His defence team argued that he was merely a bad surgeon, not a criminal. Prosecutors began looking into the allegations against Duntsch, and in July 2015 charged him with five counts of aggravated assault and one count of injury to an elderly person related to Efurd’s surgery.ĭuntsch’s trial revolved around the latter charge. After a months-long investigation, Duntsch’s licence to practise medicine was permanently revoked. Two physicians, Dr Randall Kirby and Dr Robert Henderson (portrayed respectively in Peacock’s adaptation by Christian Slater and Alec Baldwin), worked to keep Duntsch from performing surgeries, alerting the state medical board. “It was as if he knew everything to do,” Henderson told ProPublica of Duntsch, “and then he’d done virtually everything wrong.” In July 2012, Duntsch performed surgery on Mary Efurd, a woman in her seventies who lost mobility and was left needing a wheelchair after the procedure. Another, Kellie Martin, bled to death after a botched procedure. Jerry Summers, a friend of Duntsch’s, was left unable to move from the neck down after Duntsch operated on him. I am 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 operated on patients who came to him often with chronic pain issues, eyebrows were raised along the way, including from fellow surgeons who were surprised or shocked during his procedures, but the system didn’t provide any efficient way to hold Duntsch accountable.Īlso in 2011, court testimony would later reveal, Duntsch wrote to his assistant and ex-girlfriend in an email: “Unfortunately, you cannot understand that I am building an empire and I am so far outside the box that the Earth is small and the sun is bright. Quickly, the pattern that would go on to define his career emerged. He first found employment as a practicing physician in Texas in 2011. For a few years, he worked at a company focused on cell-based therapy. He graduated from the University of Tennessee at Memphis College of Medicine with an MD as well as a PhD. It was then, according to ProPublica, that he started focusing on the medical field. He operated on his own friend and surgically detached his spinal column from the base of his skull, effectively decapitating him and leaving him paralysed from the neck down,” GQ listed.Ĭhristopher Duntsch in a photo provided by the Dallas County Jail (Dallas County Jail via AP)ĭuntsch made some progress but lost his eligibility to play football after enrolling at University of Memphis, having transferred through multiple universities. “He sewed up one man’s throat with a bloody sponge inside. It investigates his personal life and questions the system that let him go seemingly undetected for years. The first season consists of 10 episodes that explore Duntsch’s background as well as his medical career. GQ called it “the scariest podcast of the year”, deeming it “almost too difficult to listen to”. Two of his patients died at least two others now need wheelchairs after losing mobility.ĭuntsch’s story was first told in a podcast – also titled Dr Death – released in September 2018 by Wondery, a studio now owned by Amazon. Duntsch has been accused of injuring 33 patients during surgeries. Joshua Jackson stars as Duntsch, now 50 and serving a life sentence after being convicted in 2017 of maiming one of his patients. Dr Death, a new show coming to Peacock on Thursday (15 July), is based on the real-life story of Christopher Duntsch, a former neurosurgeon who was – as one ProPublica headline famously put it – “so bad it was criminal”.
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