Passmore can't feel his feet; his chest shakes, his right-hand jitters, he can't run or swim with his kids, he struggles with incontinence, and he has nerve pain that fires through his back. [4] In an article for The Texas Prosecutor, the journal of the Texas District and County Attorneys Association, Shughart and the other members of the trial team recalled that their superiors were initially skeptical when they presented the case, but eventually found themselves in "overwhelming disbelief" that a surgeon could do what Duntsch was accused of doing. His very first operation at the hospital would once again turn deadly. He had complex regional pain syndrome, a rare type of chronic pain that caused his skin to blister and peel off. 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 . [8] Duntsch returned home to attend Memphis State University (now the University of Memphis). Jerry Summers Was 'Dr. Death's' Best Friend. Jodi Smith. At the time of their meeting, Young was working as a dancer in a strip club. He was arrested for DUI in Denver, taken for a psychiatric evaluation in Dallas during one of his visits to see his children, and was arrested in Dallas for shoplifting. In 2010, he completed the MDPhD and neurosurgery residency programs at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center,[3] and subsequently completed a spine fellowship program at the Semmes-Murphey Clinic in Memphis. Duntsch initially attended Millsaps College to play Division III college football, and later transferred to Division I Colorado State University. Could you take care of it?" Duntsch is at the O. The director of neurosurgery at UT Southwestern, Carlos Bagley, testifying for the defense, said that "the only way this happens is that the entire system fails the patients." Christopher was raised along with his three younger siblings in a wealthy suburb in Memphis, Tennessee. Duntsch had his surgical rights temporarily suspended after his botched surgery on Summers and his first patient back was 55-year-old Kellie Martin. Everything went perfect in there." My surgery was 3 months ago but i noticed difference right away. [36][11][9] For the same reason, prosecutors opted to try Duntsch for Efurd's maiming first. [37][4], Over objections from Duntsch's lawyers, prosecutors called many of Duntsch's other patients to the stand in order to prove that his actions were intentional. D Magazine gave him the nickname in . In my opinion, we had a serial killer in our medical community, Dr. Randall Kirbysays of Christopher Duntsch in "Dr. Death: The Undoctored Story.". The television series Dr. Death based on the incident, began streaming on Peacock in July 2021. Legacy Surgery Center in Frisco (now Frisco Ambulatory Surgery Center). But when he awoke and was experiencing extreme pain, Dr. Duntsch said that surgery had been a success and there had been no complications. 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 "malice"that is, the hospital knew of the extreme risk and ignored itin credentialing a doctor. He will not be eligible for parole until 2045, when he will be 74-years-old. Kirby arrived and transferred Glidewell to a top-tier hospital to perform an emergency operation to remove the sponge. Plans start at $4.99/month. His CV also conveyed he earned a Ph.D. in microbiology from St. Jude Children's Research Hospitals, graduating summa cum laude. Dhruv Trivedi. Over this period, Duntsch performed back surgeries that left his patients in a worse condition, paralyzed, or deceased. He died in 2021 of an infection related to complications from Duntsch's operation. Advertisements. Duntsch operated and flew out to Las Vegas without securing a call physician. Jeff Glidewell came across Dr. Christopher Duntsch in 2013 while searching for a neurosurgeon . Dr. He was held in the Dallas County jail for almost two years until the case went to trial in 2017. [4], Upon applying for work, he looked extremely qualified on paper: he had spent a total of fifteen years in training (medical school, residency and fellowship), and his curriculum vitae was twelve single-spaced pages. He also reported shooting pains throughout his body. He then packed it with too much of a substance intended to stop the bleeding. [4] Duntsch also claimed to have graduated magna cum laude from St. Jude Childrens Research Hospital with a doctorate in microbiology a program that the hospital did not offer at the time he allegedly attended. But, she never reported Duntsch up the ladder or told anyone about the horrors she witnessed in the operating room. [4][49], Last edited on 14 February 2023, at 04:48, University of Tennessee Health Science Center, Baylor Scott & White Medical Center Plano, Texas District and County Attorneys Association, "Dr. Duntsch defense expert: "The only way this happens is the entire system fails the patients", "Plano Doctor Suspended After Two Patient Deaths", "Former Neurosurgeon Faces Life In Prison After Guilty Verdict", "What Was Dr. Christopher Duntsch's Background And Why Were People So Impressed With The Man Later Known As 'Dr. He remained there for several months before being allowed to return to the residency. Passmore had a herniated disc in his lower spine pressing on a nerve causing him pain. Dr. Duntsch assured Muse that the pain was normal and prescribed him, strong pain killers, causing him to spiral into an addiction. She also said they snorted cocaine from a small pile he kept on a dresser in his home office. During surgery, Duntsch operated on the wrong part of Fennell's back. 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. 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. Kirby warned him again that it was only a matter of time. On top of this, he misspelled both Kukekov and Ignatova's names. It was determined during the repair surgery that Dr. Duntsch had not even been operating on the correct part of Jeff Glidewell's spine. She was moved to the ICU and died due to blood loss. He is not eligible for parole until 2045; he will be 74 years old by then. In 2005, partway through the six-year program, he became the director of the tissue bank. Cheney recalled wondering why a neurosurgeon with such outstanding credentials would be operating at a lower-tiered hospital on the way to his surgery. For the last three days, jurors listened to testimony in the . Donald Duntsch was a gridiron football standout in Montana, and . [9][10], Duntsch had severed Brown's vertebral artery, and refused to abort despite the massive blood loss. He was told he would never be able to walk again. He graduated from a top-tier medical school, was running research labs, and completed a residency program for neurosurgery. 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. Dr. Death is based on the podcast of the same name, produced by Wondery. And its all because of one surgeon named Christopher Duntsch a.k.a. Baylor suspended Duntsch, pictured, for a month. Left: WFAA-TV, Right: D MagazineLeft: Christopher Duntsch in surgery, Right: Christopher Duntschs mugshot. The criminal conviction of Christopher Duntsch, MD, PhD, holds important lessons for risk managers. Boop said that Duntsch spent his final year as an attending physician and could not operate independently. His older son had been born back when he was at Baylor Plano. However, on January 6, 2012, a week after the surgery, Dr. Duntsch performed another operation on Passmore. Duntsch moved to Denver, Colorado, and went into a downward spiral. July 14, 2021. He was nicknamed Dr. D. and Dr. Death for malpractice resulting in the maiming of several patients and killing two of them while working at hospitals in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex. Unfortunately, when Fennell woke up from surgery, he was paralyzed from the waist down. Duntsch told Mayfield's wife it went well, but she instantly knew something was wrong as she walked into his room. Page opened a desk drawer and saw a mirror with a pile of cocaine and a rolled-up dollar bill on top. Donald Duntsch was a gridiron football standout in Montana, and Christopher was determined to follow in those footsteps. [13] In 2010, Duntsch moved to Dallas. Dr. Death in surgery. In March, the following spring, police were called to a bank in Northeast Dallas after a man with blood on his hands and face was seen beating on the doors. February 22, 2017. Wendy Renee Young was romantically involved with Texas physician Christopher Duntsch, who became known as "Dr . If Baylor Plano or Dallas Medical had reported him to the Texas Medical Board or the National Practitioner Databank, hiring personnel would have been notified something was wrong. Christopher Duntsch Early Life Story, Family Background and Education. 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. He added that many board members found it hard to believe that a trained surgeon could be as incompetent as Duntsch appeared to be.[9]. Having exhausted his football eligibility, Duntsch decided to switch to a career in medicine. Robert Lowes. Even though he lived in Colorado, he returned to Dallas to see his two sons. 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. Now, his time at the university . However, the surgery had to be moved to November 14 because Duntsch had failed to order the appropriate surgical hardware and equipment. He said, "Randy, you were right. "[32][9] ADA Michelle Shughart, who led the prosecution of Duntsch, later recalled that Henderson, Kirby, and Lazar contacted her demanding to testify against Duntsch; according to Shughart, doctors almost never testify against each other. Nicknamed "Dr. Death," the story of Duntsch's egregious medical crimes and the healthcare system that failed so many by allowing him to practice received the podcast treatment in 2018 from Wondery, the team behind "Dirty John.". Trusty would later find out there was no award and it had just been a paid advertisement. By the end of the week, administrators told Duntsch he would no longer be operating at Dallas Medical Center. Now, a podcast called Dr. Death is breaking down the deranged surgeon's criminal acts and shows how drug abuse and blinding overconfidence led to big trouble for the patients who found themselves underneath the spiraling doctor's knife.. She says she even filed a temporary protective order against him in April 2012, after he showed up banging on her window at 2 am. He was brilliant. Duntsch's defense blamed their client's actions on poor training and lack of hospital oversight. Brown was left in a coma for hours before Duntsch finally acquiesced to her transfer. In his first surgery after his suspension lifted, he nicked the vertebral artery of Kellie Martin, a 55-year-old Garland woman. Chahadeh was worried about his facility and getting sued by Duntsch; he said to Dr. Kirby that they had already given him privileges. They met with an assistant DA but got little traction. During a deposition, Megan Krane recalled Duntsch eating a paper blotter of LSD and taking prescription painkillers on his birthday. Im the only clean minimally invasive guy in the whole state.. Officers took him to a nearby psychiatric hospital. [11] Several of his friends recalled him going to work after a night of doing drugs, with one of them saying he would never allow Duntsch to operate on him. August 28, 2013, 2:01 . Mayfield was taken to a different hospital and told his spinal cord had already been deformed, and the damage was irreversible. Before the surgery, Kirby related that Duntsch said he was the best spine surgeon in Dallas and the only spine surgeon trained in minimally invasive spine surgery. By this time, Duntsch was almost penniless, and the judge had to appoint a lawyer for him. Soon after starting Efurd's surgery, Duntsch turned to Kissinger and told him he would be performing a craniotomy on Floella Brown. However, he sewed up Glidewell with the sponge still in place despite others in the operating room warning him about it. It was. He is very caring and took the time to help me understand my pain issues. Jerry Summers, who grew up with Christopher Duntsch in Tennessee, was left a quadriplegic after agreeing to let "Dr. Death" operate on his neck. For 33 patients of Texas neurosurgeon Christopher Duntsch, it was a reality. Three holes had been poked into Efurd's spinal column where Duntsch had tried and failed to insert screws. When he called Duntsch's office, he was told it would "go away." "It's a miracle," she said in the infomercial later promoted on his website. [7] He likened what he found when he opened Efurd up to the results of a child playing with Tinkertoys or an erector set. [4] Mayfield died of COVID-19 in February 2021; according to his wife, he had been vulnerable to the virus due to complications caused by Duntsch's botched surgeries. [9] Duntsch's defense blamed their client's actions on poor training and lack of oversight by the hospitals. His sophomore year, he made it as one of the few walk-on players. Duntsch stuffed a surgical sponge in Glidewell's throat to stanch the bleeding. When Duntsch finally returned on Monday, he was fired. Duntsch, 40 at that time, bought an appletini for Young, 27, and they started their relationship. Where is Kim Morgan Now? Duntsch told his friends and family that Passmore would be fine in a day or two and to not worry about it. According to court documents, surgeons at the Minimally Invasive Spine Institute soon grew suspicious of Duntsch. 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. On November 7, 2011, Dr. Duntsch was scheduled to perform his first surgery at Baylor Plano on Kenneth Fennell for his back pain. Link your TV provider to stream full episodes and live TV. Duntsch suggested drilling a hole in Brown's head to relieve the pressure, but was refused permission. Former neurosurgeon Christopher Duntsch is one of the most infamous doctors ever brought to trial in a criminal case, and with good reason. A disc in his lower spine had blown out, and the pieces had to be picked out of the space above. As he lay there in agony, Duntsch was nowhere to be found. If you had back pain, and had tried everything else, Dr. Duntsch could give you the spine surgery that would take your pain away. At one point, an assisting surgeon named Dr. Hoyle observed Duntsch performing such alarming and erratic behavior; he grabbed his hands and pleaded with him to stop. In 2006, Duntsch teamed up with two Russian stem cell scientists: Valery Kukekov and Tatyana Ignatova. There were two names on the top page: Kellie Martin and Christopher Duntsch. He was left with only one vocal cord, permanent damage to his esophagus, and partial paralysis on his left side.