Alexander Zverev was dumped out in the last 16 of the ATP tournament in Munich, suffering a straight sets defeat to Christopher O'Connell on Thursday. A version of this story ran in the September 2013 issue. Next week marks the five-year anniversary of Texas neurosurgeon Christopher Duntsch being sentenced to life in prison. The only entity that could stop Duntsch from seeing more patients was the Texas Medical Board. What all this means is that the Texas Legislature has committed the state to a policy of medical deregulationa free-market system in which doctors can practice as they please with limited government interference. 2023 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Satellite Information Network, LLC. She would be present during the spinal . On the tape, Henderson demands to know why Duntsch is still practicing. His younger brother, Nathan, said he had spoken to Duntschs friend and former employee, Jerry Summers, who was left a quadriplegic after one of the botched surgeries. His victims also had descriptors. According to ProPublica, most neurosurgery residents perform 1,000 operations; Duntsch completed 100. Within a month of hiring Kimberly Morgan, who was a nurse practitioner, to help him run his new practice, the pair were sleeping together, according to the podcast. Kayla Keegan leads Good Housekeepings editorial growth strategies in the partnership, news, social, branded, membership and newsletter spaces. [2] The division consists of two tiers within it: Premier Division A and Premier Division B. "He destroyed the lives of essentially every single patient that he touched," Joshua Jackson, who plays Duntsch in Dr. Death, told Newsweek. Duntsch was convicted and sentenced to life behind bars. I dont know what it is, she said. "I think all of us will be thinking about things like this, and hopefully there will be some tighter controls, more accountability in a lot of areas so something like this wont happen again. But as investigators took a look back at Christopher's history and consulted with those who knew him, what they discovered was quite disturbing. I couldnt believe a trained surgeon could do this, Henderson told me. Death,which tells a dramatized version of the doctors brief, but deadly, medical career in Texas, including thestruggles he faced in his complicated romantic life as he tried to juggle multiplerelationships. Two days later, once Efurd was stable, Henderson was assigned to do the repair surgery. 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. The answer, in both cases, seems to be very little. Dr. Robert Henderson, a Dallas-based orthopedic surgeon who worked to alert authorities about Duntsch, had his own take. In 2005, partway through the six-year program, he became the director of the tissue bank. But the Medical Board wasnt designed to be an aggressive enforcer. When she responds, shes quiet. "The nerve root had been severed. All rights reserved. Prince Charming, Imgonnachange your life, Young toldCNBCsAmerican Greed inan episode airing earlier this year. The investigator, Maria Lopez, lets him yell. As they dressed for surgery, Duntsch boasted to Kirby that he was the best neurosurgeon in Dallas. He nicked the patients vertebral artery, causing the space he was working in to fill with blood. She said Duntsch came highly recommended. and a Ph.D. from a top-tier medical school, a decade of experience, and a central role in a pioneering stem-cell treatment. He had amputated a nerve root, Henderson said. I'm a complex spine surgeon. Speaking to Inside Edition, they called him "a snake in the grass," "a monster," "drug addict" and even "a psychopath.". When he arrived in Dallas in late 2010, Duntsch's resume spoke of a skilled neurosurgeon: An M.D. But as in many other areas in Texasbenzene pollution from hydraulic fracturing sites; ammonium nitrate pileups at fertilizer plantsMartins death and Summers paralysis fell into a regulatory no mans land. He had a doctorate in molecular biology as well as a medical degree from the University. He doesnt care what he has left in his wake.. In 2015, Duntsch was charged with five counts of aggravated assault for allegedly mishandling spinal surgeries, and one count of injuring an elderly person, according to the Dallas Morning News. Is it right for him go to away, to be thrown away when all of them profited? she said of the hospitals that hired him. During the surgery, Duntsch sliced into one of the arteries running down Summers spine, causing massive bleeding, which he tried to staunch by packing coagulants around the wound. For 33 patients of Texas neurosurgeon Christopher Duntsch, it was a reality. The series is set to premiere on July 12 and will feature a star-studded cast. He was a megalomaniac. Many of his patients suffered severe spinal cord damage, resulting in paralysis and pain severe enough to render painkillers ineffective. Duntsch briefly enrolled at CSU in the fall of 1991 when he was 20 years old. For a temporary suspension, the standard is even higher than the boards other enforcement actions. That veneer is how Duntsch was able to set up a practice in Dallas and obtain surgical privileges at Baylor Scott & White Medical Center in Plano, Texas. I left with him and believed in him and then, you know, he just kind of fell apart., Duntschs disturbing fall from grace is also chronicled in the new Peacock seriesDr. Kirby, the surgeon from Baylor, was philosophical. Jurors convicted Duntsch Tuesday of injury to an elderly person in the botched July 2012 surgery that put Mary Efurd in a wheelchair. Near the end of his report, Kirby wrote, The [Medical Board] must stop this sociopath Duntsch immediately or he will continue [to] maim and kill innocent patients. Perhaps it was the completeness and forcefulness of his presentation, perhaps it was the fact that another neurosurgeon had just joined the board, and he understood as none of the rest did the severity of what Duntsch had done. 2 Killer doctor Christopher Duntsch Credit: Social Media - Refer to Source Where is Christopher Duntsch AKA Dr. Death now? Friends since they played football together in high school, Summers helped Duntsch stay organized while he worked in the lab during his residency. His daughter, Caitlin Martin-Linduff, was relieved and tearful to know Duntsch will never hurt anyone again. And a system in which theres no way to know for sure if your doctor is dangerous. 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. The. He saw himself as a brilliant doctor and a brilliant surgeon. But Young would never get the happy ending she had envisioned with the doctor. The two-week trial especially focused on Mary Efurd's testimony. During the summer of 2012, as Duntsch was searching for a new hospital, another doctor who had witnessed Duntschs errors at Baylor sent a complaint about Duntsch to the Medical Board, according to Kirby. Photos, illustrations and other art may be available for syndication but must be confirmed. Even if a plaintiff wins the maximum award, after you pay your lawyer and your experts and go through, potentially, years of trial, not much is left. . The pair met in 2011 at a Memphis bar, known as the Beauty Shop, according toa 2016D Magazineprofile of Duntschs scandalous medical career. I think what happened is that as things began to fall apart, the only thing he knew was to try harder, Don Duntsch said. Death.. Before going to medical school, Duntsch wanted to be a pro-football player. "He has a job inside the prison. Sometimes we know that someones bad, but when it comes to taking them to a hearing and proving it to where we can actually do some disciplinary action, it takes time of gathering evidence. In 2018, she was living in Springtown with her new boyfriends parents and had just given birth to a third child she shares with her newpartner. In one, Duntsch tells the story, over stock footage of an operation, of a taxing back surgery he performed on an older woman. Jurors heard from Duntschs father, mother, brother and a family friend who sought to appeal to the sympathies of the jury. Every time a doctor loses clinical privileges at a hospital, or has them suspended, hospitals are required by law to notify the National Practitioner Databank. He listed the cause of death as therapeutic misadventure, according to his report. The Peacock originalDr Deathis based on atrue story. Another doctor compared Duntsch to Hannibal Lecter three times in eight minutes. Dr Deathis a new limited series about the rise and fall of Duntsch. Deathand the intense media scrutiny surrounding the shocking case would drive Young out of Dallas with the couples two sons. At trial, prosecutors opted only to pursue the harming an elderly person charge connected to his failed surgery on MaryEfurd; however, other victims would also testify at trial. Peacock's Dr. Death is a chilling dramatization of the real-life story of former neurosurgeon Christopher Duntsch.As those watching the show know, Christopher was dubbed "Dr. Death" in D Magazine . We rely on the generosity of our readers who believe that this work is important. The jury found Duntsch guilty of injury to an elderly person (Efurd), and sentenced him to life in prison. Even Christopher's childhood friend, Jerry Summers, was unable to move his arms and legs after entrusting the surgeon with a cervical fusion surgery. As D Magazine put it, "His outcomes were so poor, so beyond the accepted standard of care, that a grand jury indicted him on five counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon as well as a single count of harming an elderly patient." He was found guilty of his crimes in 2017 and sentenced to life in prison. He has nothing. And because the story of what he's accused of doing to 33 patients he operated on while . They know if they try to discipline a doctor, the burden of proof will be on them. Duntschs license is currently on temporary suspension pending further action by the board. Nicknamed "Dr. Death," the story of Duntsch's egregious medical crimes and the healthcare system that failed so. And Ill reflect back on how difficult those first months were afterwards. Shes also worked as a social editor for House Beautiful and had previous writing stints at Redbook,CosmopolitanandSeventeen. 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. And the only thing she complained about was she couldnt find what she wanted to watch on TV.. I left with him and believed in him and then, you know, he just kind of fell apart.. 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.". Dr. Randall Kirby was another surgeon at Baylor Plano. They showed photos of him as a baby, as a toddler, and as a boy getting a soccer ball for Christmas. During a spinal surgery on his childhood friend and roommate, Jerry Summers, Duntsch damaged an artery and rendered him a quadriplegic. This guy already killed somebody, made another a quad, made a partial paraplegic out of my patient. I said, He needs to be stopped. 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.. He resigned soon after, with full clinical privileges. Another suffered a sliced vertebral artery which led to a stroke and later death. Duntschwho was just completing a prestigious spine surgery fellowship in Tennesseebought Young an appletini and the two immediately clicked. The "deadly weapons" were his hands and surgical tools. But its more complicated than that. By all appearances, he had simply decided to leave. The 2022 Calcutta Football League Premier Division was the 124th overall season of the two highest state-level football divisions of West Bengal. The board fined him $3,000, assigned him a monitor, and required him to take classes in medical recordkeeping. He was horrified to realize that Duntsch was going to keep practicing. In 2017, Duntsch was sentenced to life in prison after being found guilty of maiming one of his patients. We now know that the Texas Medical Board was working behind the scenes in summer 2012, trying to find grounds to temporarily suspend Duntschs license. 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. Over this period, Duntsch performed back surgeries that left his patients in a worse condition, paralyzed, or deceased. Its not clear how much Dallas Medical Center officials knew about Duntschs past or how much Baylor told them. She said she thought he was going to make millions. Neither hospital would talk about Duntsch for this story. Duntsch, 44, is the first surgeon known to be sentenced to prison for a botched surgery. He told Young that Morgan was his assistant and there was nothing romantic going on between the pair. They used phrases like the worst surgeon Ive ever seen. One doctor I spoke with, brought in to repair one of Duntschs spinal fusion cases, remarked that it seemed Duntsch had learned everything perfectly just so he could do the opposite. Was it that he was unqualified and completely unaware of regional anatomy? For one, there was alleged drug and alcohol abuse. Only their consciences, and those of their fellow doctors, limit them. Things were rough during the state budget crisis in 2011, but now hiring is back up to normal. In the two years he practiced as a spine surgeon across four Dallas institutions, Duntsch operated on 37 people. Dr. Christopher Duntschs patients ended up maimed and dead, but the real tragedy is that the Texas Medical Board couldnt stop him. Travel ban concerns some in Iowa, which relies on foreign-born doctors. They all received the same response Henderson had: Send us what you have, and well get back to you. Public Citizen found that 793 Texas doctors had lost clinical privileges between 1990 and 2011. Culture TV Peacock True Crime. 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. Kalighat MS (Division B) Matches played. Why Trust Us? The point isnt that all doctors are dangerous, or even that any more than a tiny minority are. Prior to her new position, she was the Senior News and Entertainment Editor for the brand, covering and editing all things in the entertainment, pop culture and celebrity world forGood Housekeeping. Maybe, he sighed, we should have gotten a second opinion.. He had a slick marketing team in Best Docs Network, a physician PR company that pumps out infomercials to local TV stations. Another had 13 civil judgments against him, including for wrongful death, permanent injury and two cases of removing the wrong body part. .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. On June 26, the board held an emergency meeting and suspended Duntschs license. Duntschs explanation, along with the email from Baylor, was enough to get him a trial run of five surgeries at Dallas Medical Center. Christopher Duntsch's case was the subject of Wondery's podcast, "Dr. Death," which was released in 2018. Weve seen neurosurgeons get in trouble but not one such as this, in terms of the number of medical errors in such a short time.. In February 2013, for unclear reasons, the board took his license. Some drag on for years. "Rather than protecting the public from harm, Baylor allowed him [Duntsch] to be passed on from hospital to hospital," Van Wey told the Dallas News. We may earn commission from links on this page, but we only recommend products we back. In November 2011 he was granted surgical privileges at Baylor Regional Medical Center of Plano. He injured or killed 33 surgical patients between 2011 and 2013. Her spine was pockmarked with screw holes, and a screw had been lodged in another nerve root near the bottom of her spine," D Magazine describes. He was a genius, Ellison said,adding that Morgan initially felt she had found the one.. But the Legislature hindered plaintiffs cases even more by allowing hospitals to, in most cases, keep credentialing information confidential. Dr. Death is a new true-crime series on Peacock about the story of Dr. Christopher Duntsch. "I think its going to be like a floodgate thats going to really open, crying. Kellie Martin and Floella Brown died. According to Baylor, Duntsch had clinical privileges when he resigned. Death Showrunner Breaks Down Turning Hit Podcast Into New Drama Series On Peacock, (And if you want to dive even deeper into the story, you can also watch the new docuseries, on Peacock, which features interviews with numerous people intimately involved in the case. She alsoalleged tothe magazine that he broke into her apartment, showing up one day covered in blood. Hewould go on to have another child with Youngwho finally split from the struggling doctor by 2014. His father was a missionary and physical therapist and his mother was a school teacher. We felt confident too.. The Collin County medical examiner who performed the autopsy was so astounded by what had happened to Kellie Martins body that he brought her back in for another examination. Im just so grateful from the bottom of my heart, she said. What remained was the Texas Medical Board. Duntsch appealed his sentence and lost the appeal in 2018. .css-1me6ynq{-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline;text-decoration-thickness:0.0625rem;text-decoration-color:#125C68;text-underline-offset:0.25rem;color:#125C68;-webkit-transition:all 0.3s ease-in-out;transition:all 0.3s ease-in-out;}.css-1me6ynq:hover{color:#595959;text-decoration-color:#595959;}Peacock's Dr. Death is a chilling dramatization of the real-life story of former neurosurgeon Christopher Duntsch. In the aftermath of the debacle, the doctors who saw Duntschs handiwork were left to make sense of what happened. Efurd woke up after surgery in horrible pain, barely able to move her legs. In 2012, the public interest research group Public Citizen commissioned a research project to cross-reference doctors sanctioned by the Texas Medical Board with those listed in the National Practitioner Databank, managed by the federal Department of Health and Human Services. "Dr. Death" and the companion docuseries "Dr. Death: The Undoctored Story" are both available to stream on Peacock now. Young is portrayed in the dramatized series by actress Molly Griggs, who brings to life the couples volatile arguments, including onedepiction in whichYoung announcesshe is pregnant just months into their relationship to a less-than-thrilled Duntsch, played by former Dawsons Creek star Joshua Jackson. In the second, while doing a cervical fusion on a woman named Floella Brown, Duntsch removed a bone from an area that was not required by any clinical or anatomical standards, resulting in injury to the vertebral artery, according to Texas Medical Board records. 2021 The Texas Observer. First, the Medical Board staff has to screen every complaint and has 45 days to decide whether the agency will act on it. In June 2010, following the media circus around the prosecution of the Kermit nurses, they filed a complaint against him. For weeks, jurors heard the accounts of patients who had been maimed or paralyzed in bungled surgeries. In the time between the first complaint to the board, and when Duntsch was finally stopped on June 26, five of his patients were seriously injured and one died. Mr. "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. Christopher Duntsch, who once claimed to be a mixture of "God, Einstein and the Antichrist," injured or killed 33 of his 38 patients in less than two years, according to prosecutors. Upon his return, Duntsch performed surgery on a patient named Kellie Martinand she bled to death. His mistakes were obvious and well-documented. The protections make some sense. (So far only Mary Efurd and the family of Floella Brown have filed suit against Duntsch, though the other patients or their families have all retained counsel as well.).