And what stops another physicianfrom turning into the next Dr. Death? Morgan, in her deposition, said Duntsch called her to say he got lost going to the lab and never took the test. She was a stay-at-home mom to their two children, Preston and Aiden; her income was tied to Duntschs. At The University of Tennessee, his supervisors were also investors in Duntsch's company, Discgenics. I am 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.. But Duntsch kept going, as if he were fishing in a pond at night, saying he was working by feel, not sight. Check out never-before-seen content, free digital evidence kits, and much more! This led to another 20 patients suffering. I agree completely with Dr. Hoyles complaint to the board when he stated that Dr. Duntsch is the most careless, clueless, and dangerous spine surgeon either of us has ever seen, Kirby wrote. He thought about how all that might have been stolen from him in a matter of hours. She was deposed over Skype since, at the time, she was stationed with the Air Force in the Middle East. The doctor in the strange case is now 50 years old. Young and Duntsch have two sons. But for his victims, the judgment was a big relief. Henderson actually checked if Duntsch was a real doctor with The University of Tennessee, appalled at the damage to Efurd's spine. He, too, had an injury to his left vertebral artery, and the incision was far from where it shouldve been and had begun to leak pus. Due to his actions, Brown suffered a stroke that night, but Duntsch didn't responded to hospital pages. Kukekov and Ignatova say Duntsch took more credit than he deserved for the discoveries. Later, he filed for bankruptcy and moved in with his parents in Colorado. Kane dated Summers for a year. Now, one of the several complaints against the . Hed found a few months that were not accounted for in Duntschs educational history. Brown had a massive stroke overnight that left her in a vegetative state, and her family chose to remove life support days later. She had clinical experience and often spent time with Duntsch when he was conducting research. Neurosurgeon Duntsch Found Guilty, Faces Life in Prison, In Duntschs Assault Trial, Questions About His Role After Patient Deaths, In Second Day of Testimony, Doctor Calls Neurosurgeon Duntschs Outcomes Catastrophic. Duntschdestroyed the lives of numerous patients who were seeking relief from back problems. I dont want to be in your magazine, sir, I apologize, Passmore told me. When the story about Christopher Duntsch finally broke, it affected his patients, or rather, hisvictims, but many people missed it. They described him as the bright, precocious little boy who had taken. Joshua Jackson as Christopher Duntsch in "Dr. Death." (Peacock/Scott McDermott/Peacock) The real Duntsch, a Texas-based surgeon, maimed or killed 33 of 38 surgical patients between 2011 and . But police say an email Duntsch wrote in 2011 points to his mind-set in the months before he "intentionally, knowingly and . And yet, the names of the latter are incorrect and misspelled. There are some who believe that he never wanted to be in the ORat all. Duntsch wrote that he accepted he was a cold-blooded killer. He performed his first operation at Dallas Medical Center on July 24, 2012; the hospital issued temporary privileges while it verified his credentials. After five days in the ICU and hours of agonizing rehab, Mayfield requireda cane to walkand was unable to ride in vehicles for long periods. His dad is a physical therapist. Lee Passmores friends and family heard him before they saw him. In 2005, about a third of the way through the six-year program, department chairman Dr. Jon Robertson appointed him program director of the schools tissue bank, where hed supply samples to scientists and oversee two labs. Young was evicted at least twice. It was the invention of me and my wife, because we made all primary experiments. There were two names on the top page: Kellie Martin and Christopher Duntsch. Wendy Renee Young is the mother of three children. He had a lot of animus to me personally. Peacock's new grisly drama tells the real-life story of Dallas-area neurosurgeon Christopher Duntsch, who killed or maimed more than 30 patients in the 2010s. Duntsch told Morgan a different story. Sproles issued a letter to Duntsch that read: There have been no summary or administrative restrictions or suspensions of Dr. Duntschs Medical Staff membership or clinical privileges during the time he has practiced at Baylor Reg. Their trysts were largely confined to his office at Baylor Plano, the same place where, she said in her deposition, he often drank vodka and did research after hours. Duntsch had only been in the Dallas area for a few months. Investigations took patients and attorneys back to where Duntsch had had such a promising beginningin Memphis, at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center, where he earned both an M.D. His father was a missionary and physical therapist and his mother was a school teacher. According to a police report obtained by The Texas Observer, Duntsch was captured on camera trying to steal $887 worth of merchandise, including pants, briefcases, cologne, watches and sun glasses. Martin, it turned out, had bled to death in the intensive care unit while undergoing a relatively common procedure known as a laminectomy, which involves removing spongy tissue between the discs to relieve pressure. Hoyle stepped in front of Duntsch to block his way. For Duntsch, the path into medicine was unconventional and, perhaps, a reflection of his tendency to fixate on unlikely goals. The attorneys claimed she knew about the drugs and his drug-addled OR trips but did nothing to stop them. Christopher Duntsch, once a supremely confident neurosurgeon with a solid rsum and a wealth of potential, fled town in disgrace last year under a scalding cascade . (She says this was a misunderstanding, that she had asked him to retrieve Aiden and bring him to the hospital.) There was Floella Brown, whose sliced vertebral artery triggered the stroke that killed her at Dallas Medical Center. We talked about marriage pretty quickly. Summers died a few months ago, in February 2021, after getting an infection connected to the botched surgery from Duntsch that left him a quadriplegic. Its less than a millimeter from the spinal canal. According to ProPublica, Boop was aware of a complaint Duntsch used drugs before seeing patients. Michael Rimlawi and Douglas Wonthe pair then owned the Minimally Invasive Spine Institute in North Dallasrecruited him from Memphis to join the practice. She, after being in Duntsch's OR, would never walk again. Duntsch had allegedly tried to steal the pair of pants by changing into the new pair in a Wal-Mart dressing room and placing his own pants into the shopping cart. She was dancing at a strip club then, and Duntschs business problems were growing more severe. Jackson stars as Christopher Duntsch, the titular nicknamed neurosurgeon, in Peacock's limited series based on the Wondery podcast of the same name (and of course the real-life former doctor's. Dont worry about it, he repeated. Duntschs reputation took another dive in April of 2015 when he was arrested for shoplifting at a local Walmart. Because how can I do anything I want and cross every discipline boundary like its [sic] a playground and never ever lose., Duntsch also said he was prepared to embrace the very darkest part of himself. He projected that I was the source of a lot of his problems and difficulties.. In July 2015, indictments came through. [7] Preston was born in September 2014 while she was living with her sister in Garland, Texas. The full story of Duntsch's actions can be read in Matt Goodman's D Magazine feature from 2016, when the magazine first coined him "Dr. Death.". The 30 Rock alum also heads up the cast of the Peacock series as a doctor, though he plays one of the surgeons working to take Duntsch down. Somebody knocks back and I am like Who in the f---is in my house, Young recalled in the four-part Peacock docuseries, (And if you want to dive even deeper into the story, you can also watch the scripted drama, on Peacock, starring Joshua Jackson, Alec Baldwin, and Christian Slater. "Dr. Death," which was shot earlier this year in the Albuquerque area and debuted July 15 on the Peacock streaming service, is the story of Christopher Duntsch, who is now serving a life sentence . Duntschcrammed a surgical sponge into the wound, then sewed it up. Her bright blond hair is pulled back into a ponytail, and shes wearing a tank top with yoga pants. 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. Young was 27 when they met; Duntsch was 40. Passmore also learned about Kenneth Fennell, a 68-year-old who alleged in a lawsuit that, during a November procedure, Duntsch operated on the wrong body part. Anton Floquet/NBCUniversal, I knocked on my door. Yet they let him resign and passed the bill along for someone else to pay. It got to be too much. Duntsch calls thisand most other claimsnonsense. 11:15 PM on Mar 1, 2014 CST. Enjoy unlimited access to all of our incredible journalism, in print and digital. The evidence said otherwise. Dr. Duntsch is at number one. His mother, Susan, taught school. Christopher Duntsch Early Life Story, Family Background and Education. He secured investments in Discgenics from local spine surgeons, including Robertson and Dr. Kevin Foley, a prominent Memphis neurosurgeon under whom Duntsch would spend a year training as part of a minimally invasive spine surgery fellowship at the Semmes-Murphey Clinic, one of the largest neurosurgery practices in the United States. But its the only way to get anybody to listen. The nerve root had been amputated. But Duntsch soldiered on. Whatever Duntsch set out to be when he first donned that white coat, being a media sensation for all the wrong reasons may not have been his goal. Duntsch's initial presentation bowled him over. Joshua Jackson as Dr. Christopher Duntsch Asked if he had a chance to meet with Duntsch, who's now serving a life sentence for maiming Mary Efurd during what should have been routine surgery,. The damage is irreversible. Who else is left? After they all partied through the night, powered by LSD and cocaine, she said she saw Duntsch put on his lab coat to make rounds the next morning. But Dr. William Rohr did editorialize in his conclusion: The collection of blood was most likely the result of a therapeutic misadventure. Duntsch blames the death on an allergy to fentanyl, a powerful narcotic often used in intubation. At first, Passmore didnt think much about the way Duntsch and his assistant, Kimberly Morgan, interacted. During this time, out of three procedures, one patient died and another was partially paralyzed. He kept a handle of Stoli under his desk and said it was because he used to work with Russians. Even the hospitals that he worked for kept enabling him, according to a report by the Dallas County prosecutors. Life After "Death": Lethal Surgeon Sentenced to PrisonWATCH NEXT: Attorney who represented Dr. Duntsch's patients discusses her cases (3 of 5) https://youtu.. Young puts Morgan there, too, although Morgan denied it in her deposition. Unequivocally, testified an expert witness, a neurosurgeon should stop practicing after incurring multiple patient deaths and severe outcomes. The University of Tennessee refused to comment on grounds of confidentiality, but neurosurgeon Dr. Frederick Boop, under whom Duntsch completed his residency, knew. Brings new meaning to the phrase Sunday Funday. I thought he was either really, really good, or hes just really, really arrogant and thought he was good, Hoyle says now. The 31 people who survived Dr. Duntsch's scalpel face a struggle for the rest of their lives. On paper, the 40-year-old man who arrived in Dallas in the summer of 2011 was a completely different Christopher Duntsch than the one who was introduced to the public after more than a dozen. Dallas most important news stories of the week, delivered to your inbox each Sunday. Also present, according to Kane, was Jerry Summers, the childhood friend who would later wake up a quadriplegic after a Duntsch operation. It was a revision of a patient whom he originally operated on at Baylor Plano. He has a job inside the prison. He had a room upstairs in the Plano house. 33 of his surgeries went horribly wrong. Around that same time, Duntschs behavior was becoming erratic. Multiple lawsuits allege that Baylor did not report Duntsch to the National Practitioner Data Bank, which was created by Congress to be a private clearinghouse of physicians who have been suspended or had their privileges revoked. Hed received a letter from University General Hospital in South Dallas, verifying Duntschs training. I'm the only clean minimally invasive guy in the whole state." While applying to Baylor Regional Medical Center in Plano, TX, Duntsch also provided Dr. Jon Robertson as a reference. The first of these had been college football. Duntsch pleaded not guilty. In an article in Texas Observer,author SaulElbein says that one of the doctors he spoke to likened Duntsch to Hannibal Lecter three times in eight minutes. Duntsch did his surgical residency at The University of Tennessee. And not just Dallas CountyI dont recall hearing about it anywhere.. And who will Dr. Death be? For years, hed focused on research. But it was growing increasingly clear that his opportunities were running out. I'd call him a sociopath." By the time the Dallas County district attorney's office got involved and brought criminal charges against. He works out, he reads, he studies the Bible. According to ProPublica, Duntsch's residency and fellowship records show less than 100 surgeries. 2022-10-28 16:00:03 - Paris/France. Oxygen Insider is your all-access pass to never-before-seen content, free digital evidence kits, and much more. . Ignatova believes this to be deliberate. (Neither responded to requests for comment for this story.) Thus, his license was revoked for good on December 6, 2013. The Accreditation Council of Graduate Medical Education has strict rules about residency programs. He later told Duntsch to his face that he was dangerous.