Three holes had been poked into Efurd's spinal column where Duntsch had tried and failed to insert screws. Duntsch, 40 at that time, bought an appletini for Young, 27, and they started their relationship. Young had family in Dallas and decided she would go with him if he picked that city. Dr. Death in surgery. Kirby, Henderson, and another doctor decided to contact the district attorney, convinced that Duntsch's malpractice was so egregious it was criminal. He later told Glidewell that it was clear Duntsch had tried to kill him. 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. 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 . He might have been fired from the Institute but was still a surgeon at Baylor Plano. To stop the bleeding, he packed the space with so much anticoagulant foam that it constricted Summers' spine. At the time of their meeting, Young was working as a dancer in a strip club. 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. In his first surgery after his suspension lifted, he nicked the vertebral artery of Kellie Martin, a 55-year-old Garland woman. Christopher Duntsch, 44, faces up to life in prison if convicted. He recommended fusing two of her vertebrae and the insertion of "hardware" in her spinal area. The process involves cutting a hole in the skull to relieve the pressure in the brain. Before going to medical school, Duntsch wanted to be a pro-football player.
Victim statements reveal more gruesome details of botched surgeries - WFAA Duntsch operated and flew out to Las Vegas without securing a call physician.
Former neurosurgeon sentenced for purposely maiming patients He will not be eligible for parole until 2045, when he will be 74-years-old. After he arrived in town, he secured a deal with the Baylor Regional Medical Center at Plano and was given surgical rights at the hospital. You'd like to think . 2-Dr.Randall Kirby, a hero. In 2006, Duntsch teamed up with two Russian stem cell scientists: Valery Kukekov and Tatyana Ignatova. Duntsch is the first physician sentenced to life in prison for his actions while practicing medicine. Under heavy lobbying from Kirby and Henderson, the Texas Medical Board suspended Duntsch's license on June 26, 2013.
Christopher Duntsch | True Crime Buzz | Oxygen Official Site Summers asked Duntsch to fix his chronic neck pain from a high school football injury that had gotten worse after a car accident. Duntsch was fired after he performed a surgery and immediately left for Las Vegas, leaving no one to look after his patient. Christopher Duntsch was nicknamed Dr. Death due to the injuries he caused his patients. [30], Henderson and Kirby feared that Duntsch could move elsewhere and still theoretically get a medical license. One of the patients who suffered disastrous consequences was Jerry Summers, the boyfriend of Megan Kane and a friend of Christopher Duntsch.
Anatomy of a Tragedy: The Story Behind 'Sociopath Surgeon' Christopher Did Christopher Duntsch have a wife and kids? 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.". Over the course of two years, Christopher Duntsch operated on 38 patients in the Dallas area. They met with an assistant DA but got little traction. The problem was that Dallas Medical Center did not perform those or even have the proper equipment to do them. The nursing staff put down towels to soak it up. Before his license was revoked by the Texas Medical Board, he was accused of injuring 33 out of 38 . After 13 days of trial, the jury needed only four hours to convict him for the maiming of Efurd, and on February 20, 2017, he was sentenced to life in prison. At one point, he was only able to eat small bites of food at one time. He was put on probation for three weeks and told to stick to relatively minor procedures when he returned. The suit alleged that Baylor Plano made an average net profit of $65,000 on every spinal surgery performed by Duntsch. [4], Early in his tenure at Baylor Plano, Duntsch made a poor impression on his fellow surgeons. [18] He damaged patient Philip Mayfield's spinal cord, drilling into it and leaving him partially paralyzed from the neck down. In March 2014, three former patients of Duntsch's Mary Efurd, Kenneth Fennel, and Lee Passmore filed separate federal lawsuits against Baylor Plano, alleging the hospital allowed Duntsch to perform surgeries despite knowing that he was a dangerous physician. [7], When Duntsch applied for privileges at Methodist Hospital in Dallas, the hospital queried the NPDB.
Did Christopher Duntsch Have Any Successful Surgeries? Christopher Duntsch was born in Montana and spent most of his youth in Memphis, Tennessee. Duntsch is a former neurosurgeon born in 1971 in Montana . An investigator by trade and nature, Passmore started digging into Dr. Christopher Duntsch. His pain management specialist advised against an operation but referred him to a neurosurgeon named Christopher Duntsch. D Magazine gave him the nickname in . Learn more. Jurors convicted Duntsch Tuesday of injury to an elderly person in the botched July 2012 surgery that put Mary Efurd in a wheelchair. Check out never-before-seen content, free digital evidence kits, and much more! He did his surgical residency at the University of Tennessee in Memphis, spending five years studying neurosurgery and a year studying general surgery. 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. Duntsch had come highly recommended to Fennell and wooed him with boasts that he'd soon be head of Baylor Medical Center's entire neurosurgery department. Since Duntsch's departure was technically voluntary, Baylor Plano was under no obligation to report him to the Texas Medical Board or the National Practitioner Data Bank. Prosecutors sought a sentence long enough to ensure that Duntsch would never be able to practice medicine again. His father, Donald, was a physical therapist and Christian missionary, and his mother, Susan, was a schoolteacher. Duntsch recommended fusing Morguloff's L5-S1 vertebrae, and the surgery was scheduled for January 11, 2012.
Christopher Duntsch: The Remorseless Killer Surgeon Called 'Dr. Death' Duntsch told his friends and family that Passmore would be fine in a day or two and to not worry about it. Though he appealed his conviction in 2018, it was denied. Lee Passmore is still fighting. Philip Mayfield, one of Christopher Duntschs patients, who was paralyzed after his surgery.
Dr. Death executive producer explains how Christopher Duntsch could Unfortunately, it's all too real. As a result of the 2017 trial, Duntsch was convicted and sentenced to life in prison. In May 2013, Dr. Randall Kirby was invited to a dinner by University General Hospital to meet their new neurosurgeon, Dr. Duntsch. The series is set to premiere on July 12 and will feature a star-studded cast. Jerry Summers believed that his best friend Christopher Duntsch was a talented neurosurgeon who would cure his chronic neck pain. [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. Despite this refusal, Duntsch was allowed to finish his residency. After several more months of botched surgeries, Duntsch finally lost his surgical privileges altogether in June 2013 after two physicians complained to the Texas Medical Board. He earned his M.D.
'Dr Death' Stars Share Why They Think Christopher Duntsch - TheWrap 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. Marshall Muse was scheduled to have a disc removed in his back.
'Dr. Death' shows how Texas law gives negligent health care providers a He performed only one surgery with the Minimally Invasive Spine Institute.
Here's All That Has Happened to the Real Christopher Duntsch A - Yahoo! During his tenure at Baylor Plano, Kimberly Morgan assisted in every surgery with Duntsch. and Ph.D. from the University of Tennessee Health Center. Thankfully, this ended up being Dr. Christopher Duntsch's last operation. In my opinion, we had a serial killer in our medical community, Dr. Randall Kirbysays of Christopher Duntsch in "Dr. Death: The Undoctored Story.".
'Killer' Surgeon Gets Life for Maiming Patient - Medscape Texas Attorney General 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. He had a bedroom upstairs in their Plano house. The show starsJoshua Jackson,Grace Gummer, AnnaSophia Robb,Christian SlaterandAlec Baldwin. Duntsch earned his undergraduate degree in 1995 and enrolled at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center. Dr. Death in surgery. "[20][4] Under heavy lobbying from Kirby and Henderson, the Texas Medical Board suspended Duntsch's license on June 26, 2013. ", "Assault trial begins for Dallas surgeon who once wrote of becoming 'cold blooded killer', "The State of Texas vs. Christopher Daniel Dunstch", "Life Sentence Upheld on Appeal For Christopher Duntsch, aka Dr. Death", "What you need to know about 'Dr. And its all because of one surgeon named Christopher Duntsch a.k.a. She witnessed Duntsch put on his lab coat and make his rounds the following morning as if nothing had happened. It was then that Christopher decided to switch his career to medicine. by Saul Elbein. Lee Passmore's screams poured out from the ICU and down the hallway. The Peacock limited series, based on the Wondery podcast, covers the true story of Dr. Christopher Duntsch (played by Joshua Jackson ), whose surgical career ruined the lives of numerous people . 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. He declared bankruptcy after listing debts of over $1 million. Duntsch was suspected of having used cocaine the night before the operation. 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. Duntsch continued operating despite clear signs that Martin was losing massive amounts of blood. However, during training for neurosurgery he followed a research path and did fewer operations than most trainees. At the time, Duntsch was looking for operating prospects in Dallas, San Diego, and New York. On November 7, 2011, Dr. Duntsch was scheduled to perform his first surgery at Baylor Plano on Kenneth Fennell for his back pain. He ran two labs, gained experience writing grants, and earned more than $3 million in funding for research projects. In 2011, Christopher Duntsch met Wendy Young at the Beauty Shop bar in Memphis. Chris Dozois, a fellow linebacker with the Rams, recalled Duntsch struggling, even with basic drills, but begging to run them over and over until he got it right.
Victim of Real-Life 'Dr. Death' Believes There Are Others - Yahoo! The case highlights the risks of allowing a troubled physician to move to another hospital . [9][10], Duntsch had severed Brown's vertebral artery, and refused to abort despite the massive blood loss. [16][24] Henderson described Duntsch's surgery as an "assault", and concluded that Efurd would have been bedridden had the salvage surgery not been performed. He is currently appealing this sentence. 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 . Baylor suspended Duntsch, pictured, for a month. Inside The Death Of Chris Benoit, The Professional Wrestler Who Killed His Family And Then Himself, Archaeologists Just Uncovered A Massive Roman Phallic Carving In Spain And It Might Be The Biggest Ever Found, What Stephen Hawking Thinks Threatens Humankind The Most, 27 Raw Images Of When Punk Ruled New York, Join The All That's Interesting Weekly Dispatch. However, he closed Glidewell with the sponge in place despite others in the operating room warning him about it. Duntsch also removed so much bone and muscle tissue from Summers' neck that his head was no longer secure on his body. ", "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? Death'? 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. Christopher was raised along with his three younger siblings in a wealthy suburb in Memphis, Tennessee. Duntsch continued to medicate Morguloff with prescription pain killers and ignored the change in his condition. 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 . I left with him and believed in him and then, you know, he just kind of fell apart.. 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. Officers took him to a nearby psychiatric hospital.
Texas neurosurgeon nicknamed 'Dr. Death' found guilty of maiming woman He called Duntsch's fellowship supervisor in Memphis and the supervisor of Duntsch's residency; it was then that he learned about the incident that led him to be referred to the impaired physician program.
Dr. Death: La verdadera historia detrs de la nueva serie sobre el ex Duntsch pierced and blocked her vertebral artery with a misplaced screw and refused to stop despite the massive blood loss. Prosecutors also faulted Duntsch's employers for not reporting him. My experience with this doctor has been great. According to the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education, a neurosurgery resident does about 1,000 operations during training. Dr. Death, read about how reckless surgeon Robert Liston killed his patient and two bystanders. "Dr. Duntsch is one great man."
Who Is Christopher Duntsch, The Man Nicknamed 'Dr. Death' Who Injured 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. The hospital called Rimlawi when it couldn't reach his colleague. After intense rehab and his determination, eventually, he was able to use a walker and cane to mobilize himself. CHRISTOPHER Duntsch, is infamously known as Dr Death for gross malpractice. [9][16], As part of their investigation, prosecutors obtained a December 2011 email in which Duntsch boasted 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. Before working with him, Dr. Hoyle said that he didnt know how to feel about his fellow surgeon. As he lay there in agony, Duntsch was nowhere to be found. Over this period, Duntsch performed back surgeries that left his patients in a worse condition, paralyzed, or deceased. Where is Christopher Duntsch AKA Dr. Death now? Young said that Morgan visited often. 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. [31][16] The inquiry went nowhere until 2015, when the statute of limitations on any potential charges was due to run out. Dr. Fulton never worked with Duntsch again. As the trial team put it, the "scary pattern" of Duntsch's actions became apparent to the others in the office, leading the DA to give the green light to take the case to a grand jury. As those watching the show know, Christopher was dubbed "Dr. Death" in D Magazine . They argued that Duntsch was motivated to continue operating because the lucrative salary of a neurosurgeon would solve his mounting financial problems. 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. The day after Mary Efurd's surgery, she awoke in excruciating pain and could not turn over or wiggle her toes. He decided to turn to neurosurgery, which can be a lucrative field.
The Untold Truth Of Dr. Death - Grunge.com Kirby was shocked; he called the owner of University General and warned him that Duntsch would hurt someone, and the hospital would be over. Advertisement.
Where is Christopher Duntsch AKA Dr. Death now? - The US Sun