During this time, he ran two successful labs and raised millions of dollars in grant funding. 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. And in fact, when they called me, I was kind of like, You know Im a print reporter, right? But they were great, they were willing to kind of show me what I needed to know in terms of audio and interviewing for audio, and making an audio podcast. The True Story Of Christopher Duntsch, The Killer Surgeon Known As Dr. I have 1M in debt, 10M invested, and 22 years of pain in misery already on the table", 2. 'Dr. Death': AnnaSophia Robb on Playing ADA Michelle Shughart - Newsweek In Canada, health is a right. When he arrived in Dallas in late 2010, Duntsch's resume spoke of a skilled neurosurgeon: An M.D. Who Is Kimberly Morgan, 'Dr. Death' Christopher Duntsch's Assistant You listen in horror to what feel like slow-motion car wrecks, captured in Wonderys signature immersive soundscape, as Duntsch drills screws meant to anchor bone into soft tissue and inexplicably snips nerve bundles that control important motor functions, causing irreparable harm. For months, they stopped getting reports about messed up operations and thought theyd found success. Its not just about what happened, but how did this occur? Out July 15, Dr. Death introduces viewers to Christopher Duntsch, a real-life Texas-based surgeon who in 2017 was sentenced to life in prison after maiming and even killing almost all of the nearly 40 patients he operated on between 2011 and 2013. What storytelling tools did you discover from working in a podcast format that you didnt have before, or maybe didnt think about before? Its interesting, because when I heard at the premiere, people were reacting to things that I didnt anticipate them reacting to. Each very different. It was also perhaps the definitive portrait of Orange County, California. Talk about a TV writer's dream: a story about a handsome, charismatic doctor with a killer bedside manner. 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. Podcasts status as a new medium, in which the rules have yet to be codified crystallized for me a few weeks back, when I sat in a dark screening room at United Talent Agency with a group composed largely of fratty, agent-y men in suits listening to a non-fiction account of an evil surgeon. But unfortunately, despite the fact I am winning it is not happening fast enough. I have to figure out how to humanize this guy.'. Christopher Duntsch - AKA Dr. Death - spent 18 months as a practicing surgeon at multiple Texas hospitals until he had his license revoked in 2013. Was that something that he knew? JACKSON: Yeah. After this, life for Duntsch fell apart. Death': "He Thinks He's the Hero of This Story", 'Dr. Hed had a whole string of bad surgeries before it even came to the attention of the medical board. 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. or were you like, "No, we should push it further, we should make this really clear?". One, since the [Mary] Efurd case in the one that eventually goes on trial, I thought it was important to know what happened in that case, so thats one. By the time the Texas Medical Board revoked his license in June 2013, Duntsch had left two patients dead. But the actuality is, is that these hospitals will protect themselves. And at that time, Christopher's case was actually on appeal. 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? In February 2012, he went under the knife for an elective spinal fusion surgery. And created all sorts of discussion and blowback inside the industry. And there were a couple of reasons for that. And what did it mean to you to have an all female directing team? Dr. Death in surgery. Tulsa Hospital Shooting Suspect Was a Patient Who Had Recent Back Surgery and Targeted His Doctor: Cops, One Brother Was a Hero, One Was a Serial Killer: New Docuseries Explores the Stayner Family's Plight. He is absolutely a narcissistic sociopath. Right? 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 shared: We were like 19 years old, I remember we were driving down the road, and he was like, You wanna take a hit of acid., And I was like, Yeah, Ill take a hit of acid with you. And we popped, hit acid., Jerry revealed: I had never taken a hit of acid before. It mightve taken longer. However, it wouldnt be long until Duntschs seemingly perfect career began to unravel. Do you think at some point he came to the conclusion that he really was a horrible surgeon, or do you think to this day he thinks everybody else is wrong? It profiles a spine surgeon named Christopher Duntsch, who operated on 38 people, 33 of whom were left either dead or with some form of permanent paralysis. [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. Alec Baldwin and Christian Slater in 'Dr. From the very start, before there were any writers and before I'd even written the pilot episode, I had said to the studio that if you are asking me to answer the question of why Christopher Duntsch is the way that he is, I will never give you that answer. The first operation he conducted in this capacity was to fix a womans compressed nerveduring the surgery, he cut an important vessel in the womans spinal cord and she bled to death. Dr. Death: Patrick Macmanus on Understanding Christopher Duntsch Right? JACKSON: Well, it's not. The podcast series and ProPublica report that Duntsch was ordered by the university to take a drug test, but managed to avoid it. Particularly for Duntsch, because it goes over such a long period of time. And because while we, as patients were told, well, the patient comes first. Had he explored his research and stayed in that lane and never gone to operate, we'd be talking about him in an entirely different fashion today. So my follow-up question to that is how has the show changed your relationship to going to the doctor? Caroline is a writer and Florida-transplant currently living in New York City. 7 chilling thoughts of jailed neurosurgeon Christopher Duntsch, Pete DeBoer says Stars have one key trait shared by championship-caliber teams, Mass shooting in Cleveland, Texas; manhunt underway: What we know, Rangers, Josh Jung combine balanced approach with aggression in rout of Yankees, Willie Nelson makes music with his friends at 90th birthday concert, Search area widened for Texas suspect after 5 killed following complaint about gunfire, Motley Fool: United Rentals stock a good investment for the long term, Rossman: You can buy an over-the-air DVR for less than $50, Southwest Airlines unveils another jet dedicated to a U.S. state, Government report blames airlines for most flight cancellations, High bar vs. picky buyer: How Pioneer and Exxon execs view Permian Basin tie-ups, How Dallas video game icon Randy Pitchford became the new owner of Hollywoods Magic Castle, Stars to face Kraken as Seattle defeats Avalanche, eliminates defending Stanley Cup champs, Cowboys 2023 undrafted free agent tracker: See which players Dallas added after NFL draft, Stanley Cup playoff central: Second-round schedule, stories Dallas Stars fans need to know, 5 things to know about Cowboys CB Eric Scott Jr., including his freakish athletic tools. But from a script, youre asking people to remember everything you just told them. How much did you worry about putting too much of that in there and it being too gory, or too graphic? It is good and healthy and natural and necessary for us to have other people and other perspectives, than just white men. His very first operation at the hospital would once again turn deadly. In June 2013, Duntschs medical license was suspended and fully revoked later that December. By 2013, he had bounced around between hospitals, tarnished his reputation and had his medical license revoked. Right? According to D Magazine, a doctor at the hospital where Duntsch worked said that Duntsch had been sent to an impaired physician program after he refused to take a drug test. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our, Digital So, the other big mystery as you already pointed out was like, how did the medical system allow this to happen? And I dont know that he really ever even wanted to be a neurosurgeon. Yeah, and I listened to it twice, happily. She received The Dallas Morning News Reporter of the Year award in 2016 and 2017. All three of them are fantastic each in their own right. The legal system will protect themselves. This attitude and outlook stuck with Duntsch as he set out to achieve something beyond football and landed on surgery. And the medical board was the only ones that could really stop him, but they didnt know. Here, Macmanus talks about how he first discovered the ghastly true story behind Dr. Death which stars Joshua Jackson and drops today on Peacock -- and whether he thinks Duntsch is truly crazy. These are doctors who didn't sign up to become heroes, right? 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? While he did make it on to a couple of college teamsone in Mississippi and one in Coloradoformer teammates said he had trouble keeping up in practice but would plead with coaches to let him keep trying. Life After "Death": Lethal Surgeon Sentenced to PrisonWATCH NEXT: Former patient of Dr. Duntsch discusses botched surgery (1 of 5) https://youtu.be/9JwAnjnDs. The value of the institutions was placed above the value of the patients. They dont want to go participate in any extraneous activities, and he was totally fine going to work.. If people come away from the show saying, "We don't know who Christopher Duntsch was," that was the intent, right? Christopher Duntsch was just a regular guy who became Dr. Death after he decided to be a neurosurgeon. I don't think anybody but Christopher Duntsch can answer that question. Paying Tribute to the Celebrities Who Have Died in 2023, The True Story Behind Netflix's 'The Good Nurse', The True Story Behind Hulu's 'Welcome to Chippendales'. And that disconnect from reality, I found really compelling. 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. 'Dr. Death' Surgeon Killed or Maimed 33 of His Patients - People They suffer with everything from agonizing spinal problems to severely damaged vocal chords and they say their problems are the result of botched surgery performed by the same surgeon, a doctor many of them claim is a butcher and a drug addict. In 2013, things came to a tragic head. There are a lot of explanations proposed for why the real-life subject of Peacock's "Dr. Death" limited series, neurosurgeon Dr. Christopher Duntsch (played by Joshua Jackson), maimed and. I mean you cant really boil it down. Right? Duntsch, 44, is being held inthe Dallas County Jail on $600,000 bail on charges involving the death of one patient and the injuring of four others. Christopher Duntschs late friend and victim, Jerry Summers, claimed Dr. Death gave him his first hit of acid.. "You were a major in a military organization, and that is the only reason you can have a slight inkling of the manner in which I want you to treat me and respect me". A new four-part docuseries from Peacock premiering July 29, called Dr. Death: The Undoctored Story, peers inside the torturous crimes of Duntsch, featuring chilling stories from victims and coworkers who saw the killer surgeon in action and were forever harmed as a result. Christopher Daniel Duntsch was born in Montana on April 3, 1971, and raised alongside his three siblings in an affluent suburb of Memphis, Tennessee. Yeah, that was a concern. From a creative standpoint, what is so unfortunate about the fact that you need to ask that question, and it's a totally valid question is, one would have hoped that we would have always understood that the more diverse and the better quality voices that we have in telling stories, the better the industry is as a whole. Were there any surgeries that he actually did correctly? Speaking only for myself, I could have listened to seven hours of the incredibly graphic stuff. (A mock-up of the billboard Wondery paid to put in front of the hospital where its subject used to work). Theyre not just props in your story, they are real people whove lived this, and you need to just be respectful of that, and not fall into tropes, and not exaggerate what theyve been through, but also not diminish it. As long as I could do the reporting and the writing, they were willing to show me the rest, and it worked out great. He is currently appealing this sentence. 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. Prior to his death earlier this year, Jerry discussed his relationship with Christopher in a new interview for Peacocks Dr. Death: The Undoctored Story. Chief among them is the mystery of whether Duntsch was homicidal or simply criminally inept. All Rights Reserved. Philip Mayfield, one of Christopher Duntsch's patients, who was paralyzed after his surgery. Those were way more telling than the emails, I thought, because if you just read through those you get kind of a look into his mind. Well, if you want to just put in there that after the first episode its a lot less gruesome. Death.'. Entertainment Weekly is a registered trademark of Meredith Corporation All Rights Reserved. Left: Christopher Duntsch in surgery, Right: Christopher Duntschs mugshot. You can take in more from a printed article. So it has to be taught through generations. I know youve done this for a long time, but what are some of the things you have to be careful about in reporting a story like this? Duntsch focused on his research for a while but was recruited from Memphis to join the Minimally Invasive Spine Institute in North Dallas in the summer of 2011. The former doctor will not be eligible for parole until 2045 when he will be 74 years old. There were some doctors and some plaintiffs attorneys, and later on journalists, who were all working to try to stop this guy. In Dr. Death theres no question as to who the killer is, but there are still a few mysteries to unravel. Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? But I did have to let go and trust them. And the American system, I often find myself having to remind myself that in the American system that the money comes first before the care. But there was so much that came together. Beil is a journalist who has specialized in science and medical writing for 20 years, and lives in the Dallas area where much of Christopher Duntschs story takes place. He was a phenomenal partner right up until the pandemic hit and we got shut down. I limited myself to those emails that were produced as evidence in the trial, because the D.A. According to Megan Kane, an ex-girlfriend of one of Duntschs friends, she saw him eat a paper blotter of LSD and take prescription painkillers on his birthday. 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. The series tells the story of Christopher Duntsch, a doctor who maimed and killed people during surgeries at hospitals across Texas. 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. It was a conscious choice from the very beginning to not show the surgeries until the finale. When you visit this site, it may store or retrieve information on your browser, mostly in the form of cookies. I believe that it was an outgrowth of the fact that by the time these administrations caught up with what he was doing, they had already moved him on. I don't believe that anybody in any of the administrations were actively trying to encourage this man to do what he did. Duntsch is a former Dallas neurosurgeon who, through . You have reached your limit of free articles. We went out of our way to let your imagination do the work. From the people that I talked to First of all, only Duntsch knows that, and I cant read his mind. Nurse who worked with Dr. Duntsch recalls his experiences - YouTube JOSHUA JACKSON: Well, the first key and probably the most difficult hurdle for me to get over was to not judge him. Death' Review: Joshua Jackson Is Terrific in Terrifying Peacock Series That's as Sharp as a Scalpel, 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' Characters Ranked by Likeability, 10 Sitcoms With Content That Hasn't Aged Well, 'Baby J' Doesn't Show Us the Real John Mulaney and That's a Good Thing. The system was attracted to his very real charms. The son of a physical therapist and teacher, he was known even before pursuing his medical aspirations as a person who didnt give upeven when letting go would have been the right choice. It would be easy to say he is a psychopath who was doing all of this on purpose, because that's easy for us to wrap our brains around, right? Christopher, known as Dr Death, was Jerry's friend and the surgeon who performed the botched operation on him in 2011 Credit: Dallas County Sheriff's office The four-part docuseries features old footage and new interviews to tell more of the story about the neurosurgeon who was sentenced to prison after maiming or killing more than 30 patients. Lets just say that this was a back and forth discussion for a lot of it. We're certainly not there yet. Were there times when you would look at drafts and be like, "Maybe we should pull back on the administrative stuff?" In July, he performed an operation on a woman who lost a tremendous amount of blood and lost consciousness upon waking up after surgery. And also, to let the tape tell as much of the story as possible. Despite this refusal, Duntsch was allowed to finish his residency. Some people woke up paralyzed; others emerged from anesthesia to permanent pain from nerve damage. Both the scripted Dr. Death series and the Dr. Death: The Undoctored Story docuseries are now streaming on Peacock. Did you feel a need to go talk to Christopher Duntsch in prison? I expected some oohs and ahhs, but, for instance, the missing screw, when you get to the part that there was this screw where he had put it into the muscle. Because neurosurgeons, they bring in a lot of money for their institution. So many of these serialized investigative podcasts, they tend to grow out of some kind of mystery. That was the thing that people around me were really reacting to. When Josh and I had our first conversation, he said to me from the beginning, 'I've got to figure out how to approach this character without any judgment. I do medicine and science. Does that make sense? How many of them struck you funny? You have these compelling heroes in Henderson and Kirby that are unlike, in my opinion, unlike other quote-unquote "heroes" in the true crime space, because these are two who are taking down one of their own. I believe that he's a product of nurture. And that's only four years ago. Dr. Death's Christopher Duntsch Is Now Serving a Life Sentence "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.".
Michael And Katie Hodges Marriage, Articles D