It sounds like the plot of a twisted horror movie – a patient has routine back surgery and wakes up paralysed – or not at all.
Charismatic and charming, Dr Christopher Daniel Duntsch was considered a rising star in the Dallas, Texas, medical community, until his patients began leaving routine spinal surgeries permanently maimed.
Inspired by the Wondery podcast of the same name, Stan’s TV drama Dr Death follows the shocking real-life events that eventually led to the imprisonment of the former neurosurgeon Duntsch in 2017.
The medico, 50, played in the TV show by Joshua Jackson, earned his macabre nickname after his surgeries resulted in at least two deaths and left 30 people paralysed.
Known among colleagues for big-noting his abilities, Duntsch won over patients by telling them he was the best surgeon in his field, once boasting, “Everybody’s doing it wrong. I’m the only clean minimally invasive guy in the whole state.”
SURGERY HORROR
But in 2010, after joining Baylor Regional Medical Center, three of Duntsch’s patients – including his longtime friend Jerry Summers – woke from surgery immobile.
Jerry was supposed to have two neck vertebrae fused. Instead, he woke unable to move his limbs after Duntsch removed large amounts of muscle tissue, rendering him a quadriplegic.
Meanwhile, pool service company owner Barry Mongoloff was left wheelchair-bound after Duntsch tried to pull a damaged disc out of his back with a grabbing tool.
Incredibly, they were luckier than some of Duntsch’s other patients. Kellie Martin never made it out of the operating theatre alive despite going into hospital for a minor back operation.
The 54-year-old bled to death after Duntsch severed a major artery in her spine.
Before the surgeon could face repercussions for his actions, he resigned and moved to Dallas Medical Center in 2012 where he continued to operate.
But less than a week later, administrators pulled Duntsch’s surgical privileges after the death of Floella Brown, 63, who had a stroke and was declared brain dead a day after her surgery.
.jpg?resize=380%2C285&format=auto)
By then he’d also maimed another patient. Mary Efurd, 74, woke from routine spinal surgery paralysed and in what she described as “excruciating pain”.
It was later discovered Duntsch had severed nerve roots during the spinal fusion and left surgical hardware inside Mary. Incredibly he’d also operated on the wrong area of her back.
Several people who were in the operating room for Mary’s procedure suspected Duntsch might have been intoxicated during the operation, reporting that his pupils appeared dilated.
It wasn’t the first time he’d been accused of working under the influence.
While completing his residency at Memphis State University, he was sent to rehab during his fourth year of medical school after friends reported seeing him using LSD and cocaine before conducting patient rounds.
Duntsch’s actions soon caught the attention of two fellow physicians, vascular surgeon Randall Kirby and neurosurgeon Robert Henderson, who undertook corrective surgery on the injured patients.
Dr Henderson was appalled when he looked into Duntsch’s surgery on Mary.
“My first thought as I discovered the gravity of the situation was that this man might not have even been trained as a physician, let alone a surgeon,” Dr Henderson told People magazine. “I can’t conceive of a way he wasn’t aware that he was hurting patients.”
Dr Kirby described the surgeon’s work as that of a “crazed maniac.”
“I wouldn’t call him a psychopath, because psychopaths are usually deliberate and they’re organised. Christopher Duntsch was disorganised and undeliberate. I’d call him a sociopath,” he said at the time.
Dr Kirby complained to the Texas Medical Board, calling Duntsch “a clear and present danger to the citizens of Texas”.
And after extensive lobbying from the two doctors, Duntsch’s medical licence was finally revoked by the Texas Medical Board in December 2013.
Eighteen months later, Duntsch was arrested and charged with six felony counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, five counts of aggravated assault causing serious bodily injury and one count of injury to an elderly person.
Michelle Shugart, who led the criminal prosecution against Duntsch, cited one long, bizarre email he sent in 2011 as proof the doctor’s actions were intentional. He wrote, “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.”
In 2017, Duntsch was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment.
