a year studying general surgery. But, she never reported Duntsch up the ladder or told anyone about the horrors she witnessed in the operating room. Convinced that he was a clear and present danger to the public, they urged the Dallas County district attorney's office to pursue criminal charges. The sponge triggered a severe blood-borne infection that caused Glidewell to become septic. 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 suggested drilling a hole in Brown's head to relieve the pressure, but was refused permission. The former neurosurgeon Christopher Duntsch was finally brought to justice after injuring and maiming over 30 of his patients during surgery and allegedly causing the deaths of two more. August 28, 2013, 2:01 . With Brown still in the ICU, Duntsch took another patient into surgery that morning. He moved in with his parents in Colorado and filed for bankruptcy, claiming around one million dollars in debt. 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. He said, "Randy, you were right. [38] Shughart countered that the 2011 email, sent after his first surgeries went wrong, proved that Duntsch knew his actions were intentional. 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. You'd like to think . The story of Dr. Death, Christopher Duntsch, feels like something out of a movie or book. Jeff Cheney later learned that part of his spinal cord had been cut during the operation. He didn't contact a lawyer, although he struggled with the decision. Around this time, Christopher Duntsch's behavior became noticeably erratic. Immediately, he started yelling and cussing at me, saying, 'How dare you? 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. Veteran vascular surgeon Randall Kirby recalled that Duntsch frequently boasted about his abilities despite being so new to the area. "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. MISI representatives stated he would brag about his capabilities and be critical of the work of other surgeons. A spill of more than 500,000-gallons of crude oil from the Keystone Pipeline in December in Kansas was caused by a combination of a faulty weld and "bending stress fatigue" on the pipe, the . There are many sick people in the world, but Duntsch takes the cake for me. He remained there for several months before being allowed to return to the residency. [4] [19], Despite both of his surgeries at Dallas Medical Center going catastrophically awry, hospital officials did not report him to the NPDB. In 2005, about a third of the way through his residency, department chairman Dr. Jon Robertson appointed Duntsch program director of the school's tissue bank. For 33 patients of Texas neurosurgeon Christopher Duntsch, it was a reality. 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. 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. Christopher Duntsch, 44, faces up to life in prison if convicted. Before he was "Dr. Death" on Wondery's hit 2018 podcast, disgraced former neurosurgeon Christopher Duntsch was a student at Colorado State University. Journalists must draw attention to the failures in the U.S. medical and legal systems that allowed Christopher Duntsch, the subject of journalist Laura Beil's well-regarded "Dr. Death" podcast series, to injure dozens of patients, members of an expert panel said at the "10 years after 'Dr. Death': Are patients any safer from bad doctors?" panel at Health Journalism 2022 in Austin. [16] In 2021, he was profiled on CNBC's American Greed. He was smart. Christopher Duntsch was born in Montana on April 3, 1971. After his license was revoked,Duntsch fled from Texas. The two soon began dating and moving in together within three months. At the time of their meeting, Young was working as a dancer in a strip club. 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. Since receiving his life sentence, Dr Death is currently housed in the O.B. He later told Glidewell that it was clear Duntsch had tried to kill him. As of this date, there have been no summary or administrative restrictions or suspension of Duntsch's medical staff membership or clinical privileges during the time he has practiced at Baylor Regional Medical Center at Plano.". Their fling was confined to his office at Baylor Plano, and Morgan said in her deposition that he frequently drank vodka and did medical research for hours. He earned his M.D. He ran two labs, gained experience writing grants, and earned more than $3 million in funding for research projects. He avoided it and disappeared for several days. Caroline is a writer and Florida-transplant currently living in New York City. Death. While they were in the lab working, Duntsch went to work raising money for a company he called DiscGenics. However, St. Jude says there was no such program at the hospital. Mr. 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. Christopher Daniel Duntsch (born April 3, 1971) is a former American neurosurgeon who has been nicknamed Dr. D. and Dr. Death for gross malpractice resulting in the maiming of several patients' spines and two deaths while working at hospitals in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex.. Duntsch was accused of injuring 33 out of 38 patients in less than two years before his license was revoked by the . This meant Summers could still feel pain, but was unable to move from the neck down. However, Mayfield still woke up with paralysis on occasion. Henderson then cleaned out bone fragments and discovered that one of Efurd's nerve roots was gone entirely. Everything went perfect in there." The deal required Duntsch to attain privileges at Baylor Regional Medical Center in Plano. They talked about marriage quickly, and they moved in together within three months. In 2006, Duntsch teamed up with two Russian stem cell scientists: Valery Kukekov and Tatyana Ignatova. It's hard to find a lawyer willing to jump through these hoops no matter how negligent the doctor was, because Texas limits non-economic damages in most cases to $250,000 per doctor. Having exhausted his football eligibility, Duntsch decided to switch to a career in medicine. During this time, he ran two successful labs and raised millions of dollars in grant funding. Baylor Plano allowed Duntsch to continue operating despite the documented issues with Kenneth Fennell, Mary Efurd, Lee Passmore, and Barry Morguloff's surgeries. Next week marks the five-year anniversary of Texas neurosurgeon Christopher Duntsch being sentenced to life in prison. From 2017: https://bit.ly/3hXJccx The criminal conviction of Christopher Duntsch, MD, PhD, holds important lessons for risk managers. He declared bankruptcy after listing debts of over $1 million. "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. B. Ellis Unit outside Huntsville. When other doctors discovered the sponge, Duntsch refused to return to help remove it. Officers took him to a nearby psychiatric hospital. One of the patients who suffered disastrous consequences was Jerry Summers, the boyfriend of Megan Kane and a friend of Christopher Duntsch. Duntsch focused on his research for a while but was recruited from Memphis to join the Minimally Invasive Spine Institute in North Dallas in the summer of 2011. Despite all of this, Duntsch was retained by South Hampton when new owners bought it and renamed it University General Hospital. His first and only surgery with MISI was on a Thursday in September 2011 at Baylor Plano. On April 9, 2013, Phillip Mayfield was scheduled to have a simple 45-minute operation to alleviate his back pain. I left with him and believed in him and then, you know, he just kind of fell apart.. This time on 53-year-old Mary Efurd. Peacock's Dr. Death is a chilling dramatization of the real-life story of former neurosurgeon Christopher Duntsch. After the operation, Brown woke up and seemed fine, but early the following day; she lost consciousness. [44] The Dallas County district attorney's office called it "a historic case with respect to prosecuting a doctor who had done wrong during surgery. [6], Christopher Duntsch was born in Montana and spent most of his youth in Memphis, Tennessee.

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