A 27-year-old Young had been working as a stripper in Memphis when she met Duntsch, then 40. At the time, Duntsch had been fielding offers in Dallas, SanDiegoand New York from medical centers eager to have a neurosurgeon with hisseeminglyimpressive resume on staff. She even alleged that after a drug-fueled night of partying, she watched as Christopher put on his lab coat "to make the rounds the next morning.". When he arrived in Dallas in late 2010, Duntsch's resume spoke of a skilled neurosurgeon: An M.D. In 2007, he was found to be leaving presigned prescription pads with his nurse so she could prescribe controlled substances while he was away, according to Public Citizen. Promotional materials distributed by your outlet, including all social media work, must include cites for the Observer and our reporter. Melinda Lehmann, his defense attorney, said Duntsch was a scapegoat for a medical establishment that just kept hiring him and putting him in operating rooms. The patients mother complained to the Medical Board. He went to the operating room and asked to speak to the doctor. These doctors are anomalies too. 'Cult mom' Lori Vallow's hair found on duct tape used to wrap son's body, Inside Jeffrey Epstein's private calendar including meeting with Noam Chomsky, Heartbroken family launch new lawsuit against Walmart over son's death, I won $188m lotto, I only got $88m after taxes but there was a bigger blow to come, 2020 THE SUN, US, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED | TERMS OF USE | PRIVACY | YOUR AD CHOICES | SITEMAP, Duntsch, aka Dr Death, was sentenced to life in prison in 2017, Dr Death - Trailer for the Peacock series based on the true story of Christopher Duntsch. The Legislature has also made suing hospitals difficult. A Texas neurosurgeon accused of intentionally botching multiple spinal surgeries, resulting in the death of two . In 2011, he founded a neurosurgery practice, Texas Neurosurgical Institute. But more than anything, we don't get to know Christopher Duntsch. These doctors are busythey have practices of their own that pay a lot better than volunteering for the Medical Boardand there arent many of them. Dr. Kirby, on his end, called him a sociopath. Until the day of the suspension, if you had looked Duntsch up on the Texas Medical Board website, you would have found him a physician in good standing. Death Series, Dr. The point isnt that all doctors are dangerous, or even that any more than a tiny minority are. With the exception of pain management clinics and anesthesiologists, the board doesnt have the authority to inspect a doctor, or to start an investigation on its own. It takes the Texas Medical Board an average of nine months to resolve complaints. Joshua Jackson as Christopher Duntsch in "Dr. Death." Barbara Nitke/Peacock Duntsch, 50, was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2017 in what's considered a precedent-setting case one of the. He works out, he reads, he studies the Bible. All rights reserved. The procedure can improve stability in the back, according to the Mayo Clinic, and relieve pain. He waited until they told him his wife had been sent to the intensive care unit. One patient had a stroke following a chelation therapy. Dallas Magazine states that Duntsch became key in supplying samples to scientists for research. But in Texas, when you go to see a doctor, there is a small but real chance that the doctor has been found by his or her peers to be a danger to the public, and that no one has bothered to do anything about it yet. Once the case has been put together, the investigators will make a recommendation to the board itself, a group of 12 physicians and seven laypeople appointed by the governor. So the board members tend to act conservatively. Kalighat MS (Division B) Matches played. But when I talked to Medical Board spokesperson Megan Goode about this, she said Public Citizen had it wrongthat the board isnt underfunded at all. Anatomy of a Tragedy. The conversation took place in January 2013, after it had become clear that Duntsch would practice until someone stopped him, six months before anyone actually did. We felt confident too.. At the end of May 2013, Kirby and Henderson received invitations to a celebratory dinner, courtesy of University General Hospital, to meet their new neurosurgeon, Dr. Christopher Duntsch, at an expensive uptown restaurant. Duntsch was arrested in July 2015. Duntsch was still living with Young, but he tried to carry out the dual romances by lying to each woman. Dr. Christopher Duntschs patients ended up maimed and dead, but the real tragedy is that the Texas Medical Board couldnt stop him. They all received the same response Henderson had: Send us what you have, and well get back to you. Competing on home soil, Zverev lost 7-6 (7/ . Written by Patrick Macmanus, the show will only be available exclusively on Peacock. 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 theD Magazine. Not only shouldnt he be operating, he shouldnt be making any decisions about treatment or pathology. It had no effect whatsoever.. After a few calls to various Dallas-area medical societies, someone suggested he call the Medical Board. Doctors brought in to clean up his surgeries decried his surgical misadventures, according to hospital records. A CT scan found that the metal spinal fusion hardware, meant to be placed on the patients spine to keep the vertebrae from moving, was sunk into the muscles of her lower back, inches from her spine. Every patient that I interviewed told me that one of the first things Dr. Duntsch would tell them when they initially met was that he was the best surgeon in Dallas," Henderson, played by Alec Baldwin in the show, told People. He resigned soon after, with full clinical privileges. This was the time when Dr. Christopher Duntsch started to turn into Dr. Death. "We were told Duntsch was one of the best and smartest neurosurgeons they ever trained, as they went on at length about his strengths," representatives from Baylor Regional Medical Center told Pro Publica in an email. Wendy Young Photo: Anton Floquet/NBCUniversal Hearst Magazine Media, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This what Ive waited for four and half years., Follow Tanya Eiserer on Twitter: @tanyaeiserer. Promising Beginnings Christopher Daniel Duntsch was born in Montana on April 3, 1971, and raised alongside his three siblings in an affluent suburb of Memphis, Tennessee. are both available to stream on Peacock now. In telling the story of Duntsch, both the series and podcast reveal how a flawed system allowed him to operate for so long. At every step of the way, you would have to know the right thing to do so you could do the wrong thing, because he did all the wrong things.. Im just so grateful from the bottom of my heart, she said. It was just gone. It was mostly designed to monitor doctors licenses and make sure the states medical practitioners are keeping up with professional standards. He wrote grants and secured more than $3 million in funding. It is said to be rare for a physician to be indicted on several counts of aggravated assault stemming from events in an operating room. When Summers woke up he couldnt move his arms or legs. You know in the beginning he talked about marriage. The medical malpractice cap and the near-immunity for hospitals snapped two threads from the regulatory web. Those were the words that Christopher Duntsch never wanted to hear. But in the past 10 years, a series of conservative reforms have severely limited patients options for holding doctors and hospitals accountable for bad care. He will not be eligible for parole until 2045, when he will be 74-years-old. She alsoalleged tothe magazine that he broke into her apartment, showing up one day covered in blood. .css-lwn4i5{display:block;font-family:Neutra,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-serif;font-weight:bold;letter-spacing:-0.01rem;margin-bottom:0;margin-top:0;text-align:center;-webkit-text-decoration:none;text-decoration:none;}@media (any-hover: hover){.css-lwn4i5:hover{color:link-hover;}}@media(max-width: 48rem){.css-lwn4i5{font-size:1.375rem;line-height:1.1;}}@media(min-width: 40.625rem){.css-lwn4i5{font-size:1.375rem;line-height:1.1;}}@media(min-width: 48rem){.css-lwn4i5{font-size:1.375rem;line-height:1.1;}}@media(min-width: 64rem){.css-lwn4i5{font-size:1.375rem;line-height:1.1;}}Leann Rimes Shares Video Montage for Anniversary, Read Erin Napier's Post about 'Home Town', Christie Brinkley = Iconic In Bareback Riding Pic, 35 Celebrity Relationships That Upset Fans, Celebrities You Didn't Know Had Famous Moms, 30 Celebrity Feuds That Were Never Resolved, Celebrity Couples from 50 Years You Forgot About, We Ranked Every Single Adam Sandler Movie, 34 'Bridgerton' Fun Facts to Fuel Your Obsession, Where Youve Seen the Cast of Bridgerton Before. I think what happened is that as things began to fall apart, the only thing he knew was to try harder, Don Duntsch said. A 27-year-old Young had been working as a stripper in Memphis when she met Duntsch, then 40. Though the Texas Medical Board is required by statute to investigate any doctor with more than three malpractice suits, no action was ever taken against the doctor by the state. .css-1omz5nv{background-color:#E61957;border-radius:50rem;color:#000;display:inline-block;font-family:Gilroy,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-serif;font-size:0.8125rem;font-weight:bold;letter-spacing:0.02em;line-height:1.3;padding:0.625rem 1.25rem;text-align:center;-webkit-text-decoration:none;text-decoration:none;text-decoration-color:inherit;text-decoration-thickness:0.0625rem;text-transform:uppercase;text-underline-offset:0.25rem;-webkit-transition:all 0.3s ease-in-out;transition:all 0.3s ease-in-out;width:auto;}@media(max-width: 48rem){.css-1omz5nv{min-width:7.25rem;}}@media(min-width: 48rem){.css-1omz5nv{min-width:11.25rem;}}.css-1omz5nv:focus-visible{outline-color:body-cta-btn-link-focus;}.css-1omz5nv:hover{color:#fff;text-decoration-color:border-link-body-hover;background-color:#9D002F;}Watch Dr. Death. The nuance of his private life is obscured by allusions to a failed football career and a demeaning father that somehow are. We have to consider the uncomfortable possibility that Christopher Duntsch is to the medical system what the recent West explosion was to the fertilizer industrya regrettable tragedy, but the price of living in a free-market system. Its left to hospitals to police their doctors. In July 2012, four months after Kellie Martins death, Duntsch applied for surgical privileges at Dallas Medical Center. But the Medical Board wasnt designed to be an aggressive enforcer. He didnt tell them about Baylors internal reports that faulted him in both cases, according to Henderson. First, the Medical Board staff has to screen every complaint and has 45 days to decide whether the agency will act on it. .css-ssumvd{display:block;font-family:Gilroy,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-serif;font-size:1.0625rem;font-weight:bold;line-height:1.25;margin-bottom:0;margin-top:0;-webkit-text-decoration:none;text-decoration:none;}@media (any-hover: hover){.css-ssumvd:hover{color:link-hover;}}@media(min-width: 40.625rem){.css-ssumvd{letter-spacing:0rem;margin-top:0.9375rem;}}Gayle King Is Showcasing Women Making Waves, Your Complete Guide to the Bridgerton Family, Jada Pinkett Smiths Red Table Talk Is Canceled, Oprah Wishes Carol Burnett a Happy 90th Birthday, Oprah and Mindy Kaling Are Producing a TV Show, Oprah and Michelle Obama Have a Netflix Special, Gayle Kings Pop Culture Must-See List for April, What We Know About The Little Mermaid Remake, Dr. Death Tells the Horrifying True Story of Christopher Duntsch, The True Story that Inspired Season 2 Dirty John, 20 True-Crime Podcasts You Should Be Listening To, Gayle King Is Showcasing Women Making Waves, email he wrote to former assistant Kimberly Morgan. The former neurosurgeon is currently serving a life sentence for the maiming of Mary Efurd, one of the . For the last three days, jurors listened to testimony in the . At one point Dr. Henderson sent me a tape of a conversation he had with the main Medical Board investigator assigned to Duntschs case. He talked impressive. It shouldnt happen again.". For one, there was alleged drug and alcohol abuse. They move slowly and only take action theyre reasonably sure will be effective. According to Kirby, the hospital owner told him that Duntsch had privileges to do only minimally invasive surgeries. He was the eldest of four.They described him as the bright, precocious little boy who had taken care of a sick bird and loved dogs. Anton Floquet/NBCUniversal. As Dr. Henderson testified in part, "[O]ne of my thoughts that I expressed was that [appellant] must have known what he was doing because he did virtually everything wrong. On the tape, Henderson demands to know why Duntsch is still practicing. Its not clear how much Dallas Medical Center officials knew about Duntschs past or how much Baylor told them. Photos, illustrations and other art may be available for syndication but must be confirmed.

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