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Death: The Undoctored Story, available to stream now. He will not be eligible for parole until 2045, when he will be 74-years-old. He stayed local for medical school, enrolling the next year at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center. She was deposed over Skype since, at the time, she was stationed with the Air Force in the Middle East. Nobody can recognize whether it was ours or not! Ignatova says. 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. 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 real question is:Why couldn't anyone stop him in time? He promises to take all pain and suffering away. Duntsch, again, maintains this wasnt true. A veteran investigative reporter in the medical field, her voice enthralls. He says Fennells surgery went so well that he agreed to be in a commercial for Baylor Plano. Dr. Death is now also going to be a TV show with Christian Slater and Alec Baldwin playing main roles. He said Youngwho by now had given birth to their son, Aidenwas just his secretary and friend. That was the same month the two started having sex. The damage is irreversible. Not long after, Young said Duntsch broke into her apartment for the first time. That same month, Kirby wrote, he, along with the Glidewell family, brought the case to prosecutors and asked to press charges. Quality Policy. In July 2015, indictments came through. There were multiple screw holes nowhere near where they were supposed to be, and a screw had been lodged in another nerve root near the bottom of the spine. According to Dallas Magazine, a woman named Megan Kane remembered how Duntsch partied with her onhis birthday. His dad is a physical therapist. The company, Discgenics, is still going, and still holds the patents, listingDuntsch, Ignatova, and Kukekov as the inventors. Peacock's new grisly drama tells the real-life story of Dallas-area neurosurgeon Christopher Duntsch, who killed or maimed more than 30 patients in the 2010s. If that weren't enough, Page once happened across a drawer at Duntsch's house. The Texas DA chose six patients to make their case to the jury: Lee Passmore, Barry Morguloff, Jerry Summers, Kellie Martin, Floella Brown, and Mary Efurd. She says she didnt hear or see any altercation between Duntsch and Mark Hoyleher view was blocked by a microscope, and the combined hum of the EKG machine and the oxygen cylinder drowned out the sound of Hoyles pleading, if there was any. He had a room upstairs in the Plano house. All we can say ishes fine.. He also discovered a way to produce stem cells from intervertebral discs in cultures outside the body. In it,was a mirror with cocaine and a rolled-up dollar bill on top. Thats when we stumbled across the gap, Passmore says. You know, hell call and say goodnight to his boys, um, sometimes hell have bedtime stories and try to be as normal as possible.. Due to his actions, Brown suffered a stroke that night, but Duntsch didn't responded to hospital pages. I dont have feeling in my feet, and I will slip and fall off that damn ladder, he says today. It was a downward spiral pretty rapidly after he lost his license, Young said in the docuseries. Don tried to convince the jury that his son cared for his patients. Baldwin, 63, plays a more mature character to his onscreen partner Christian Slaters zany one, with the two pairing up in quest to end Dr Deaths medical career and bring him to justice. When he finally turned up again, he was made to attended a program for impaired physicians. In the deposition, she states that Duntsch snorted cocaine from a handy pile he kept on a dresser at his home. 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 . Talking to the Dallas Morning News in 2014, Duntsch said he provided the test and was clean. It was the invention of me and my wife, because we made all primary experiments. (He also appears in no yearbooks from the University of Tennessee Health Science Center at the time in which he says he earned his Ph.D., and the school declined to verify his claims, citing afederal privacy law.) A husband and wife pair of Russian stem cell scientists, Valery Kukekov and Tatyana Ignatova entered the picture. We moved in together within three months, and then I became pregnant.. The original patent still holds, and hopefully, Discgenics would be able to break out of the Dr. Death shadow todo some real anti-cancer work instead. But police say an email Duntsch wrote in 2011 points to his mind-set in the months before he "intentionally, knowingly and . It wasnt his invention, Kukekov says. Copyright 2023, D Magazine Partners, Inc. We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. He didnt not want to. It was sent on a Friday at 4 am. Duntsch allegedly arrivedat the hospital three hours after the surgery wasplanned to start and began the procedure. Robot, True Romance, Very Bad Things, and Robot Chicken. The two met at a Memphis strip club. But she smiles softly as she talks about those early days with Duntsch, when they were still learning about each others lives. Morgan says they spent a lot of time in clubs. He signed a physician services agreement on May 24, 2011, with Rimlawi and Wons Minimally Invasive Spine Institute. We ended up getting into this really big fight, and he slapped me and threw a remote and hit me with the remotes and he was yelling profanities very loud where everyone could hear and saying prostitute and whore, she said, adding he also started calling her mother names. That venue is a civil or federal jury trial, and I would accept that if it gave the way forward to disclose, remedy, address what happened at DMC with these patients., Henderson, like Passmore, began his own investigation. But hospital after hospital passed the buck. Prosecutors used testimony from patients and the doctors who corrected their surgeries to argue that Duntsch's outcomes were more than mere medical error. This could be path-breaking in the future ofcancer treatment andDr. Duntsch sniffed out the opportunity right away. There was Floella Brown, whose sliced vertebral artery triggered the stroke that killed her at Dallas Medical Center. He announced that he would be removing the ligament that separates the disc from the spinal canal. 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. And there were plenty of other signs as well. Dr. Death might not have cared about being a surgeon, just the prestige that came with it. 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. Christopher Daniel Duntsch was born in Montana on April 3, 1971, and raised alongside his three siblings in an affluent suburb of Memphis, Tennessee. An "In Memoriam" tribute for him is shown at the end of the final episode of the Peacock series. At morning meetings, Page would see Duntsch mixing a vodka orange. Take the case of Dr. Death, aka Dr. Christopher Duntsch. What made him cause damage, trauma and even death to his patients? His childhood was seemingly great. Instead, he thought about all those years he spent working and educating himself, all those years of paying bills on time to keep his credit high, of saving money to support his family. Duntsch also received 40 percent of all revenue he generated beyond $800,000 each year. He wanted to find who Duntsch trained under, who his supervisors were. Jurors convicted Duntsch Tuesday of injury to an elderly person in the botched July 2012 surgery that put Mary Efurd in a wheelchair. I have taken one selfie in my lifeon a dare. A couple of months later, FloellaBrown came to Duntsch for a cervical fusion to alleviate her neck and shoulder pain. She assumed Morgan was only helping with research. Then it just started to all unravel.. Joshua Jackson as Christopher Duntsch in "Dr. Death." (Peacock/Scott McDermott/Peacock) The real Duntsch, a Texas-based surgeon, maimed or killed 33 of 38 surgical patients between 2011 and . In September, according to police reports . Dr. I agree completely with Dr. Hoyles complaint to the board when he stated that Dr. Duntsch is the most careless, clueless, and dangerous spine surgeon either of us has ever seen, Kirby wrote. Then he also took prescription painkillers and ate a paper blotter of LSD. His father, Donald, was a missionary and a physical therapist. In a long running series of complaints, a Texas doctor has been found guilty of a felony in one medical malpractice case. Christopher Duntsch, once a supremely confident neurosurgeon with a solid rsum and a wealth of potential, fled town in disgrace last year under a scalding cascade . 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. Create a free profile to get unlimited access to exclusive videos, breaking news, sweepstakes, and more! In early 2014, he was arrested for DUI and sent to rehab, according to ProPublica. Kane dated Summers for a year. In March 2012, Duntsch performed alaminectomy on Kellie Martin to reduce her back pain after afallat home. Henderson was brought in to operate two days later. Duntsch filed for bankruptcy and was arrested in Denver for driving under the influence on Jan. 10, 2014, according to local station KCNC-TV. I dont know if hes there to harm me or what his true intentions were, she said in the docuseries. Creating cells from a culture would eliminate the need for human extraction; there was huge potential upside. Morgan was present in the operating room during Passmores surgery. Dr. Christopher Duntsch, better known as Doctor Death, is serving a life sentence at a Texas prison today. She had clinical experience and often spent time with Duntsch when he was conducting research. Brown lost so much blood that the operating room team had to mop the floor with towels, all whileDuntschcomplained he couldn't see her spine to operate. My entire house had been turned upside down.. 1. He thought surgery might give him some relief, eliminate the need for drugs, solve both problems at once. Christopher Duntsch was born in Montana and spent most of his youth in Memphis, Tennessee. He stayed in town for his undergraduate degree, emerging from the University of Memphis in 1994. Within months, she says, he had offers in Dallas, San Diego, and New York. Unlike a TV series where you get to see the character,a podcast is darker. I dont know what it is, she said. 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. The procedure was routine and involved removing bone tissue in the spine to alleviate pressure on afflicted nerves. This would be the first and last time Hoyle worked next to Duntsch. Boop also said that Duntsch spent his final year operating as an attending physician, and was not allowed to operate independently. Such behavior did not go unnoticed by the other doctors. This is notably weird, considering Christopher Duntsch trained underDr. Boop, so you'd assume that theyoperated together as part of the whole learning surgery process. His license gone, Duntsch went off the rails. The new true crime show, which comes out Thursday, tells the story of promising-turned-disgraced surgeon, Dr. Christopher Duntsch (played by Jackson), who was accused of maiming and killing his more than two dozed patients. He projected that I was the source of a lot of his problems and difficulties.. There Duntsch secured a job as a minimally invasive spine surgeon at. She was dancing at a strip club then, and Duntschs business problems were growing more severe. But as the ultimate betrayal, some doctors violate this code of conduct in the worst possible ways. From the top of his class to life in prison: things did not go as he planned. ), 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: Maybe thats how they do it in Tennessee, but according to my training, thats not how they do it here. His emails were crazy, Van Wey recalled in the docuseries. 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. She enlisted Duntsch to help fix it. Meanwhile, Duntsch was struggling financially and started racking up a series of strange arrests. 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. Likely due to Duntsch'sattemptto staunch the blood loss, Brown suffered a buildup of pressure in her brain. You'd think that a surgeon who was this bad would have some mud spattered on him on the internet. Base compensation was $600,000 a year for two years, beginning on June 14, 2011. On average, a neurosurgeon generates more revenue for a hospital than all other specialties but invasive cardiology and orthopedic surgery. She says he was prone to hyperbole, and, yeah, he had a questionable sense of humor. Year: 2004-2018 Starring: Michael Peterson Genre: Docuseries Rating: TV-MA Seasons: 1 (14 episodes) Director: Jean-Xavier de Lestrade Trailer: Watch here This doesn . Dallas surgeon Randall Kirby says his former colleague, Dr. Christopher Duntsch, managed to commit crimes so heinous that patients everywhere are still struck by fear when they hear about the case . Slater is also known for his roles in Mr. But then he gave Passmore the card of a neurosurgeon named Christopher Duntsch. He grew up in a middle-class suburb with a teacher mom and a missionary/physical therapist dad. While the school refused to verify or deny his claims, he wasn't in any of the yearbooks of that time. Now, one of the several complaints against the . Ultimately, Duntsch'shorrific mistakes made during surgeryand alleged drug use caught up with him. Finally, it was the Texas Medical Board (TMB) that acted too late, too little. Christopher Duntsch, 44, faces up to life in prison if convicted. I dont have Facebook, I dont Myspace. We are committed to achieving this mission by delivering high-quality products that meet or exceed customer requirements. Enjoy unlimited access to all of our incredible journalism, in print and digital. 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. Wendy Renee Young is the mother of three children. When the story about Christopher Duntsch finally broke, it affected his patients, or rather, hisvictims, but many people missed it. Since no one else knew what was wrong, they couldn't save her. 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. Duntsch's initial presentation bowled him over. Dawsons Creek heartthrob Jackson stars as the titular character of Dr Death, which ended up becoming Duntschs nickname after the accusations came out. He kind of let himself into my apartment by climbing up my balcony, she said. 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 autopsy had not been finished when Passmore accidentally saw the fax from Baylor Plano. For the DA though she proved to be a good witness. Life After "Death": Lethal Surgeon Sentenced to PrisonWATCH NEXT: Attorney who represented Dr. Duntsch's patients discusses her cases (3 of 5) https://youtu.. Philip Mayfield experienced back pain and chronic conditions related to his longtime career driving tractor-trailers. Texas tort reform laws cap the amount that patients can sue physicians for malpractice at $250,000. Because of a valuable patent the company owned, they let him through the gates and out into the world. Duntsch, Kukekov, and Ignatova are listed as its inventors. "Dr. Death," which was shot earlier this year in the Albuquerque area and debuted July 15 on the Peacock streaming service, is the story of Christopher Duntsch, who is now serving a life sentence . The couple had two children together. This very friend would later end up a quadriplegic under Duntsch's weapon of a scalpel. And who will Dr. Death be? This way, no one recognizes them as the inventors. He also needed his legs. The University of Tennessee refused to comment on grounds of confidentiality, but neurosurgeon Dr. Frederick Boop, under whom Duntsch completed his residency, knew. 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. Their suffering becomes yours. 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 contends the patient was just trying to get painkillers. At the time, Young was giving birth to their second boy. 2020 THE SUN, US, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED | TERMS OF USE | PRIVACY | YOUR AD CHOICES | SITEMAP, Joshua Jackson (right) portrays Christopher Duntsch, aka Dr Death, on the new Peacock limited series, Alec Baldwin (right) plays Dr Robert Henderson, The role of Dr Randall Kirby is portrayed by Christian Slater (right), Credit: Dallas Surgical Specialists/ Barbara Nitke/Peacock, AnnaSophia Robb (right) takes on the role of Michelle Shughart, Dominic Burgess (right) is Jerry Summers on the series, Molly Griggs (right) portrays Wendy Young on Dr Death, Dr Death - Trailer for the Peacock series based on the true story of Christopher Duntsch, Dr Death cast vs real people See photos of Christopher Duntsch, Michelle Shughart & more. Martin was a 55-year-old woman who had lived with back pain for nearly a year after a fall in her kitchen. 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 was the oldest of fourhe has two brothers, Nathan and Matt, and a sister, Lizand attended a private high school. In reality, he makes everything so, so much worse. Morgan didnt follow Duntsch after Baylor Plano. Prosecutors argued that the disgraced doctor had used his scalpel and hands as weapons to seriously injure or kill his patients. Duntsch could have turned it into something good and meaningful. It was something that made us all nervous, but we never had any proof, Boop said in the phone call. Soon though, red flags began to pop up. Christopher Duntsch was disorganized and undeliberate. His screams poured out of Baylor Planos intensive care unit and down the hallway, creating a panic in his mother. She woke up with severe pain and couldnt stand. But she wasnt in the room when he woke up a quadriplegic, telling anyone with ears that Duntsch had been using cocaine the night before the procedure. He gained experience writing grants, and earned more than $3 million in local, state, and federal funding for research projects where he served as principal or co-principal investigator. Link your TV provider to stream full episodes and live TV. At University General Hospital, Kirby had been granted emergency privileges to operate on a Duntsch patient named Jeffery Glidewell. The 31 people who survived Dr. Duntsch's scalpel face a struggle for the rest of their lives. If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with it. Duntsch hired Morgan while he was still with the Minimally Invasive Spine Institute, and she began on August 29, 2011. Duntsch grew up in a middle-class family. If a person died in the fourth-floor apartment of a complex in Collin County, Passmore was the one who hiked up those four flights with somewhere around 20 pounds of gear on his back and got that body back down. By this time his wife and he had separated and he also filed for bankruptcy. 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. The very first complaint should have triggered an investigation. Duntsch harmed many of his patients, including his childhood friend Jerry Summers. 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. He filed for bankruptcy in Denver, and wound up selling off the shares in Discgenics for a tenth of their value. He wasnt paranoid. James Gunn has used the 'Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special' as a "trojan horse" to introduce some elements of the upcoming third film in the series.The 40-minute holiday special features Drax (Dave Bautista) and Mantis' (Pom Klementieff) bid to help Peter Quill (Chris Pratt) rediscover his love of the festive season, but the director admitted the one-off Disney+ feature Plano surgeon Christopher Duntsch left a trail of bodies. Duntsch says he was so distraught by Browns outcome that he placed a screw in Efurd 3 millimeters away from where it shouldve been, damaging a nerve root. He was taller than 6 feet, with a stubby nose and neatly cropped hair above bright blue eyes, and he had crafted a strategy that endeared him to patients and to referring physicians: Im the best, hed tell them. Unfortunately, it became the patients' burden to bear. The door opened and Young found Duntsch, who had earned the moniker Dr. He seemed really distraught and I was scared, she said of the father of her two children. Shes 33 now and doesnt live in Dallas anymore. She was a National . Around this time, Drs. Duntsch suspected that this had something to do with his vodka bottle and neurostimulants. It said he was $1 million in debt. So the hospitals he worked for knew of his carelessness and sociopathic behavior in the OR. It got to be too much. In the two years he practiced as a spine surgeon across four Dallas institutions, Duntsch operated on 37 people. She says his favorite saying was You can kiss my black ass while Im watching black-girl porn on my monitor. Which may help explain why she didnt report the three-page email he sent on December 9, 2011. They numbed the pain radiating from his lower back, down each of his legs. He may have figured, at first, that he was protected. Or at least a morally upright one. That's when he moved to Colorado to live with his parents. Strangely enough, Dr. Boop also mentioned, "I have not operated with Chris." It was clear to anyone whos not a complete idiot that they were a thing, he says. There is no way to communicate what happened there, without a 20-page document of disclosures and events and responsible parties, Duntsch once wrote of Brown and Efurd. 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. He alleged that Duntsch promised to pay him in stocks and out of his own salary but failed to follow through. 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. 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. Its less than a millimeter from the spinal canal. He was born in Montana, but his family settled in a suburb east of Memphis where the median household income is about $30,000 higher than the rest of the country.