And what happened after shows how Duntsch was able to continue working as a surgeon in Texas, despite the trail of broken trust, chronic pain and death he left behind. I limited myself to those emails that were produced as evidence in the trial, because the D.A. One patient, a childhood friend of Duntschs, went in for a spinal operation with someone he trusted and woke up a quadriplegic after the doctor damaged his vertebral artery. When you visit this site, it may store or retrieve information on your browser, mostly in the form of cookies. And I need to think of it, not as a patient, but as a customer, which is a very difficult thing because you're in an extremely vulnerable place anytime you're interacting with the medical system. By the time we get to Jeff Glidewell, its horrible. The podcast is also becoming the go-to medium for in-depth profiles of fascinating sociopaths, allowing us to marvel at the sheer breadth of human behavior as we go about our mundane daily drive to work or do chores around the house. But I think, it is good. JACKSON: We were bouncing between time periods a lot. He was charming. Since sentencing, Christopher Duntsch has been serving time at the O.B. And so, that was one of my goals to start out with, is to just report the hell out of it. Left: WFAA-TV, Right: D MagazineLeft: Christopher Duntsch in surgery, Right: Christopher Duntschs mugshot. Duntsch had his surgical rights temporarily suspended after his botched surgery on Summers and his first patient back was 55-year-old Kellie Martin. Because whether it be a hospital network, whether it be a medical board, whether it be the legal system, it doesn't actually place the little guy first. The first one is the most graphic. And so, one of the overriding things is that when he was at a hospital and it would become apparent how incompetent he was, the hospital would let him go, but they wouldnt do it in such a way that would warn everybody else. 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. Dr Death Christopher Duntsch's late patient Jerry Summers claims killer He joined the publication in 2021 on the crime beat. And by not stopping a narcissistic sociopath, you're encouraging a narcissistic sociopath. Because how can I do anything I want and cross every discipline boundary like its a playground and never ever lose. Naysha Lopez hilariously previews 'fashion' and 'some ugly stuff' on, Kandy Muse will be 'the main character' of. I have three lawsuits. I didnt take them as funny, I took them as really creepy though. Were there any surgeries that he actually did correctly? He was affable. The former American neurosurgeon was convicted for gross malpractice of maiming . Out of his 38 surgeries, only three had no complications. So it has to be taught through generations. 'When They See Us': Joshua Jackson, Blair Underwood & Christopher Jackson on the Netflix Limited Series, 'Dr. How much of a gift was it to have characters like the ones Alec Baldwin and Christian Slater play, to basically serve as protagonists? Was there anything that was particularly hard not to include? Death' Before 33 Operations Went Wrong, The True Story Behind Hulu's 'Boston Strangler', The Best True Crime Documentaries to Stream Now, Get a First Look at Joshua Jackson, Christian Slater in 'Dr. You have to be very careful with that. And theyre great at Wondery, and theyre really good at doing what they do. How much of his crazy emails and phone messages did you have to throw out in order to focus on the main story? But the path to that point was a long one made difficult by the systems put in place to protect doctors and the institutions they work for, not the patients. He stayed in New York while everyone else went home. You can find out more and change our default settings with Cookies Settings. My instinct was that the only way, that this man has to be evil, because there has to be a reason why all of this spectacularly bad stuff happened and the simplest and easiest answers he's evil. Sign up for PEOPLE's free True Crime newsletter for breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases. We've told lots and lots and lots of our stories. KEEP READING: 'Dr. Caroline is a writer and Florida-transplant currently living in New York City. And so, there were times that I would say, Do we really need to have ? And they were open to it all. The first season of Dr. Death, which launched in 2018 and ran for seven episodes, examined the life and horrific crimes of Christopher Duntsch. That it needs to be noted that like, well, you can only give these ladies so many slots. So, he would have the title of neurosurgeon, but he wouldnt actually have to do surgery. But there would be certain things that I would hear and like and not like. I don't think anybody but Christopher Duntsch can answer that question. Im the only clean minimally invasive guy in the whole state.. I realized what he really had to offer. And that's frankly what I found so compelling about the character is that it's not easy. I did talk to as many of his high school friends as I could. I was gifted the opportunity to tell it. And by bringing him into the center portion of the story, you essentially are asking the audience to have compassion or empathy for him, to understand him. Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Duntsch took careful steps to put across the image of a hardworking, competent and caring person and doctor. Copyright 2023 Meredith Corporation. 5 years after 'Dr. Death,' doctors still come to Texas to leave pasts The question of how Duntsch was able to operate with impunity for so longwhen surrounded by many people who tried to raise the alarm and faileddrives Dr. Death, which jumps across time in each episode to show what the doctor was like as a young man, friend and medical student, and then later as a surgeon, a partner and a father. But more importantly, he explained how he got inside the head of a man who it would be all-too-easy to write off as pure evil. this link is to an external site that may or may not meet accessibility guidelines. You just reminded me, that was another danger that we were really grappling with. In the meantime, prosecutors were working with Kirby and Henderson to find a way to indict Duntscha challenge, considering Texas had never previously handled such a case. So the Canadian system is very different than the American system. I can tell you that I do believe that he was a product of nature, nurture and the system that enabled him to be able to do what he did. Ellis Unit outside of Huntsville,Texas. He had 15 years of medical training under his belt, his CV reportedly spanned 12 single-spaced pages and he exuded confidence all of which landed him a job performing minimally invasive spinal surgeries. Thats why we have these hours and hours of tape, but that said, there are a few fundamentals that were wrong. And, that is something that I've talked about dating back three years ago I don't want to undermine whatever modicum of talent that I brought to the table, I definitely don't want to undermine our writers because if it weren't for them, we wouldn't have the show that we have, but it was, in many ways, a ready baked-in story, right? JACKSON: Well, actually, I think it's even one step scarier than that. Right? KEEP READING: 'Dr. Kirby, along with Dr. Robert Henderson (played in the series by Alec Baldwin), a spine surgeon who had been called in to fix Duntschs mistakes, were among the physicians who reported and attempted to stop him. So, in this case, it was just a lot that went wrong, starting with the fact of Duntsch himself. And by doing that, then you also bring in his patients. I had never seen him like that. The Real Story Behind the Dr. Death Podcast - Christopher Duntsch I couldnt go beyond that. We need to actually reform them. And I, as an actor, want to have the ability to work for the whole smorgasbord of humanity as my directors, as my costars, as my writers, because it makes the stories that we're telling more compelling, not less. Who Is Kimberly Morgan, 'Dr. Death' Christopher Duntsch's Assistant He was a character simultaneously familiar but totally unique, a brilliant schemer who was also, even in his late 50s, kind of an idiot slacker like Fatal Attraction meets a Judd Apatow movie. Basically someone listened to Dirty John who knew about the story of Christopher Duntsch emailed in and said, Hey, you should get a load of this guy. Because he had gotten a lot of local media attention, but I dont think he was getting huge national attention. Lets just say that this was a back and forth discussion for a lot of it. In late 2010, Dr. Christopher Duntsch came to Dallas to start a neurosurgery practice. MACMANUS: You said it right there, it was a gift. JACKSON: Well, yeah, it gives you a healthy skepticism. I mean, the guy who you think is guilty from the first episode really is guilty. Scheduling just got in the way there. And it wasnt that each one wasnt a tragedy in and of itself. And I dont know that he really ever even wanted to be a neurosurgeon. More reviews here. Duntsch was offered a $600,000 advance and a temporary suite in a luxury hotel to come to Dallas while the couple searched for a new home in Plano, according to a 2018 "Dr. Death" podcast, which inspired the Peacock series. So my follow-up question to that is how has the show changed your relationship to going to the doctor? Christopher Duntsch may be the most famous neurosurgeon in Texas. They did a lot of cutting to my script, because Im used to print where you can put a few more details in, and you can have a little more have other characters, or other names, or other information in, because when you are reading, if you miss it, you can just go back and check. So, yeah, I think the fact that he was in a profession that brings in a lot of money for hospitals was certainly a factor. Only years later would the Dallas district attorneys office discover through a search of hospital records that although a typical neurosurgery resident completes about 1,000 operations during their training, Duntsch had actually done fewer than 100. He thinks he's the hero of this story. Yeah, I think the fact that he was a neurosurgeon was also a contributor. But there was so much that came together. Right? And so, the producers started Googling and decided that he would make a good story, and then they contacted me because they were looking for a local reporter in Dallas who could work on the story. surgeries in Dallas and Plano in 2012 and 2013, killing or maiming up to 15 patients. 'Dr. Death': AnnaSophia Robb on Playing ADA Michelle Shughart - Newsweek Floella Brown went under Dr. Deaths knife in July 2012 and shortly after her surgery, she suffered a massive stroke caused by Duntsch slicing her vertebral artery during surgery. Theres a lot of attorneys not allowing things in this story it seems like. So the outcomes are totally evil, and it is unconscionable that this man was allowed to continue to create this much chaos and pain in people's lives. But it ominously preceded Duntsch's short, and deadly career as a neurosurgeon in Texas, where prosecutors say he botched 33 of his 38 surgeries in less than two years. Planes crash because lots of smaller things go wrong at the same time. The series, a lightly fictionalized version of the podcast, stars Joshua Jackson as the slick and overconfident Duntsch. That made it easy for him to hide from his past for a certain period of time. Plenty, plenty, plenty, plenty. Of the 37 patients Duntsch operated on in Dallas over about two years, 33 were hurt or harmed in the process. Particularly for Duntsch, because it goes over such a long period of time. While Baylor-Plano conducted an investigation of Duntsch and his cases, and found that he would need to be let go, Duntsch was not technically fired from the hospital. Duntsch declined a reporter's request for a jailhouse interview Tuesday. It was for sure, a team effort, and it was a good team. I do believe he was born as a narcissistic sociopath. This position also granted him operating privileges at Baylor Regional Medical Center (Baylor-Plano). What are the potential pitfalls for you as a reporter? Christopher Duntsch - AKA Dr. Death - spent 18 months as a practicing surgeon at multiple Texas hospitals until he had his license revoked in 2013. 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. 'Grey's Anatomy' Cast: Where Are They Now? Right? Dr. Death (podcast) - Wikipedia Crucially, as is recounted in careful detail in the podcast, in part because of the voluntary exit, Baylor-Plano was not required to report Duntschs actions to the National Practitioner Data Bank, a resource medical professionals and hospital administrators use to track which doctors have been fired, suspended, had their licenses revoked or have had to make malpractice payments. Actually, one thing you asked about, the pitfalls. Some are on the tape, some are not, just for space reasons. had hundreds, but I figured the most important ones were the ones that play a role in the trial. He is absolutely a narcissistic sociopath. So we shot the episodes in three different bricks. After youve spent a night using cocaine, most people become paranoid and want to stay in the house, the woman said in the deposition, according to D Magazine. And also, I knew that I was dealing with a story that probably half the listeners from the first episode were going to Google and find out the end. "License to Kill" and "Botched" host advises on how - YouTube Did you find out if this guy was torturing animals as a child or anything like that? So really for us, we're in a place where we're actually conscious of it, but the industry still has time to go. He was intelligent. So, while I wish that the administrations acted sooner, at the end of the day, and this is something that I've said for quite a bit now, Christopher Duntsch deserves to be in jail for the rest of his life, because how he acted was completely inhuman and any human that had that ability to feel would have stopped after the first or second surgeries. Duntsch is a former Dallas neurosurgeon who, through . And also, to let the tape tell as much of the story as possible. ProPublica reports that Duntsch resigned voluntarily in April 2012. MACMANUS: You know, it's interesting that you asked that question because it was something that we talked about quite a bit, even before we had the writers' room I'm talking three years ago, I think I got the podcast exactly three years ago next week and my answer was that I genuinely don't believe we will ever be able to answer who Christopher Duntsch was and why he was, and it was not my intention, nor was it our writer's intention, once we got to the writers' room, to answer that question in full. Well, it was a team effort. And so, thats really what I zeroed in on, the whole systemic failure that allowed this to happen. In 2011, Jerry agreed to letChristopherperform cervical fusion surgery at Baylor Medical Center in Plano, Texas on him. 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. You can't justit doesn't come out wholly formed. You had people on crutches. What Was 'Dr. Death' Christopher Duntsch's Background? | True Crime Buzz For example, I never knew before I started this that I had such strong feelings about sound effects. 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Christophers late childhood best friend added: Chris was very intrigued with a lot of the stuff going on in my life. Ellis Unit in Huntsville and will be. You had people that could barely move. That was the thing that people around me were really reacting to. The rambling, four-page email,sent Dec. 9, 2011, to an employee with whom Duntsch had a "personal relationship," has been submitted as evidence in Duntsch's criminal case. Prior to serving as Senior TV Editor at Collider, her work had been published by Vulture, Variety, The AV Club, The Hollywood Reporter, IGN, The Verge, and Thought Catalog. I'm going to answer it in a couple of different ways. How did this happen? I was really lucky that the first people to ever call me up and say, Do you want to make a podcast? were really good at it. So, to be able to have someone who a true believer in the system in Henderson play up against somebody who is, for lack of a better or more tropy word, a maverick within the system, in Dr. Kirby, and to have a character like Kirby who infuses humor into everything that he does, the real life character, I think, we underplayed his humor quite frankly, was a blessing or a gift as you say to us as writers. Later, following another accusation that he was abusing drugs before doing surgeries, Duntsch was relegated to mostly minor surgical procedures at the hospital. Christopher Duntsch a.k.a. In the Canadian system, you go for care first, and then you pay a couple of times a year into the system. Fact Check: Was Dr. Oz Responsible for Cruelly Experimenting on Dogs? And never when i not standing there. And its all because of one surgeon named Christopher Duntsch a.k.a. I spoke to her by phone this week about the series itself, and about the challenges of working in a new medium. But at the end of 2012, Kirby was called to help yet another patient whod had her vocal cords and an artery cut during a neck surgerya surgery he discovered had been done by Duntsch at another clinic. Well, thats what takes six episodes to tell. Believe it or not, there was stuff I took out. Were there times when you would look at drafts and be like, "Maybe we should pull back on the administrative stuff?" The system was attracted to his very real charms. 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. [We wanted to profile] enough patients where it was established what he did and the pain he caused, but there was also a danger the only way I know to describe it is a sort of victim fatigue. As long as I could do the reporting and the writing, they were willing to show me the rest, and it worked out great. As those watching the show know, Christopher was dubbed "Dr. Death" in D Magazine for his botched surgeries that caused the death of several patients and left others with disabling injuries. Philip Mayfield, one of Christopher Duntsch's patients, who was paralyzed after his surgery. You can take in more from a printed article. Christopher Daniel Duntsch was born in Montana on April 3, 1971, and raised alongside his three siblings in an affluent suburb of Memphis, Tennessee. The Christopher Duntsch Surgery That Was So Bad One Doctor Called It 'Attempted Murder'. We're moving in the right direction. This attitude and outlook stuck with Duntsch as he set out to achieve something beyond football and landed on surgery. Duntsch declined a reporter's request for a jailhouse interview Tuesday. So many podcast series, from Serial to S-Town to the incomparable In The Dark, set out to solve a mystery. Two patients died from his actions and many more suffered permanent injuries, including his best friend, who left Duntsch's operating room paralyzed. I will not insult our writers when I say that because they elevated everything, but it's one of those stories that you have to be particularly bad to mess up, right? How much do you think that affected Duntschs decision to become a neurosurgeon in the first place? And then in this case, it seems like if there is a mystery its just, what is this guys deal? Jennifer Morrison, I've actually known for a very long time. These are doctors who didn't sign up to become heroes, right? He performed only one surgery with the Minimally Invasive Spine Institute. I needed to establish its not just that he was a little bit bad, he was horrible. "In my opinion, we had a serial killer in our medical community," Dr. Randall Kirby says of Christopher Duntsch in "Dr. Death: The Undoctored Story." In "Dr. Death: The Undoctored Story," a new docuseries streaming now on Peacock, the victims who were . I do medicine and science. Its those two question combined the lurid, unstoppable search for an ultimate motive, and the more concrete question of how the medical system allowed this to happen and how we can fix it that make listening to Dr. Death feel like youre eating cake and taking your medicine at the same time. (He was later let go from the company over money issues). But the meta statement of "my gosh, a show can be shot by three women, who knew" we were 75 years past the place of thinking "can three men shoot a show all by themselves?" I think Patrickhe chose a very difficult path of how to tell this story, particularly by centering Duntsch.