He wrote, "You will not find a harder working or more willing individual." Days after Duntsch returned, he was fired. And there were plenty of other signs as well. In reality, he makes everything so, so much worse. At Baylor Regional Medical Center,after botched surgeries and complaints from fellow doctors, Duntsch resigned. Duntsch's initial presentation bowled him over. Many shake and tremble, some have unimaginable pain. In an article in Texas Observer,author SaulElbein says that one of the doctors he spoke to likened Duntsch to Hannibal Lecter three times in eight minutes. Brings new meaning to the phrase Sunday Funday. The nerve root had been amputated. The damage is irreversible. Hoyles job was to cut Passmore open and sew him up, and on December 30, 2011, he made a small incision just above the 36-year-olds groin and moved the blood vessels and organs out of the way, allowing Duntsch clear access to the lower spine to remove a herniated disc. Summers died a few months ago, in February 2021, after getting an infection connected to the botched surgery from Duntsch that left him a quadriplegic. The door opened and Young found Duntsch, who had earned the moniker Dr. He alleged that Duntsch promised to pay him in stocks and out of his own salary but failed to follow through. Nerve pain now fires through his back, the result of a screw lodged in a nerve bundle. He has left a novels worth of defenses on the web, in PDFs, and in comments below news stories. He later told Duntsch to his face that he was dangerous. I thought it was pretty amazing that he was even able to go to work the next day, she said in the deposition. No such thing. Dr. Death is now also going to be a TV show with Christian Slater and Alec Baldwin playing main roles. Im the only clean minimally invasive guy in the whole state. Thats according to Dr. Mark Hoyle, who was the general surgeon during Passmores surgery. Somebody knocks back and I am like Who in the f---is in my house, Young recalled in the four-part Peacock docuseries, (And if you want to dive even deeper into the story, you can also watch the scripted drama, on Peacock, starring Joshua Jackson, Alec Baldwin, and Christian Slater. At University General Hospital, Kirby had been granted emergency privileges to operate on a Duntsch patient named Jeffery Glidewell. Before he cheated, before he lied. It's thrilling if uncomfortable to listen. The University of Tennessee refused to comment on grounds of confidentiality, but neurosurgeon Dr. Frederick Boop, under whom Duntsch completed his residency, knew. Dr. Christopher Duntsch, better known as Doctor Death, is serving a life sentence at a Texas prison today. He harmed the very people who trusted him. According to him, Duntsch had a "great work ethic" and no areas of weakness. He was the eldest of four. His emails were crazy, Van Wey recalled in the docuseries. Joshua Jackson stars as Dr. Christopher Duntsch, a twisted neurosurgeon who goes on a malpractice rampage in the halls of the hospitals that are inattentive and neglectful enough to employ him . Becker's Hospital Review covered the 13 worst physicians of 2017, as named by Medscape. This very friend would later end up a quadriplegic under Duntsch's weapon of a scalpel. Or, they should be: the scientists names are misspelled. I dont know if hes there to harm me or what his true intentions were, she said in the docuseries. This would be the first and last time Hoyle worked next to Duntsch. Duntsch also received 40 percent of all revenue he generated beyond $800,000 each year. Prosecutors used testimony from patients and the doctors who corrected their surgeries to argue that Duntsch's outcomes were more than mere medical error. Around that same time, Duntschs behavior was becoming erratic. During a deposition with Passmores lawyer, attorney James Girards, a woman named Megan Kane recalls Duntsch eating a paper blotter of LSD and taking prescription painkillers on his birthday in either 2006 or 2007. He was the eldest of four. In many ways, Morgan was the opposite of Young. He says Fennells surgery went so well that he agreed to be in a commercial for Baylor Plano. Their trysts were largely confined to his office at Baylor Plano, the same place where, she said in her deposition, he often drank vodka and did research after hours. A few days later, Glidewelldeveloped a serious infection due to the sponge left in his throat. He has taken Baylor Plano to court to change the Texas law requiring patients to prove that a hospital intended to harm them when it granted privileges to someone who was unsafe. 33 of his surgeries went horribly wrong. She was deposed over Skype since, at the time, she was stationed with the Air Force in the Middle East. Kukekov and Ignatova say Duntsch took more credit than he deserved for the discoveries. Whatever happened, he was gone from Minimally Invasive Spine Institutebut not from Baylor Plano. This despite the drug problems as well as incomplete residency training. Most of the time, she said, their relationship was confined to his office. Its accessible only to hospitals, and facilities are federally mandated to report their delinquents. A couple of months later, FloellaBrown came to Duntsch for a cervical fusion to alleviate her neck and shoulder pain. He would climb a ladder and take aerial photos of crime scenes to aid in the death investigation. Duntsch grew up in a middle-class family. There Duntsch secured a job as a minimally invasive spine surgeon at. Duntsch began cheating on. According to an article by WFAA, Christopher Duntsch's father Don stated his son had called him, completely beside himself, when he botched several surgeries. Its less than a millimeter from the spinal canal. The doctor in the strange case is now 50 years old. Hed found a few months that were not accounted for in Duntschs educational history. He wasn't concerned about the drugs in his system while he did his rounds. Was he was only in it for the research prestige and the money? He says that surgery happened earlier in the week, and that it was he who called Rimlawi and asked him to check on the patient. But as Duntsch worked, Hoyle looked over and saw blood and not much else. While staying with his parents outside Denver, he was stopped for driving under the influence. In July 2015, he was indicted by a Dallas County grand jury on six counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon (his hands and surgical tools). Who else is left? Dr Christopher Duntsch is accused of causing agony to countless patients or worse during the three years he practiced medicine in Dallas. My entire house had been turned upside down.. Duntschs reputation took another dive in April of 2015 when he was arrested for shoplifting at a local Walmart. And you are one of the lucky ones." The Hippocratic Oath is sworn by all doctors and binds them to do no harm. But Hoyle says an X-ray later showed it was positioned too far to the left. I dont want to be in your magazine, sir, I apologize, Passmore told me. And yet the actual tragedy is that someone could have stopped it. She says she never saw him drunk or high or suffering from withdrawal symptoms. Six weeks after her death on March 12, 2012, the medical examiner ruled her fate an accident. An incredibly difficult thing to prove. Duntsch was taken to jail for what Young referred to as a time out but his erratic behavior wouldnt end there. They described him as the bright, precocious little boy who had taken. Duntsch contends the patient was just trying to get painkillers. I dont know if hes there to harm me or what his true intentions were, Wendy Young said of the harrowing alleged encounter with Christopher Duntsch. He rode the desk until he couldnt, when things in the county got too busy and all the examiners were required to take calls away from the office to cover the 200-odd scene visits. Duntsch had allegedly tried to steal the pair of pants by changing into the new pair in a Wal-Mart dressing room and placing his own pants into the shopping cart. Wendy Young knew her ex-boyfriend Christopher Duntschs medical career was unraveling, but she wasnt prepared for what she said was his bizarre behavior that coincided with his fall from grace as a surgeon. Something was wrong, one lawsuit alleges, whether it be impairment from drugs, alcohol, mental illness, or a combination of all three. His first and only surgery with Minimally Invasive Spine Institute was on a Thursday at Baylor Plano. No autopsy was done (at the familys request) but it is well-documented that the stroke was due to a left vertebral artery injury due to Dr. Duntschs horrendous surgical technique, wrote surgeon Randall Kirby in a letter to the Texas Medical Board. An "In Memoriam" tribute for him is shown at the end of the final episode of the Peacock series. Yet, instead of saving lives and using his knowledge for good, the opposite happened. She had family in Dallas and decided shed go with him if he chose that city. Now, one of the several complaints against the . GQ calls it the scariest podcast of 2019. They described him as the bright, precocious little boy who had taken. Duntsch's resume shows a doctorate in microbiology from the St. Jude Children'sResearch Hospital. Next week marks the five-year anniversary of Texas neurosurgeon Christopher Duntsch being sentenced to life in prison. You, my child, are the only one between me and the other side, he wrote. The civil attorneys in these cases were able to land a rather damning e-mail sent from Duntsch to his girlfriend/physical assistant.The girlfriend was Kimberly Morgan, and in the e-mail to her, the ramblings of a mind gone wrong are clear. Duntsch grew up in a middle-class family. She told D Magazine they named the boys Aiden and Preston. Unequivocally, testified an expert witness, a neurosurgeon should stop practicing after incurring multiple patient deaths and severe outcomes. Duntsch had moved from the W to Hotel Zaza and then, finally, to a five-bedroom house not far from the hospital. She says he was prone to hyperbole, and, yeah, he had a questionable sense of humor. As the eldest of four, his parents remember him as a precocious boy. She passedfromblood loss in the ICU. Prodigal Son actress Molly Griggs takes on the role of Wendy Young, who was Duntsch's girlfriend and is the mother of his kids. ), The door opened and Young found Duntsch, who had earned the moniker, The encounter was just one of a series of troubling incidents after Duntschwho, once referred to himself as a mixture of God, Einstein and the Antichrist, Photo: Not long after, Young said Duntsch broke into her apartment for the first time. She had brown hair, parted near the middle, that fell just below her shoulders. "You don't know this yet, but you will never walk again. Soon though, red flags began to pop up. And professional marketing videos got him ready and willing patients. This was the time when Dr. Christopher Duntsch started to turn intoDr. Death. The arrest report says that he was driving on two flat tires, and one was completely gone and was on the rim. Officers found an empty bottle of Mikes Hard Lemonade on the floorboard and a full one in the console. Christopher Duntsch was just a regular guy who became Dr. Death after he decided to be a neurosurgeon. He told Morgan that Young, who was pregnant at the time with their first son, was his close friend and secretary. I dont know what it is, she said. Don tried to convince the jury that his son cared for his patients. The 43-year-old new dad, who welcomed his first child with wife Jodie Turner-Smith last year, brought his WB experience to portray the charming aspect of the surgeon, as the other characters often call him on the show. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). Philip is one of more than 30 people maimed by Dr. Christopher Duntsch, nicknamed Dr. Death by the media. It was the same with Dallas Medical Center where hedid not face any action. For the DA though she proved to be a good witness. Duntsch's license was finally revoked in June 2013, after he had killed two patients and maimed 31 others. According to Dallas Magazine, Dr. Christopher Duntsch talked a big game. Duntsch then joined Dallas Medical Center. She arrived brain-dead. Britney Spears claims she was 'scared of drunk dad Jamie' & family 'abandoned her to stay in beach house SHE bought', RHOBH's Erika Jayne breaks down in tears & admits she's 'lonely' after friends 'turned on her' when she went 'broke', Kendall Jenner stuns in an all-black gothic look for glam new photoshoot, Russell Brand defends his dog after pooch mauled wallaby to death on walk, Why odd double act Kim Kardashian and Kate Moss are in fact a perfect match, Teen Mom Leah Messer shows stretch marks on tummy after giving birth to three kids & reveals if she'll get a tummy tuck, Duntsch, 50, was convicted of a first-degree felony. It had come from Baylor Regional Medical Center at Plano. A bold pronouncement, yet after just one sloppy, dangerous surgery, Hoyle vowednever to work with Duntsch again. She also never reported Duntsch up the ladder. Since no one else knew what was wrong, they couldn't save her. There was Floella Brown, whose sliced vertebral artery triggered the stroke that killed her at Dallas Medical Center. Coverage of the latest true crime stories and famous cases explained, as well as the best TV shows, movies and podcasts in the genre. Duntsch soon appeared and tried to calm them, assuring them that Passmore would be fine in one or two days. Duntsch harmed many of his patients, including his childhood friend Jerry Summers. Summers declined an interview in Memphis and would not answer questions on the phone. One such recommendation came from the surgeon under whom Duntsch completed his residency, Dr. Frederick Boop. Last week, she had her third child, this one with her new partner. Out of his 38 surgeries, only three had no complications. To fellow surgeon Mark Hoyle, he said, "Everybody's doing it wrong. He kept a handle of Stoli under his desk and said it was because he used to work with Russians. Anton Floquet/NBCUniversal, I knocked on my door. In September, according to police reports . (Neither responded to requests for comment for this story.) When the Texas Medical Board revoked his license, Duntsch's reign of surgical terror had run its course. DR Death, Peacocks new limited series starring Joshua Jackson, is based on a true story, and we have your look at photos comparing the cast with their real-life counterparts. The operation continued. Christopher Duntsch has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. He broke into her home a second time in the incident where he was covered in blood and also allegedly began harassing personal injury attorney Kay Van Wey, who represented many of his former patients, in a series of rambling emails. Christopher Duntsch didn't. Sign up forOxygen Insiderfor all the best true crime content. These medical professionals do irreparable harm to their patients. But before he left, he happened to see a fax come in to the medical examiners office. Life After "Death": Lethal Surgeon Sentenced to PrisonWATCH NEXT: Attorney who represented Dr. Duntsch's patients discusses her cases (3 of 5) https://youtu.. After this late-night party,Duntsch went to work the next morning. But Morguloffs suit describes him being in excruciating pain and telling nurses that his pain was a 10 on a scale of 1 to 10. Michael Rimlawi and Douglas Wonthe pair then owned the Minimally Invasive Spine Institute in North Dallasrecruited him from Memphis to join the practice. In April 2015, he was arrested for stealing $887.30 in Walmart merchandise: five pairs of sunglasses, five watches, two pairs of shoes, four ties, two briefcases, a wallet, cologne, necklaces, a walkie-talkie. They'd requested an investigation into his matter, deeming him to be a threat to the general public. He grew up in a middle-class suburb with a teacher mom and a missionary/physical therapist dad. Christopher Duntsch was born in Montana and spent most of his youth in Memphis, Tennessee. We need to talk about this, Hoyle said, locking eyes with him. And scary as it may seem, it's only when we listen to podcasts like these, do we realize the reality of medical horror stories. The Accreditation Council of Graduate Medical Education has strict rules about residency programs. Finally, it was the Texas Medical Board (TMB) that acted too late, too little. Duntsch is now living out his life behind bars, but Young told CNBC'sAmerican Greed earlier this year that the former neurosurgeon still regularly talks with his two young sons. He lost everything, so having to face the reality was very hard for him.. He met Duntsch that day in the physician lounge at Baylor Regional Medical Center at Plano, where the operation occurred. This could be path-breaking in the future ofcancer treatment andDr. Duntsch sniffed out the opportunity right away. She fell pregnant with their first son, Aiden, not long after that. After youve spent a night using cocaine, most people become paranoid and want to stay in the house. Governor Greg Abbott, then the attorney general, even waded into the whole mess, filing a brief in Passmores suit in support of the law. The first of these had been college football. She was also present for Summers operation. Joshua Jackson as Dr. Christopher Duntsch Asked if he had a chance to meet with Duntsch, who's now serving a life sentence for maiming Mary Efurd during what should have been routine surgery,. Unfortunately, it became the patients' burden to bear. At Health Grades Duntsch had 4.3 out of 5 stars, "above [the] national average." Don tried to convince the jury that his son cared for his patients. She was a stay-at-home mom to their two children, Preston and Aiden; her income was tied to Duntschs. Hes alive. And so shes here, in a Christian coffee shop tucked into a corner of the town square of Springtown, west of Fort Worth, where she lives with her new boyfriends parents. With such goings-on, Duntsch got himself kicked out of his own company. They turned around, away from the yelling. Martin paid with her lifebecause her doctor was too proud to say he screwed up. Duntsch, again, maintains this wasnt true. Duntsch filed patents for each discovery, and two companies were soon created. Baylor calls the allegations against it extremely frustrating and difficult and reiterates that Duntsch came with references from multiple sources who worked with him in his residency and fellowship training programs., To put these misleading allegations into fair context, Baylor Plano is part of a hospital system that has made substantial investments over several decades to continuously enhance the quality of care we provide our patients, and we have gained many recognitions for these processes. The Staircase (The O.G.). Death: The Undoctored Story, available to stream now. And yet, the names of the latter are incorrect and misspelled. On average, a neurosurgeon generates more revenue for a hospital than all other specialties but invasive cardiology and orthopedic surgery. But upon seeing that name, he took it to his boss, Dr. William Rohr. Seven more doctors voiced complaints before TMB finally canceled Dr. Death's license. He secured investments in Discgenics from local spine surgeons, including Robertson and Dr. Kevin Foley, a prominent Memphis neurosurgeon under whom Duntsch would spend a year training as part of a minimally invasive spine surgery fellowship at the Semmes-Murphey Clinic, one of the largest neurosurgery practices in the United States. Today, Duntsch is serving a life imprisonment term in a Texas prison, and he's now the subject of an NBC Peacock netstreaming series featuring some big-name, A . Passmore later learned that a ligament in his leg had been severed. According to court documents, Rimlawi soon grew suspicious of Duntsch. After graduating as a physician with above-average grades, he had his whole life ahead of him. Namely, that hed been up all night snorting eight balls of cocaine (3.5 grams each) with Duntsch. But that isn't the scariest part. Shes 33 now and doesnt live in Dallas anymore. St. Jude says there was no such program at the hospital at that time. I dont want to be on Channel 8, I dont want to be on Inside Edition. For the last three days, jurors listened to testimony in the . Summers had come in for an elective spinal fusion to relieve the pain hed carried for years after a car accident. He signed a physician services agreement on May 24, 2011, with Rimlawi and Wons Minimally Invasive Spine Institute. It might be Baylor, it might be somebody down in Austin, it might be somebody somewhere, but its the only way you can get your voice out there. He argues that the patients were just telling stories and that Passmore was fine after his operation. Creating cells from a culture would eliminate the need for human extraction; there was huge potential upside. Young let him buy her an appletini, and they hit it off. If he could do 50Shades of Grey and some scandalous modeling, playing a menacing Dr. Death should be a piece of cake, right? But Dr. William Rohr did editorialize in his conclusion: The collection of blood was most likely the result of a therapeutic misadventure. Duntsch blames the death on an allergy to fentanyl, a powerful narcotic often used in intubation. The Dallas County DA, along with fighting against these very laws, was also running out of time. She had clinical experience and often spent time with Duntsch when he was conducting research. Kukekov had discovered stem cells in human brain tumors, which presented a huge potential for the development of new cancer drugs. Portrayed in the Peacock miniseries, "Dr. Death," the Dallas spinal surgeon is responsible for helping stop Dr. Christopher Duntsch, who was sentenced to life in prison in 2017 after leaving . The real question isn't why Dr. Duntsch did what he did. is a beautiful and populous city located in Montana U.S. . According to Young, there was even a ransom note for her and her two children written in blood. Wendy Renee Young says she met Duntsch in 2011 at the Beauty Shopin Memphis, a bar and restaurant that borrowed its shtick from its past life as a curl-and-dye shop owned by Elvis Presleys ex-wife. He was later sentenced to 120 days in jail for the attempted theft, according to court documents obtained by Oxygen.com. Foley said Duntsch was satisfactory in his fellowship, that he saw no evidence of the things he was accused of in Dallas happening in Memphis. On July 1, 2011, Duntsch and Baylor Plano agreed to an inducement deal. I have taken one selfie in my lifeon a dare. When he finally came to the hospital, he busied himself with another patient, also on the DA's list, Mary Efurd. 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. In Dallas, Duntsch developed a reputation of frequenting upscale bars and hotels where he partied with his lifelong best friend and personal assistant, Jerry Summers. Boop told Henderson that Duntsch had been sent to an impaired physician program when he refused to take a drug test after an anonymous woman called to say she had seen him use cocaine, but he had been allowed to return to finish his residency. What made him cause damage, trauma and even death to his patients? His screams poured out of Baylor Planos intensive care unit and down the hallway, creating a panic in his mother. Thats dangerouseven that attitude is dangerous. Duntsch relented, allowing Hoyle to move in, stop the bleeding, and clean out the wound. Why else would his daughter have sent Duntsch a card thanking him? Multiple lawsuits allege that Baylor did not report Duntsch to the National Practitioner Data Bank, which was created by Congress to be a private clearinghouse of physicians who have been suspended or had their privileges revoked. Not a single doctor, surgeon, staff, or the pathologist of the autopsy every [sic] stated that I surgically caused vascular injury, he wrote. I cant write on this form, Oh, by the way, I heard from Dr. Henderson about what sounds like major patient issues that you ought to look into, Foley said in the call. Unlike a TV series where you get to see the character,a podcast is darker. Martin was his first patient back, and it was the last operation he performed at that hospital. On April 20, Duntsch submitted a letter to Baylor Planos medical staff services director, Patricia Sproles, saying he was moving his practice and resigning his clinical privileges. On paper, the 40-year-old man who arrived in Dallas in the summer of 2011 was a completely different Christopher Duntsch than the one who was introduced to the public after more than a dozen. Meanwhile, his patients kept suffering, and dying, in his OR. According to Duntsch's colleagueDr. Randall Kirby, Glidewell's procedure was so botched that"Duntsch was forcibly restrained from continuing the surgery by the [operating room] team.". The full story of Duntsch's actions can be read in Matt Goodman's D Magazine feature from 2016, when the magazine first coined him "Dr. Death.". But Young said Duntsch wasnt happy at the news of another baby and the couple got into a heated argument, during which Duntsch admitted to seeing other women. He ran two labs, is listed as one of three inventors on a successful patent, raised millions of dollars in grant funding, and once gave a tour to the governor of Tennessee as he explained the stem cell research occurring at the university. There was Duntschs childhood friend, Jerry Summers, who woke up from a procedure unable to move his arms and legs. His dad is a physical therapist. As these cases became public record, rumors circulated of late-night partying leading into early-morning rounds, and whispers of drug and alcohol abuse became shouts. The 30 Rock alum also heads up the cast of the Peacock series as a doctor, though he plays one of the surgeons working to take Duntsch down. Passmore, an investigator by trade and by nature, started digging. Robot, True Romance, Very Bad Things, and Robot Chicken. While the school refused to verify or deny his claims, he wasn't in any of the yearbooks of that time. According to an arrest report obtained by the outlet, he had been driving on two flat fires and had two empty bottles of Mikes Hard Lemonade in the vehicle. At the time, Kane was dating Jerry Summer, a childhood friend of Duntsch. I still dont know the answer.. A neurosurgeon reviewing the case for the court found an errant screw had not only opened Brown's arterybut blocked it, and that Duntsch hadmisdiagnosed Brown, operating on the wrong area entirely. It wasnt his invention, Kukekov says. Duntsch was also arrested for driving under the influence while staying with his parents in Colorado and found himself in handcuffs another time in April of 2015 after he was arrested for stealing $887.30 in Walmart merchandise, according to the D Magazine. No spam, ever. They numbed the pain radiating from his lower back, down each of his legs. And, seeing as how the hospital was asking specifically about that training, Foley said he didnt feel comfortable expressing concern about what hed heard was happening in Dallas.
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