They didn't have enough evidence to stop him because he hadn't done anything wrong yet. Duntsch did not respond to messages from the hospital for a few hours, then the next day scheduled an elective surgery on Efurd rather than care for Brown. [2][4][19][7], Duntsch moved to Dallas Medical Center in Farmers Branch, where he was granted temporary privileges until hospital officials could obtain his records from Baylor Plano. The charismatic neurosurgeon was actually a successful researcher before he starting killing people in the operating . 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. However, Mayfield still woke up with paralysis on occasion. Duntsch arrived at the hospital about 45 minutes after Efurd's surgery had been scheduled. [9][10], Duntsch had severed Brown's vertebral artery, and refused to abort despite the massive blood loss. However, the surgery had to be moved to November 14 because Duntsch had failed to order the appropriate surgical hardware and equipment. He performed only one surgery with the Minimally Invasive Spine Institute. Nevertheless, it took until June 2013 to find the "pattern of patient injury" required to justify suspending Duntsch's license, despite receiving complaints dating back to 2011. His father, Donald, was a physical therapist and Christian missionary, and his mother, Susan, was a schoolteacher. He is not eligible for parole until 2045, when he will be 74 years old. In one particularly disturbing episode, in March 2015, she said she arrived home to her front door had been locked with a deadbolt from the inside. 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 . The surgery was supposed to take less than 45 minutes and ultimately lasted over four hours. Just one day after his suspension had ended, Duntsch operated on Kellie Martin. Check out never-before-seen content, free digital evidence kits, and much more! He secured investments in Discgenics from local spine surgeons, including Dr. Robertson and Dr. Kevin Foley, a prominent Memphis neurosurgeon Duntsch spent a year training under as part of the surgery fellowship at the Semmes-Murphey Clinic. 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. 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 night before his surgery, he read online about Kellie Martin's death just months earlier. In February 2012, he went under the knife for an elective spinal fusion surgery. He stalled at first, telling administrators he got lost on the way to the lab. He knew this couldn't have been a one-time mistake. Those are the words that Dr. Christopher Duntsch, a Dallas neurosurgeon, wrote to his girlfriend in 2011 in the midst of a two-year period that left 33 of his 38 patients maimed, wounded or . Legacy Surgery Center in Frisco (now Frisco Ambulatory Surgery Center). When other doctors discovered the sponge, Duntsch refused to return to help remove it. On May 24, 2011, Christopher Duntsch signed a physician services agreement with Rimlawi and Won's Minimally Invasive Spine Institute (MISI) in Dallas. The board called in veteran neurosurgeon Martin Lazar to review the case. Your trust is important to us. He completed a spine fellowship program at the Semmes-Murphey Clinic in Memphis for his surgical residency, spending the standard five years on neurosurgery and one-year learning general surgery. Passmore focused on recovery and getting back to work in the months following his surgery. In addition, a ligament in his leg was severed, and a screw was stripped and lodged into a nerve bundle. 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. [8] Duntsch returned home to attend Memphis State University (now the University of Memphis). Jeff Cheney later learned that part of his spinal cord had been cut during the operation. B. Ellis Unit outside Huntsville. Finally, Dr. Kirby received a call from Hassan Chahadeh. Duntsch stuffed a surgical sponge in Glidewell's throat to stanch the bleeding. They created a method for culturing the stem cells of intervertebral discs outside of the body. On December 30, 2011, Duntsch operated on Lee Passmore. Kane also recalled a cocaine- and LSD-fueled night of partying between her, her ex-boyfriend, and Duntsch where, after the end of their all-night party, she saw Duntsch put on his lab coat and go to work. He was tragically mistaken. [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. He Was Also His Victim. Duntsch earned his undergraduate degree in 1995 and enrolled at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center. Dr. Hassan Chahadeh, the owner, said when Duntsch had applied for privileges, his record was clean. As he lay there in agony, Duntsch was nowhere to be found. After his license was revoked,Duntsch fled from Texas. During his surgery, Duntsch didnt installed the necessary hardware to Muses spine and instead had left it floating between the spine and muscle tissue. ", "Plano's Baylor hospital faces hard questions after claims against former neurosurgeon", "Barry Morguloff's suit against the Baylor Health Care System", "Was Wendy Renee Young Dr. Death's Wife? 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. A Texas neurosurgeon accused of intentionally botching multiple spinal surgeries, resulting in the death of two . 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 . [9] Texas Medical Board Revocation Order. At one point, he was only able to eat small bites of food at one time. 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. Unfortunately, when Fennell woke up from surgery, he was paralyzed from the waist down. Duntsch also appears in no yearbooks during the time in which he says he earned his Ph.D. He died in 2021 of an infection related to complications from Duntsch's operation. She suffered a stroke as a result. The case status is Disposed - Other Disposed. Pic credit: Dallas County Sheriff's Office. Jerry Summers believed that his best friend Christopher Duntsch was a talented neurosurgeon who would cure his chronic neck pain. 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. 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. Joshua Jackson went to the dark side to play Dr. Christopher Duntsch, who's serving a life sentence for maiming a woman during surgery, in the new Peacock series Dr. Death. 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 . Death,' Dallas neurosurgeon Christopher Duntsch", "Texas neurosurgeon nicknamed 'Dr. 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. Dr. Frederick Boop, chief of neurosurgery at the hospital where Duntsch was completing his residency, said that university officials asked Duntsch to take a drug test. Martin would become Duntschs first casualty when she bled out in intensive care unit after her relatively common procedure. However, Duntsch was allowed to resign, and the hospital didn't notify the National Practitioner Data Bankagain. But when he awoke and was experiencing extreme pain, Dr. Duntsch said that surgery had been a success and there had been no complications. Assistant district attorney Michelle Shughart, who led the prosecution of Duntsch, later recalled that Henderson and Kirby reached out to her demanding to testify against Duntsch; according to Shughart, doctors rarely testify against each other. The nursing staff put down towels to soak it up. ", "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? Mayfield died of COVID in February 2021; according to his wife, he had been vulnerable to the virus due to complications caused by Duntsch's botched surgery. Christopher Duntsch Early Life Story, Family Background and Education. Henderson then cleaned out bone fragments and discovered that one of Efurd's nerve roots was gone entirely. His first and only surgery with MISI was on a Thursday in September 2011 at Baylor Plano. Dr. Fulton never worked with Duntsch again. One of the patients who suffered disastrous consequences was Jerry Summers, the boyfriend of Megan Kane and a friend of Christopher Duntsch. July 14, 2021. Christopher Duntsch was a neurosurgeon who radiated confidence. A disc in his lower spine had blown out, and the pieces had to be picked out of the space above. Moving made sense for both of them. [35], The last charge was for the maiming and paralyzing of Efurd. The television series Dr. Death based on the incident, began streaming on Peacock in July 2021. He was put on probation for three weeks and told to stick to relatively minor procedures when he returned. Christopher Daniel Duntsch was born in Montana on April 3, 1971, and raised alongside his three siblings in an affluent suburb of Memphis, Tennessee. He was sent to a program for impaired physicians when he returned but was allowed to finish his residency. The process involves cutting a hole in the skull to relieve the pressure in the brain. The indictments were made four months before the statute of limitations ran out. Updated Dec 9, 2022 at 3:25pm. In July 2015, Duntsch was arrested in Dallas and charged with six felony counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, five counts of aggravated assault causing severe bodily injury, and one count of injury to an elderly person. My surgery was 3 months ago but i noticed difference right away. Mr. [16] Kirby also recalled that Duntsch's skills in the operating room left much to be desired; as Kirby put it, "he could not wield a scalpel".[4]. Glidewell was left with only one vocal cord, permanent damage to his esophagus and partial paralysis on his left side. Troy was left barely able to speak above a whisper, had to be sedated for weeks and had to be fed through a feeding tube for some time as food was getting into her lungs. 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. 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.
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