", Mary's botched surgery was one of several in Christopher's record. Get all your true crime news from Oxygen. Up until 2003, medical care in Texas was regulated by a system of checks. It was a minimally invasive surgery, Kirby said, that killed Kellie Martin. We may earn commission from links on this page, but we only recommend products we back. and a Ph.D. from a top-tier medical school, a decade of experience, and a central role in a pioneering stem-cell treatment. Hes been devastated, Don Duntsch said. In an official statement, she wrote, The way the lawis currently written, with a high bar of evidence for the board to meet, the process can take time so that the board can build a solid case. With the exception of pain management clinics and anesthesiologists, the board doesnt have the authority to inspect a doctor, or to start an investigation on its own. Christopher Duntsch, who once claimed to be a mixture of "God, Einstein and the Antichrist," injured or killed 33 of his 38 patients in less than two years, according to prosecutors. Its not clear how much Dallas Medical Center officials knew about Duntschs past or how much Baylor told them. The investigator, Maria Lopez, lets him yell. Dr. Death is a new true-crime series on Peacock about the story of Dr. Christopher Duntsch. (Like other state licensing agenciesthe Pharmacy Board, the Nurse Practitioner Boardthe Medical Board operates at a surplus for the state.). Kellie Martin and Floella Brown died. According to The Dallas Morning News, he will be up for parole in 2045, when he is 74. He explained the disturbing visit by saying he had been attacked by an investigator for an attorney hired by one of his patients, although that account was never verified. But according to Dr. Robert Henderson, another neurosurgeon at Dallas Medical Center, the comprehensive information Baylor sent over when Duntsch applied consisted of an email saying that there were no issues with Duntschs performance, that hed been on staff and had voluntarily resigned. He resigned soon after, with full clinical privileges. The former doctor even boasted a neurosurgical residency at the University of Tennessee College of Medicine at Memphis, earned millions in funding for research projects, obtained a research patent under his name and published academic papers, per Oxygen. As a stay-at-home mom to the couplestwochildren,she also found herself in financial trouble and was evicted from her home twice. It takes the Texas Medical Board an average of nine months to resolve complaints. Over this period, Duntsch performed back surgeries that left his patients in a worse condition, paralyzed, or deceased. CHRISTOPHER Duntsch, is infamously known as Dr Death for gross malpractice. Given the graphic subject matter, if you're squeamish, keep your finger on the "fast forward" button while watching Dr. Death. Duntschwho was just completing a prestigious spine surgery fellowship in Tennesseebought Young an appletini and the two immediately clicked. Once Duntsch left Baylor, he was no longer the hospitals problem. Its left to hospitals to police their doctors. Because of greed. This will not bring my mother back, but it is some sense of justice for the all the families, for all of the victims.. Though the Texas Medical Board is required by statute to investigate any doctor with more than three malpractice suits, no action was ever taken against the doctor by the state. And still it took the Texas Medical Board more than a year to stop Duntscha year in which he kept bringing into the operating room patients who ended up seriously injured or dead. A CT scan found that the metal spinal fusion hardware, meant to be placed on the patients spine to keep the vertebrae from moving, was sunk into the muscles of her lower back, inches from her spine. Brown had suffered excessive blood loss and a stroke, according to the agency. She said she thought he was going to make millions. Even the fact that the board is conducting an investigation remains confidential until the investigation is over. August 28, 2013, 2:01 . "After building a flourishing neurosurgery practice, everything suddenly changes when patients entering Dr. Duntsch's operating room for complex but routine spinal surgeries start leaving permanently disabled or dead. For the next several months, he was in constant pain, according to Mike Lyons, his attorney. "We were told Duntsch was one of the best and smartest neurosurgeons they ever trained, as they went on at length about his strengths," representatives from Baylor Regional Medical Center told Pro Publica in an email. He nicked the patients vertebral artery, causing the space he was working in to fill with blood. "I think its going to be like a floodgate thats going to really open, crying. Dubbed "Dr. Death," the case gained national attention, revealing how easy. Young told D Magazine the incident had simply been a misunderstanding after she had given birth to the couples second son and had asked Duntsch to bring Aiden to the hospital to meet his new brother. Dallas Magazine states that Duntsch became key in supplying samples to scientists for research. Until the day of the suspension, if you had looked Duntsch up on the Texas Medical Board website, you would have found him a physician in good standing. He was very eloquent in stating the causes and the need for the procedure. He then had trouble moving the plate into place. Check out never-before-seen content, free digital evidence kits, and much more! For two days the patient, Jeffrey Glidewell, lay unattended in the ICU while Duntsch made excuses to the family. And a system in which theres no way to know for sure if your doctor is dangerous. When physical therapy didnt relieve the pain, her family doctor suggested she see a certain neurosurgeonbut the doctor couldnt find that surgeons card, so she suggested Duntsch instead. Over the next year, the Medical Board would receive at least six more complaints from doctors who had seen Duntschs work up close. Prince Charming, Im gonna change your life, Wendy Young said of the promising start to her romance with Christopher Duntsch. In November 2011 he was granted surgical privileges at Baylor Regional Medical Center of Plano. Duntsch hired Morgan as his assistant while he was still with the Minimally Invasive Spine Institute in August of 2011. Death Showrunner Breaks Down Turning Hit Podcast Into New Drama Series On Peacock, (And if you want to dive even deeper into the story, you can also watch the new docuseries, on Peacock, which features interviews with numerous people intimately involved in the case. Public Citizen found that 793 Texas doctors had lost clinical privileges between 1990 and 2011. The surgery had gone so badly, Kirby later wrote to the Medical Board, that the rest of the OR team had to physically restrain Duntsch from continuing. Over the course of 2012 and 2013, even as the Texas Medical Board and the hospitals he worked with received repeated complaints from a half-dozen doctors and lawyers begging them to take action, Duntsch continued to practice medicine. Duntsch, it turned out, had, as with other patients, cut into Glidewells vertebral artery; an MRI found that he had also left a sponge festering in the soft tissue of Glidewells throat. For one thing, it can open a case only if it receives a written complaintakin to a police department that forbids its officers from investigating criminal activity they witness. The pair met in 2011 at a Memphis bar, known as the Beauty Shop, according toa 2016D Magazineprofile of Duntschs scandalous medical career. Hewould go on to have another child with Youngwho finally split from the struggling doctor by 2014. Doctors brought in to clean up his surgeries decried his surgical misadventures, according to hospital records. Doctors, and then, later, lawyers would call the boards investigators and sometimes even the board members themselves, begging them to do something. Duntsch appealed his sentence and lost the appeal in 2018. But perhaps more terrifying, the show depicts the chilling real-life story of Dallas-area neurosurgeon Christopher Duntsch, who. That complaint was filedalong with the 6,000 to 8,000 other complaints the Medical Board receives each year, in addition to the thousands of licensure applications the agencys 156 employees must review. Competing on home soil, Zverev lost 7-6 (7/ . Culture TV Peacock True Crime. Sometimes we know that someones bad, but when it comes to taking them to a hearing and proving it to where we can actually do some disciplinary action, it takes time of gathering evidence. If you were a patient in the Dallas area around this time looking for a spine surgeon, there would have been nothing to suggest that Duntsch was a risky choice. Duntsch was also arrested for driving under the influence while staying with his parents in Colorado and found himself in handcuffs another time in April of 2015 after he was arrested for stealing $887.30 in Walmart merchandise, according to theD Magazine. Kimberly Morgan is the former assistant and ex-girlfriend of Christopher Duntsch, nicknamed Dr Death. That veneer is how Duntsch was able to set up a practice in Dallas and obtain surgical privileges at Baylor Scott & White Medical Center in Plano, Texas. She said Duntsch came highly recommended. It would clearly be a policy decision for the Legislature to consider whether the process or the standards for evidence required for a temporary suspension need to change., Leigh Hopper, formerly the Medical Board spokesperson, put it more bluntly. Duntsch went back into the operating room and left Don waiting. Doctors rights are to be protected at every step of the process. It shouldnt happen again.". The procedure can improve stability in the back, according to the Mayo Clinic, and relieve pain. Duntsch briefly enrolled at CSU in the fall of 1991 when he was 20 years old. Christopher Duntsch - AKA Dr. Death - spent 18 months as a practicing surgeon at multiple Texas hospitals until he had his license revoked in 2013. A poorly put-together case can mean months or years of expensive litigation. Dr. Death is the new true-crime series on Peacock starring The Affair's Joshua Jackson as the infamous surgeon Dr. Christopher Duntsch. 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. Texas law states that hospitals are liable for damages caused by doctors in their facilities only if the plaintiff can prove that the hospital acted with malicethat is, the hospital knew of extreme risk and ignored itin credentialing a doctor. Christopher Daniel Duntsch (born April 3, 1971) [1] is a former American neurosurgeon who has been nicknamed Dr. D. and Dr. Death [2] for gross malpractice resulting in the maiming of several patients' spines and two deaths while working at hospitals in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex. He felt confident. The Legislature has also made suing hospitals difficult. Its more or less satisfied with the way that things work.. "He destroyed the lives of essentially every single patient that he touched," Joshua Jackson, who plays Duntsch in Dr. Death, told Newsweek. Death podcast, which inspired the Peacock series. Many of them had committed serious practice violations. The patients mother complained to the Medical Board. Two days later, once Efurd was stable, Henderson was assigned to do the repair surgery. Hed made multiple screw holes on the left everywhere but where he had needed to be. They move slowly and only take action theyre reasonably sure will be effective. Dr. Kirby, on his end, called him a sociopath. But when I talked to Medical Board spokesperson Megan Goode about this, she said Public Citizen had it wrongthat the board isnt underfunded at all. Even Christopher's childhood friend, Jerry Summers, was unable to move his arms and legs after entrusting the surgeon with a cervical fusion surgery. For example, when Duntsch left Baylor Regional Medical Center at Plano, the hospital provided a letter confirming there had been no "summary or administrative restrictions or suspensions," despite the fact that Duntsch had been suspended for 30 days following Summers's surgery. We may earn commission from links on this page, but we only recommend products we back. Soon after Summers woke up paralyzed, a woman named Kellie Martin came to see Duntsch at Texas Neurosurgical Institute. In effect, plaintiffs have to prove a very tough case without access to the necessary hospital records. After a few calls to various Dallas-area medical societies, someone suggested he call the Medical Board. When the Medical Board suspended Duntschs license, the agencys spokespeople too seemed shocked. Ellis Unit outside of Huntsville, Texas. In 2003, the Republican-dominated Texas Legislature capped pain-and-suffering damages in medical malpractice lawsuits at $250,000. Photos, illustrations and other art may be available for syndication but must be confirmed. Henderson went in to remove it. On the right side, there was a screw through a portion of the S1 nerve root.. It was supposed to be a simple procedure, which is, perhaps, why Baylor didnt put anyone in the operating room to supervise Duntsch. He works out, he reads, he studies the Bible. The only entity that could stop Duntsch from seeing more patients was the Texas Medical Board. The Collin County medical examiner who performed the autopsy was so astounded by what had happened to Kellie Martins body that he brought her back in for another examination. Christopher, known as Dr Death, was Jerry's friend and the surgeon who performed the botched operation on him in 2011 Credit: Dallas County Sheriff's office. And while the Medical Board investigated, the pattern continued. Near the end of his report, Kirby wrote, The [Medical Board] must stop this sociopath Duntsch immediately or he will continue [to] maim and kill innocent patients. Perhaps it was the completeness and forcefulness of his presentation, perhaps it was the fact that another neurosurgeon had just joined the board, and he understood as none of the rest did the severity of what Duntsch had done. For Mary Efurd, it was sweet justice for the man who ruined her life. In the two years he practiced as a spine surgeon across four Dallas institutions, Duntsch operated on 37 people. He hired a marketing team and nurses. Henderson says that Duntsch told the Dallas Medical Center administration about the Martin and Summers cases, but explained that the outcomes hadnt been his fault: Summers, he said, had been paralyzed by a bad drug interaction, and Martin had died because of complications from anesthesia. "The nerve root had been severed. He saw himself as a brilliant doctor and a brilliant surgeon. That July, Duntsch was firing off panicked emails to his business partners at 4 am. He didnt tell them about Baylors internal reports that faulted him in both cases, according to Henderson. Hearst Magazine Media, Inc. All Rights Reserved. At the time, Duntsch had been fielding offers in Dallas, San Diego and New York from medical centers eager to have a neurosurgeon with his seemingly impressive resume on staff. Dallas Medical Center also declined to comment, citing privacy concerns. For 33 patients of Texas neurosurgeon Christopher Duntsch, it was a reality. Duntsch grew up in a middle-class family. Like pilot trainingyou dont expect a trained pilot to get drunk and fly his plane into the ground., But its more complicated than that. But the Legislature hindered plaintiffs cases even more by allowing hospitals to, in most cases, keep credentialing information confidential. When Kirby saw Glidewell, he later wrote the Medical Board, he was horrified. The incision, he wrote, was cut into Glidewells throat two or three inches lower and an inch midline from where it should have been oriented saliva and pus were coming out of the wound.. Finally the family fired him. He had a doctorate in molecular biology as well as a medical degree from the University. It was widely acknowledged that Christopher was a confident person, and D Magazine reported that many liked him immediately when they met him (though his fellow neurosurgeons reportedly found him to be "fast-talking and cocksure"). The board suspended his license but then immediately stayed the suspension and gave him probation. ), Photo: Jurors convicted Duntsch Tuesday of injury to an elderly person in the botched July 2012 surgery that put Mary Efurd in a wheelchair. Jackson developed a perspective on his character. Christopher Duntsch, the focus of Peacock's true crime series Dr. Death, looked good on paper. Mr. Efurd woke up after surgery in horrible pain, barely able to move her legs. The boards mandate, spelled out in the Medical Practice Act, recognizes a doctors license as a hard-won, valuable credential. Hes lost everything.. Many of his patients suffered severe spinal cord damage, resulting in paralysis and pain severe enough to render painkillers ineffective. Theres no reason to assume another doctor would have advised her differently. Duntsch, an engaging and fast-talking son of missionaries, came to North Texas with uncommon credentials. .css-ssumvd{display:block;font-family:Gilroy,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-serif;font-size:1.0625rem;font-weight:bold;line-height:1.25;margin-bottom:0;margin-top:0;-webkit-text-decoration:none;text-decoration:none;}@media (any-hover: hover){.css-ssumvd:hover{color:link-hover;}}@media(min-width: 40.625rem){.css-ssumvd{letter-spacing:0rem;margin-top:0.9375rem;}}Gayle King Is Showcasing Women Making Waves, Your Complete Guide to the Bridgerton Family, Jada Pinkett Smiths Red Table Talk Is Canceled, Oprah Wishes Carol Burnett a Happy 90th Birthday, Oprah and Mindy Kaling Are Producing a TV Show, Oprah and Michelle Obama Have a Netflix Special, Gayle Kings Pop Culture Must-See List for April, What We Know About The Little Mermaid Remake, Dr. Death Tells the Horrifying True Story of Christopher Duntsch, The True Story that Inspired Season 2 Dirty John, 20 True-Crime Podcasts You Should Be Listening To, Gayle King Is Showcasing Women Making Waves, email he wrote to former assistant Kimberly Morgan. His father says Christopher Duntsch is a humbled man. When Duntsch came out, he told Don there had been some complications, and that Kellie would have to stay the night, but that the operation had gone fine. He claimed to work as a bioscience consultant and researcher, and maintained his innocence. In 2008 one of his patients died of a prescription drug overdose after he had prescribed her a lethal dose of the painkiller Tramadol. I dont know what it is," she said on CNBC's American Greed. When she responds, shes quiet. Jurors heard from Duntschs father, mother, brother and a family friend who sought to appeal to the sympathies of the jury. (So far only Mary Efurd and the family of Floella Brown have filed suit against Duntsch, though the other patients or their families have all retained counsel as well.). Goals scored. Some drag on for years. AnnaSophia Robb Stars In New Series Dr. Then he waited for several more hours until the nurses came out to tell him and his daughters that Kellie Martin was dead. By the time she was transferred to UT Southwestern Medical Center later that day, she was brain dead. Kirby had spent 16 years performing general surgery in the Dallas area, in which time hed assisted on more than 2,000 spine operations. Partners must notify. But the board is limited in its ability to investigate malpractice. Wendy Young, portrayed by Molly Griggs in Dr. Death, was the name of Duntsch's real girlfriend. Nevertheless, Christopher had his medical license stripped in 2013 and was eventually brought to justice after Mary took him to court. This is a once-in-a-generation occurrence, that we have someone off the rails this badthis is why no one saw this coming., Most of the doctors on the Medical Board, he pointed out, arent surgeons. Not only shouldnt he be operating, he shouldnt be making any decisions about treatment or pathology. It had no effect whatsoever.. "When asked about Dr. Duntschs weaknesses or areas for improvement, the supervising physician communicated that the only weakness Duntsch had was that he took on too many tasks for one person.". They used phrases like the worst surgeon Ive ever seen. One doctor I spoke with, brought in to repair one of Duntschs spinal fusion cases, remarked that it seemed Duntsch had learned everything perfectly just so he could do the opposite. During the surgery, Duntsch sliced into one of the arteries running down Summers spine, causing massive bleeding, which he tried to staunch by packing coagulants around the wound. Since receiving his life sentence, Dr Death is currently housed in the O.B. So while hospital administrators did a deeper background examination, they granted Duntsch temporary privileges. On June 26, the board held an emergency meeting and suspended Duntschs license. According to ProPublica, most neurosurgery residents perform 1,000 operations; Duntsch completed 100. Another spinal fusion; another routine procedure. They all received the same response Henderson had: Send us what you have, and well get back to you. He wanted to live the high life and a neurosurgeon makes big bucks. Later in June 2013 Kirby sent a sworn statement to the Medical Board in which he laid out all of Duntschs patients he knew about and included reports from many of the surgeons who had worked on them. In June 2010, following the media circus around the prosecution of the Kermit nurses, they filed a complaint against him. According to the outlet, while Jerry's lawyer said Christopher could now be criminally charged after his client's death, he believes Jerry wouldn't want that "because he had forgiven his friend for what had happened.". We moved in together within three months, and then I became pregnant.. Ellis Unit of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice in Huntsville and will not be eligible for parole until he is 74 years old in 2045. Duntschs explanation, along with the email from Baylor, was enough to get him a trial run of five surgeries at Dallas Medical Center. When he arrived in Dallas in late 2010, Duntsch's resume spoke of a skilled neurosurgeon: An M.D. He said he had no doubt that his son cared about his patients. Another suffered a sliced vertebral artery which led to a stroke and later death. But as in many other areas in Texasbenzene pollution from hydraulic fracturing sites; ammonium nitrate pileups at fertilizer plantsMartins death and Summers paralysis fell into a regulatory no mans land. He listed the cause of death as therapeutic misadventure, according to his report. But in the past 10 years, a series of conservative reforms have severely limited patients options for holding doctors and hospitals accountable for bad care. He faxed over a picture of Duntsch to the residency program at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center to see if Duntsch had graduated. His mom was a teacher. But in Texas, when you go to see a doctor, there is a small but real chance that the doctor has been found by his or her peers to be a danger to the public, and that no one has bothered to do anything about it yet. After his wife died, Don Martin found himself at a loss. In July of that year, Duntsch was indicted by a Dallas County grand jury on five counts of aggravated assault and one count of harming an elderly person. Instead, she awoke in searing pain, which she likened to child birth, per D Magazine. His report was damning. The surgery, he said, beaming into the camera, was a resounding success. Duntsch, 44, is the first surgeon known to be sentenced to prison for a botched surgery. But the school told Henderson that Duntsch had completed the residency program. But more than anything, we don't get to know Christopher Duntsch. Every time a doctor loses clinical privileges at a hospital, or has them suspended, hospitals are required by law to notify the National Practitioner Databank. When he moved to Dallas in late 2010, Duntsch was 41 years old, fresh out of a residency program at the University of Tennessee Health Science Centers Department of Neurosurgery in Memphis. After losing his license, Duntsch filed for bankruptcy and returned to Colorado, where his parents live. It isnt enough to prove that a doctor did something awful. Duntsch was once an up and coming neurosurgeon. [3] Duntsch was arrested in July 2015. Articles must link back to the original article and contain the following attribution at the top of the story: This article was originally published by the, Articles cannot be rewritten, edited or changed beyond alignments with house style books. My record is excellent," he told The Dallas Morning News in 2015. He told Morgan that Young was just his secretary from Memphis, whose husband would be moving to the area soon, according to the podcast. These doctors are anomalies too. And that with Duntsch, as with other bad doctors, the system worked exactly as it was designed to. All rights reserved. But Baylor didnt hold him to that. While Christopher caused harm to many, it wasn't until a patient Mary Efurd that he was charged with a crime. After growing up in Tennessee,. He alleged that Duntsch promised to pay him in stocks and out of his own salary but failed to follow through. 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Among these doctors who escaped Medical Board action was one who racked up 22 malpractice suits over 12 years, totaling $2.4 million in judgments, for such things as performing unnecessary or harmful procedures or, in one case, removing the wrong body part, according to the federal database. Unlike with Summers, though, he hadnt noticed in time, and Martin bled to death, according to Texas Medical Board records. Per Bustle, Christopher is currently incarcerated at O.B. Hospital management, the court system and the Texas Medical Board formed a web of regulation that penalized and prevented bad care.