The question of how Duntsch was able to operate with impunity for so longwhen surrounded by many people who tried to raise the alarm and faileddrives Dr. Death, which jumps across time in each episode to show what the doctor was like as a young man, friend and medical student, and then later as a surgeon, a partner and a father. While Baylor-Plano conducted an investigation of Duntsch and his cases, and found that he would need to be let go, Duntsch was not technically fired from the hospital. The docuseries is a real-life companion piece to Peacock's scripted crime drama, Dr. Death, which premiered this summer. It doesn't place the patient or the victim at the front, it protects the institution first and then somewhere down the line comes the patient. Were there times when you would look at drafts and be like, "Maybe we should pull back on the administrative stuff?" had hundreds, but I figured the most important ones were the ones that play a role in the trial. But more importantly, he explained how he got inside the head of a man who it would be all-too-easy to write off as pure evil. ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY What is Dr. Death's origin story? Christophers baby mama Wendy Young described him and Jerry as the party boys, and Jerry described just how true that was. Right? Dr. Death was fired before the end of his first week for the damage hed inflicted on Brown and Efurd. The former doctor will not be eligible for parole until 2045 when he will be 74 years old. Were there podcasts that you looked to as an example, or that sort of influenced you when you knew you were going to be doing a podcast story like this? (He was later let go from the company over money issues). It was the status, because his friend Rand Page, said that he actually never intended to be a neurosurgeon, that he was gonna work at this [stem cell treatment] company and make his fortune there. Both the scripted Dr. Death series and the Dr. Death: The Undoctored Story docuseries are now streaming on Peacock. 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. He decided hed be a neurosurgeon and was not going to let anything, including lack of skill or training, stop him in his quest. JACKSON: We were bouncing between time periods a lot. Martin would become Duntschs first casualty when she bled out in intensive care unit after her relatively common procedure. This attitude and outlook stuck with Duntsch as he set out to achieve something beyond football and landed on surgery. Stars of 'Tiger King' : Where Are They Now? JACKSON: Well, yeah, it gives you a healthy skepticism. Alec Baldwin and Christian Slater in 'Dr. Plenty, plenty, plenty, plenty. 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 Duntsch's story takes place. So while I was writing in August and September of 2018, I had asked to reach out. We definitely amped up the sound effects. And so, in the end, I did have to trust them, and I do. Jamie Dornan was originally attached to play Christopher in the beginning. Dr. Christopher Duntsch had the hallmarks of an impressive neurosurgeon, at least in theory. This meant Summers could still feel pain, but was unable to move from the neck down. We would be lauding him for what he was doing because to this day, several of his patents are still being used in the use of stem cells and neurosurgery. Speaking only for myself, I could have listened to seven hours of the incredibly graphic stuff. 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. Floella Brown went under Dr. Death's knife in July 2012 and shortly after her surgery, she suffered a massive stroke caused by Duntsch slicing her vertebral artery during surgery. He was charming. [3] They never would've made it to 38 surgeries. Did you talk a lot about how gory to make the surgeries? I have to say, it was nice to do something different. I didnt want listeners to grow tired of peoples pain. Over the course of two years, Christopher Duntsch operated on 38 patients in the Dallas area. The good news is, is we had thousands of pages of research, thousands of pages of court documents, tons of hours of interviews. Would they have been just as willing to take on a pediatrician who had some baggage? Christopher Duntsch gave me my first hit of acid.. You had people on crutches. That it needs to be noted that like, well, you can only give these ladies so many slots. Does that make sense? Well, the whole email thats coming up in episode three Its hard to pick out because it just goes on and on. And what happened after shows how Duntsch was able to continue working as a surgeon in Texas, despite the trail of broken trust, chronic pain and death he left behind. And so, that was one of my goals to start out with, is to just report the hell out of it. So we shot the episodes in three different bricks. this link is to an external site that may or may not meet accessibility guidelines. You can't ask for a story that is so ready-made. I would say that he and I both were cokeheads. Philip Mayfield, one of Christopher Duntschs patients, who was paralyzed after his surgery. It was also perhaps the definitive portrait of Orange County, California. And so, as it goes along, theres sort of less and less about what he did to each person. Death' Before 33 Operations Went Wrong, The True Story Behind Hulu's 'Boston Strangler', The Best True Crime Documentaries to Stream Now, Get a First Look at Joshua Jackson, Christian Slater in 'Dr. Christopher Duntsch may be the most famous neurosurgeon in Texas. Basically someone listened to Dirty John who knew about the story of Christopher Duntsch emailed in and said, Hey, you should get a load of this guy. Because he had gotten a lot of local media attention, but I dont think he was getting huge national attention. And I had none of those things. I think Ava is the first person to have a completely female directed show on Queen Sugar. And thankfully, knock on wood, I've never had some spectacularly horrific outcome, like Christopher Duntsch, but I grew up in Canada and I'm Canadian. And thats really true for any medical story, I think. 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. Despite being known in Texas as a doctor to avoid (at least among professional peers), and despite a report to the data bank and an investigation into his cases by the state medical board, Duntsch continued to be hired. What are the potential pitfalls for you as a reporter? Well, it was familiar content-wise because Im a medical reporter, so Ive never covered anything else. Dr. Death is a new true-crime series on Peacock about the story of Dr. Christopher Duntsch. And so, I think thats what made him an attractive hire. "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.". KEEP READING: 'Dr. Inside The Death Of Chris Benoit, The Professional Wrestler Who Killed His Family And Then Himself, Archaeologists Just Uncovered A Massive Roman Phallic Carving In Spain And It Might Be The Biggest Ever Found, What Stephen Hawking Thinks Threatens Humankind The Most, 27 Raw Images Of When Punk Ruled New York, Join The All That's Interesting Weekly Dispatch. How does a doctor get away with something like this? She was a National . He was putting stuff in the wrong place. My instinct was that the only way, that this man has to be evil, because there has to be a reason why all of this spectacularly bad stuff happened and the simplest and easiest answers he's evil. One woman remembered Duntsch taking LSD and cocaine throughout one night, before leaving the next morning for his hospital shift. Hed had a whole string of bad surgeries before it even came to the attention of the medical board. And I, as an actor, want to have the ability to work for the whole smorgasbord of humanity as my directors, as my costars, as my writers, because it makes the stories that we're telling more compelling, not less. Many in the crowd wore the custom eye masks wed been given, to add to the audio immersion effect. So really for us, we're in a place where we're actually conscious of it, but the industry still has time to go. But the actuality is, is that these hospitals will protect themselves. Collider: And I wanted to start off just by kind of asking, there's so much of the character that you're playing, especially given that it's based on a real person, and I was wondering, what was key for you in terms of unlocking how to approach it? By the time the Texas Medical Board revoked his license in June 2013, Duntsch had left two patients dead. Follow her on Twitter at @lizlet. Theres a lot of attorneys not allowing things in this story it seems like. Death. And so there was no world where they were going to let him speak to me. It mightve taken longer. On paper, Duntsch was a star pick for any hospital system once he completed his residency, thanks to years of research and study of the use of stem cells and several strong recommendations from his prior supervisors. But unfortunately, despite the fact I am winning it is not happening fast enough. This position also granted him operating privileges at Baylor Regional Medical Center (Baylor-Plano). The system was attracted to his very real charms. Was that something that he knew? But depositions from Duntschs peers who knew him around that time period, between 2006 and 2008, point to cracks in the facade. Yeah, hopefully even just asking that question today almost feels a little bit dated. I think Patrickhe chose a very difficult path of how to tell this story, particularly by centering Duntsch. WFAA-TVChristopher Duntsch a.k.a. 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. Because the reality is, is that we're a training craft business. Duntschs substance abuse was brought to the attention of the University of Tennessee following an anonymous complaint that he was doing drugs before work. But even inside it, there was some times where sequences would line up as chronological, but the timeline was a lot to keep your head around. So I think that's a totally valid question and I'm happy to be a part of now several shows that have been part of moving in that direction, but the feet needed to be held to the fire so that we don't slide back. 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. This time on 53-year-old Mary Efurd. Vince Mancini is on Twitter. Of course, podcast producers are subject to the same profit motive that helped facilitate a guy like Duntsch, but to their credit, Wonderys producers seem to have realized that a story like Dr. Deaths needed to be built on a foundation of solid reporting. I have to figure out how to humanize this guy.'. And then in this case, it seems like if there is a mystery its just, what is this guys deal? One improved, and I think there were four, maybe that werent hurt, but they werent helped either. Coverage of Duntschs case, the podcast series and the now-streaming Peacock series all make sure to underscore that his story is part of a major systemic failurea common theme in true crime stories. Was there anything that was particularly hard not to include? So, he would have the title of neurosurgeon, but he wouldnt actually have to do surgery. But police sayanemail Duntsch wrote in 2011 points to his mind-set in the months before he "intentionally, knowingly and recklessly" messed up the procedures. Before that, Naomi was a criminal justice reporter in Dallas, New Orleans and Baton Rouge. Per the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Duntsch will be eligible for parole on July 20, 2045, when he is 74 years old. In Canada, health is a right. And then the rest were injuries. 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 2013, he had bounced around between hospitals, tarnished his reputation and had his medical license revoked. He was intelligent. That was probably the biggest adjustment for me, was just the spareness of the script. Jennifer Morrison, I've actually known for a very long time. He joined the publication in 2021 on the crime beat. Right? We went out of our way to let your imagination do the work. I knew I had to get across that even if you think you know the story of Christopher Duntsch, you dont really know the whole story. I felt sick for most of the last three years in the best possible way. Around 2006 and 2007, Duntsch began to become unhinged. He graduated from a top-tier medical school, was running research labs, and completed a residency program for neurosurgery. The charismatic neurosurgeon was actually a successful researcher before he starting killing people in the operating room. So, while I wish that the administrations acted sooner, at the end of the day, and this is something that I've said for quite a bit now, Christopher Duntsch deserves to be in jail for the rest of his life, because how he acted was completely inhuman and any human that had that ability to feel would have stopped after the first or second surgeries. Our intent was to present the story as best we could, and then allow audiences to take away from it whatever they would like to, because I just don't believe that we can answer why someone like Christopher Duntsch is or why he did what he did. You can find out more and change our default settings with Cookies Settings. Philip Mayfield, one of Christopher Duntsch's patients, who was paralyzed after his surgery. So for those of us at just the human level who are interacting with them, we have to realize that we don't just need the systems that have been created to operate better. Duntsch agreed by voicemail to an interview for this story on Wednesday, but did not return subsequent calls for comment. In a one-on-one interview with Collider, showrunner Patrick Macmanus explained how he approached telling the story of Duntsch's rise and fall while being fully aware that explaining his motivations would never be truly possible, how important it was to examine both Duntsch the man as well as the reasons why he was able to keep working as long as he did, and how having figures like Kirby and Henderson eased the way in adapting the podcast. Christopher Duntsch was allowed to keep on moving because he himself represented value in the specialty that he was in, in frankly, the face that he presented, he was valuable to these institutions. Ellis Unit outside of Huntsville,Texas. After this, life for Duntsch fell apart. Dr. Death stars Joshua Jackson as Christopher Duntsch, with supporting performances from Alec Baldwin, Christian Slater, AnnaSophia Robb and Grace Gummer. Prior to his death earlier this year, Jerry discussed his relationship with Christopher in a new interview for Peacocks Dr. Death: The Undoctored Story. Duntsch was fired after he performed a surgery and immediately left for Las Vegas, leaving no one to look after his patient. I thought he was either really, really good, or hes just really, really arrogant and thought he was good, Hoyle said. Thats why planes dont crash that often. In order to tell the story they hired Laura Beil as the lead reporter. That made it easy for him to hide from his past for a certain period of time. 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. 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. But the truth was far more complex. There, other surgeons quickly realized their new colleague was not just arrogant about his abilities but an actual danger to his patients as the casualties began adding up. Liz Shannon Miller is a Los Angeles-based writer and editor, and has been talking about television on the Internet since the very beginnings of the Internet. I can tell you that I do believe that he was a product of nature, nurture and the system that enabled him to be able to do what he did. Dr. Death, a story Wonderys producers heard about through Dirty Johns tips email, feels perhaps less like a show on Oxygen, though its arguably more relevant. And frankly, if it hadnt been for a couple doctors who were watching him, who knows? And that's only four years ago. I do believe he was born as a narcissistic sociopath. But I think, it is good. Duntsch was eventually stopped, thanks in no small part to the two doctors who worked to expose him (played by Christian Slater and Alec Baldwin). 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. For months, they stopped getting reports about messed up operations and thought theyd found success. And I didnt need to go into all the gory details. By the time we get to Jeff Glidewell, its horrible. As those watching the show know, Christopher was dubbed "Dr. Death" in D Magazine for his botched surgeries that caused the death of several patients and left others with disabling injuries. There were some doctors and some plaintiffs attorneys, and later on journalists, who were all working to try to stop this guy. One thing I learned is that there are a lot fewer details if youre asking people to hold the story in their heads. Season 1 tells the story of Christopher Duntsch, a Texas surgeon who was convicted of gross malpractice after thirty-one of his patients were left seriously injured after he operated on them, and two patients died . 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. The podcast series and ProPublica report that Duntsch was ordered by the university to take a drug test, but managed to avoid it. You had people in walkers. Caroline is a writer and Florida-transplant currently living in New York City. His very first operation at the hospital would once again turn deadly. Such significant injuries should have been never eventssomething that should never occur in an operating room, a surgeon told D Magazine, which covers the Dallas-Fort Worth area, in a 2016 piece that inspired the eventual Dr. Death podcast. What do you think are some of the contributing factors? [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. "Never ever f***ing argue with me and banter or what the f*** ever in front of anyone. How did this happen? 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. She has a degree in political economy from Tulane University. Right? 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. In terms of the production, were you shooting at all chronologically or was itwere you kind of bouncing between time periods? Out of his 38 surgeries, only three had no complications. 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Well, let me think for a second. 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. We're moving in the right direction. Christopher Duntsch, the focus of Peacock's true crime series Dr. Death, looked good on paper. 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. We need to actually reform them. In 2013, things came to a tragic head. No. Dr. Death in surgery. 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. I couldnt go beyond that. They dont want to go participate in any extraneous activities, and he was totally fine going to work.. But I did have to let go and trust them. So, in this case, it was just a lot that went wrong, starting with the fact of Duntsch himself. I didnt take them as funny, I took them as really creepy though. To become a neurosurgeon, one typically has to complete over 1000 surgeries in residency, but somehow, reporter Laura Beil discovered that Duntsch only completed 100. In the doc, Jerry, who died in February from an infection connected to the botched surgery Christopher performed on him in 2011, gave an interview about their friendship and the operation that eventually led to his death. White men also have stories to tell. JOSHUA JACKSON: Well, the first key and probably the most difficult hurdle for me to get over was to not judge him. Ellis Unit in Huntsville and will be. 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. Later, following another accusation that he was abusing drugs before doing surgeries, Duntsch was relegated to mostly minor surgical procedures at the hospital. After youve spent a night using cocaine, most people become paranoid and want to stay in the house, the woman said in the deposition, according to D Magazine. And that was a revolutionary act. He had 15 years of medical training under his belt, his CV reportedly spanned 12 single-spaced pages and he exuded confidence all of which landed him a job performing minimally invasive spinal surgeries. She is also a produced playwright, a host of podcasts, and a repository of "X-Files" trivia. 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 dead. But on the other hand, they knew you had to have certain sounds to make the experience really real for people, and really immersive. And so, when youre writing, its like, Okay, well, what is this have to do with the tape thats coming up? Something in print, you dont have these really long quotes for people.
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