By this time, Duntsch was almost penniless, and the judge had to appoint a lawyer for him. In 2006, Duntsch teamed up with two Russian stem cell scientists: Valery Kukekov and Tatyana Ignatova. He might have been fired from the Institute but was still a surgeon at Baylor Plano. In addition, a neurosurgeon hired to review Brown's case found that Dr. Duntsch had misdiagnosed the source of her pain and was operating in the wrong place. After this look at Christopher Duntsch a.k.a. Now, a podcast called Dr. Death is breaking down the deranged surgeons criminal acts and shows how drug abuse and blinding overconfidence led to big trouble for the patients who found themselvesunderneath the spiraling doctors knife. [7], When Duntsch applied for privileges at Methodist Hospital in Dallas, the hospital queried the NPDB. [26][4], After leaving Dallas Medical Center, Duntsch received privileges at South Hampton Community Hospital in Dallas and also took a job at an outpatient clinic named Legacy Surgery Center (now Frisco Ambulatory Surgery Center) in Frisco. The surgery was supposed to take less than 45 minutes and ultimately lasted over four hours. While they were in the lab working, Duntsch went to work raising money for a company he called DiscGenics. 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. 'Dr. Death' Condemns Christopher Duntsch, but the Real Culprit Is Texas His father, Donald, was a physical therapist and Christian missionary. Victim statements reveal more gruesome details of botched surgeries - WFAA Christopher Duntsch was born in Montana on April 3, 1971. Christopher Duntsch Early Life Story, Family Background and Education. ", "Surgeon who wrote of becoming killer is denied bail reduction", "Elderly couple attends court hoping for justice in Duntsch case", "Who Were The Victims Of Dr. Christopher Duntsch, Who Earned The Ominous Nickname 'Dr. If you had back pain, and had tried everything else, Dr. Duntsch could give you the spine surgery that would take your pain away. Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott filed a motion to intervene in the suits to defend Baylor Plano, citing the Texas legislature's 2003 statute that placed a medical malpractice cap of $250,000, and removed the term "gross negligence" from the definition of legal malice. 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. As a young neurosurgeon in Texas, Duntsch killed . Create your free profile and get access to exclusive content. This time on 53-year-old Mary Efurd. Due to these legal hurdles and costly lawyer fees on the plaintiff's part, few hospitals end up having to pay out after facing a malpractice lawsuit. Duntsch had also installed hardware into her muscle, not her bone, so loose that it moved when you touched it. He's serving a life sentence for gross malpractice that resulted in two direct fatalities and the maiming of more than 30 neurosurgery patients, as told by Laura Beil, the journalist who hosts the Dr. Death podcast, on which the eponymous show is based. [44] The Dallas County district attorney's office called it "a historic case with respect to prosecuting a doctor who had done wrong during surgery. An MRI revealed that multiple bone fragments in his spinal canal were compressing and adhering to his S1 nerve and that Duntsch had installed the hardware incorrectly. Where is Christopher Duntsch AKA Dr. Death now? [4], Longtime spine surgeon Robert Henderson performed the salvage surgery on Efurd. 11:15 PM on Mar 1, 2014 CST. Christopher was raised along with his three younger siblings in a wealthy suburb in Memphis, Tennessee. Ellis Unit prison in Huntsville, Texas. Homesick, Duntsch left Colorado after a year and transferred to Memphis State University, now the University of Memphis. The Terrifying True Story Behind Peacock's Dr. Death - E! Online That same month, the two began an affair. I can't believe that you're accusing me of killing someone,'" Muse recounted. Morguloff sought a second opinion on his excruciating pain from Dr. Michael Desaloms. When he arrived, Nurse Kyle Kissinger spotted a hole in Duntsch's scrubs. In my opinion, we had a serial killer in our medical community, Dr. Randall Kirbysays of Christopher Duntsch in "Dr. Death: The Undoctored Story.". [23][19][24], While operating on Efurd, Duntsch severed one of her nerve roots during spinal fusion surgery while operating on the wrong portion of her back, twisted a screw into another nerve, left screw holes on the opposite side of her spine, failed to remove the disc he was supposed to remove, and left surgical hardware in her muscle tissue so loose that it moved when touched. Duntsch lasted about three months at MISI. His mother, Susan, was a school teacher. 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 in surgery. In 2005, about a third of the way through his residency, department chairman Dr. Jon Robertson appointed Duntsch program director of the school's tissue bank. Promising Beginnings. Left: Christopher Duntsch in surgery, Right: Christopher Duntschs mugshot. Just weeks after permanently maiming Morguloff, Dr. Duntsch operated on his lifelong friend and roommate, Jerry Summers. He was then brought on board at the Dallas Medical Center where he continued his carnage. For instance, he came to work wearing the same tattered scrubs for three days in a row. Duntsch recommended fusing Morguloff's L5-S1 vertebrae, and the surgery was scheduled for January 11, 2012. Dr. Death: La verdadera historia detrs de la nueva serie sobre el ex The criminal conviction of Christopher Duntsch, MD, PhD, holds important lessons for risk managers. Death,' Dallas neurosurgeon Christopher Duntsch", "Texas neurosurgeon nicknamed 'Dr. Duntsch continued to medicate Morguloff with prescription pain killers and ignored the change in his condition. The pressure was building inside her brain. However, red flags surfaced early on, as nurses wondered if Duntsch was under the influence of drugs while on duty. Although she didn't think much of it and assumed Morgan was helping with research. [38][39] On December 10, 2018, the Texas Court of Appeals affirmed Duntsch's conviction by a 21 split decision. [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. She came in to have two vertebrae fused, but when she woke up she experienced severe pain and couldnt stand. Even worse, some of the patients never got the chance to wake up. 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. 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. Duntsch's defense blamed their client's actions on poor training and lack of hospital oversight. Efurd was left paralyzed. Dr. Death in surgery. Cheney recalled wondering why a neurosurgeon with such outstanding credentials would be operating at a lower-tiered hospital on the way to his surgery. The staff told Duntsch that Brown, his patient from the day before, was in critical condition. She said she thought that he was going to make millions, Kimberly Morgan's friend once said her attraction to Christopher Duntsch. Troy was sedated for weeks and forced to eat through a feeding tube because food was getting into her lungs. Prosecutors also faulted Duntsch's employers for not reporting him. ", "Greg Abbott Enters Fray in Lawsuits Involving "Sociopath" Doctor", "Abbott sides with Baylor hospital in neurosurgeon lawsuit", "Who Are Robert Henderson And Randall Kirby, The Surgeons Who Tried To Stop 'Dr. During surgery, Duntsch damaged Summers' vertebral artery causing it to bleed uncontrollably. 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. "[38], 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. Plano's 'Doctor Death': The Christopher Duntsch case - YouTube Summers had a credit card in his name connected to Duntsch's account and would drive him around, balance his checkbooks, and pick up his dry cleaning. Since receiving his life sentence, Dr Death is currently housed in the O.B. As he lay there in agony, Duntsch was nowhere to be found. The Legislature not only puts the burden of proof on the plaintiff instead of the defendant in medical malpractice cases, but it also allows hospitals to keep information about doctors confidential. Baylor Plano again ordered Duntsch to take a drug test. Barry Morguloff, the owner of a pool service company, was left with bone fragments in his spinal canal after Duntsch tried to pull a damaged, Jerry Summers, a longtime friend of Duntsch's, came to Plano to have, Kellie Martin was undergoing a routine back operation when Duntsch cut through her spinal cord and severed an artery. 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. [48], In 2019, Duntsch was the focus of the premiere episode of License to Kill, Oxygen's series on criminal medical professionals. [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. 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. She was dancing at a strip club in Memphis, and Duntsch's issues with his business, DiscGenics, grew more severe. 'Dr Death' Stars Share Why They Think Christopher Duntsch - TheWrap