During his short tenure, he spent little time in the operating room. However, on January 6, 2012, a week after the surgery, Dr. Duntsch performed another operation on Passmore. [14] He persuaded Young to come with him; Young agreed, since she had grown up in the Dallas area. At the time, hospitals were not required to report doctors who only had temporary privileges. As those watching the show know, Christopher was dubbed "Dr. Death" in D Magazine . There are many sick people in the world, but Duntsch takes the cake for me. But when he awoke and was experiencing extreme pain, Dr. Duntsch said that surgery had been a success and there had been no complications. Get an all-access pass to never-before-seen content, free digital evidence kits, and much more! The surgery was supposed to take less than 45 minutes and ultimately lasted over four hours. We've had a catastrophic event here. The day after Mary Efurd's surgery, she awoke in excruciating pain and could not turn over or wiggle her toes. While there, he damaged patient Jeff Cheney's spinal cord, leaving him without feeling on the right side of his body. 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. According to court documents, surgeons at the Minimally Invasive Spine Institute soon grew suspicious of 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. 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. Christopher Duntsch. He later appealed his case, but lost when his conviction was upheld 2-1 in the Fifth District Court of Appeals . She was 27, and he was 40. His mother, Susan, was a school teacher. 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 Was Also His Victim. In July 2015, a grand jury indicted Dr. Death on five counts of aggravated assault and one count of harming an elderly person, his patient Mary Efurd, according to Rolling Stone. On 06/26/2013 MARY EFURD filed a Personal Injury - Medical Malpractice lawsuit against CHRISTOPHER D DUNTSCH, MD. Troy was sedated for weeks and forced to eat through a feeding tube because food was getting into her lungs. They argued that Duntsch was motivated to continue operating because the lucrative salary of a neurosurgeon would solve his mounting financial problems. 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. To top it all off, he was operating on the wrong portion of her back. However, things soon went south. No diagnostic imaging studies were ordered, and no reasonable explanation was offered for his condition. [7], When Duntsch applied for privileges at Methodist Hospital in Dallas, the hospital queried the NPDB. However, the surgery had to be moved to November 14 because Duntsch had failed to order the appropriate surgical hardware and equipment. [10][7], Duntsch completed his residency having participated in fewer than 100 surgeries. 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. Christopher Duntsch - AKA Dr. Death - spent 18 months as a practicing surgeon at multiple Texas hospitals until he had his license revoked in 2013. Who Is Christopher Duntsch, The Man Nicknamed 'Dr. Death' Who Injured Duntsch told his friends and family that Passmore would be fine in a day or two and to not worry about it. 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. Duntsch earned his undergraduate degree in 1995 and enrolled at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center. A disc in his lower spine had blown out, and the pieces had to be picked out of the space above. Every victim deserves to have their story told, and unfortunately, Christopher Duntsch, aka Dr. Death, has 33. 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." Duntsch's next stop was at Dallas Medical Center. Who Were The Victims Of Dr. Christopher Duntsch? | True Crime Buzz Christopher Duntsch was born in Montana on April 3, 1971. Dr. Christopher Duntsch appeared to havean impressive resume, but left a trail ofpain and devastation for those who trusted him with their health. However, red flags surfaced early on, as nurses wondered if Duntsch was under the influence of drugs while on duty. The night before his surgery, he read online about Kellie Martin's death just months earlier. In 2017, Duntsch was sentenced to life in prison after being found guilty of maiming one of his patients. In September 2012, Jeff Cheney went to Duntsch to relieve the pain that had moved from his shoulder down to his arm. This is the True Story of 'Dr Death' Christopher Duntsch She was transferred to a Dallas hospital after suffering from a severe infection, and Randal Kirby was asked to operate on her. 7 chilling thoughts of jailed neurosurgeon Christopher Duntsch His girlfriend, Wendy Young, had a second son in September 2014. When he woke, he could not move anything on the right side of his body. July 14, 2021. 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 . 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. And its all because of one surgeon named Christopher Duntsch a.k.a. Dhruv Trivedi. He was put on probation for three weeks and told to stick to relatively minor procedures when he returned. Baylor Plano again ordered Duntsch to take a drug test. After undergoing physical rehabilitation, Mayfield was able to walk with a cane but continued to experience paralysis on the right side of his body and in his left arm. Dr. Death, read about how reckless surgeon Robert Liston killed his patient and two bystanders. I left with him and believed in him and then, you know, he just kind of fell apart.. The show starsJoshua Jackson,Grace Gummer, AnnaSophia Robb,Christian SlaterandAlec Baldwin. Why do Slipknot wear masks and what do they look like without? Christopher Duntsch Wiki, Biography, Age, Wife, Family, Net Worth 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?" Christopher Duntsch, known as "Dr. Death" tried to explain himself in rambling emails, but he only made things worse for his criminal case. The bad doctor: A health care worker doing harm - Plano Magazine Randall Kirby wrote a detailed complaint to the Texas Medical Board, calling Duntsch a "sociopath" who was "a clear and present danger to the citizens of Texas." The Peacock originalDr Deathis based on atrue story. She was left with just one vocal cord. 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. Duntsch's defense blamed their client's actions on poor training and lack of hospital oversight. 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 . However, Duntsch was allowed to resign, and the hospital didn't notify the National Practitioner Data Bankagain. 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. The patient was Mary Efurd coming in for a second operation. 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. Duntsch was fired after he performed a surgery and immediately left for Las Vegas, leaving no one to look after his patient. He claimed he was the best in Dallas. 5 chilling details about Christopher Duntsch - sportskeeda.com Passmore met with Dr. Duntsch and was impressed by his confidence; he would fix him. Muse spiraled into opioid addiction that cost him his wife and his job. 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. 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. Where Is Christopher Duntsch Now After His Appearance on - Distractify The case status is Disposed - Other Disposed. He was a forty-five-year-old man with typical back problems. Duntsch arrived at the hospital about 45 minutes after Efurd's surgery had been scheduled. Duntschs career started off bright. 'Dr. Death' Peacock Review: Stream It Or Skip It? - Decider CHRISTOPHER Duntsch, is infamously known as Dr Death for gross malpractice. However, by the time he met Young, Duntsch was over $500,000 in debt. [46], Dr. Death, a TV mini-series based on the podcast, began streaming on Peacock on July 15, 2021. [27], While attempting to remove degenerated discs in Marshall "Tex" Muse's back, Duntsch left surgical hardware floating between the spine and muscle tissue. In the end, Floella Brown never regained consciousness because Duntsch refused to transfer her to another doctor in time, and her family had to remove her from life support. 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. However, Baylor did not fire him; instead, he was allowed to resign. Under heavy lobbying from Kirby and Henderson, the Texas Medical Board suspended Duntsch's license on June 26, 2013. Summers asked Duntsch to fix his chronic neck pain from a high school football injury that had gotten worse after a car accident. He declared bankruptcy after listing debts of over $1 million. They also believed that the charge would be easy to prove in court; Duntsch had been told repeatedly that he was not placing the hardware in the correct position, and fluoroscopy images from Efurd's surgery proved this. [38][39] On December 10, 2018, the Texas Court of Appeals affirmed Duntsch's conviction by a 21 split decision. Muse woke up in considerable pain, but Duntsch convinced him it was normal. Dr. Death was fired before the end of his first week for the damage hed inflicted on Brown and Efurd. She was dancing at a strip club in Memphis, and Duntsch's issues with his business, DiscGenics, grew more severe. Kirby was shocked; he called the owner of University General and warned him that Duntsch would hurt someone, and the hospital would be over. Here's All That Has Happened to the Real Christopher Duntsch A - Yahoo! Ellis Unit outside of Huntsville, Texas. You'd like to think . 11:15 PM on Mar 1, 2014 CST. [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. Veteran vascular surgeon Randall Kirby recalled that Duntsch frequently boasted about his abilities despite being so new to the area. Left: Christopher Duntsch in surgery, Right: Christopher Duntschs mugshot. That same month, the two began an affair. By the end of the week, administrators told Duntsch he would no longer be operating at Dallas Medical Center. He decided to turn to neurosurgery, which can be a lucrative field. [19] Prosecutors sought a sentence long enough to ensure that Duntsch would never be able to practice medicine again. Though he appealed his conviction in 2018, it was denied. After a fall in her kitchen, Martin experienced chronic back pain and sought out surgery to alleviate it. When other doctors discovered the sponge, Duntsch refused to return to help remove it. ", You know in the beginning he talked about marriage. I am sorry in advance that this blog post is so long. They talked about marriage quickly, and they moved in together within three months. After interviewing dozens of Duntsch's patients and their survivors, prosecutors concluded that Duntsch's acts were indeed criminal, and nothing short of imprisonment would prevent him from practicing medicine again. The series follows two other surgeons, along with . 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. Neurosurgeon Christopher Duntsch was nicknamed Dr Death: Evil Lives In his first surgery after his suspension lifted, he nicked the vertebral artery of Kellie Martin, a 55-year-old Garland woman. Boop said that Duntsch spent his final year as an attending physician and could not operate independently. At one point, he was only able to eat small bites of food at one time. Dr Deathis a new limited series about the rise and fall of Duntsch. He was sent to a program for impaired physicians when he returned but was allowed to finish his residency. Trusty would later find out there was no award and it had just been a paid advertisement. Passmore had a herniated disc in his lower spine pressing on a nerve causing him pain. He was wearing the shirt of his black scrubs, and it was covered in blood.
