christopher duntsch interview

Only years later would the Dallas district attorneys office discover through a search of hospital records that although a typical neurosurgery resident completes about 1,000 operations during their training, Duntsch had actually done fewer than 100. And then for his early background, I relied on the testimony that his parents and his family gave at his trial, where they talked about his history. We're certainly not there yet. By 2013, he had bounced around between hospitals, tarnished his reputation and had his medical license revoked. Dirty John would seem hard to top the story of a psychotic con-man who spent his days playing Counter Strike, posing as a doctor and telling fake war stories. So what it meant for the particulars of our show is that we had three excellent directors. And I didnt need to go into all the gory details. His father was a missionary and physical therapist and his mother was a school teacher. Death.. 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? But the actuality is, is that these hospitals will protect themselves. 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 was fun to write these two characters. We went out of our way to let your imagination do the work. From 2011 to 2013, dozens of patients in the Dallas area woke up after their surgeries with horrible pain, numbness and, paralysis. The Peacock limited series Dr. Death is in many ways much more a horror story than a drama, but the villain at . 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. Scheduling just got in the way there. Nurse who worked with Dr. Duntsch recalls his experiences - YouTube "Between god, Einstein and the antichrist", Anyone close to me thinks that I likely am something between god, Einstein and the antichrist. The pair were childhood friends and eventually became roommates. 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? Jennifer Morrison, I've actually known for a very long time. But theres one lucky person who escaped, you know? 'When They See Us': Joshua Jackson, Blair Underwood & Christopher Jackson on the Netflix Limited Series, 'Dr. So the Canadian system is very different than the American system. In late 2010, Dr. Christopher Duntsch came to Dallas to start a neurosurgery practice. 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? And so, there were times that I would say, Do we really need to have ? And they were open to it all. had hundreds, but I figured the most important ones were the ones that play a role in the trial. Here are seven chilling statements from that email: Unfortunately, you cannot understand that I really am building an empire, and I am so far outside the box that the earth is small and the sun is bright. 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 . A former coworker, Dr. Randall Kirby (played by Christian Slater in the Peacock series), said he watched Duntsch botch a relatively simple procedure by refusing to use a scalpel to remove a disk, instead using a different instrument that ended up causing more damage. Christopher Duntsch gave me my first hit of acid.. Its interesting, because when I heard at the premiere, people were reacting to things that I didnt anticipate them reacting to. Following his blunders, Duntsch resigned from Baylor Plano in April 2012 before they could fire him. Its hard for me to pinpoint any one thing, because it was so many things. Speaking only for myself, I could have listened to seven hours of the incredibly graphic stuff. 2023 TIME USA, LLC. Jodi Smith. "This defendant single-handedly. Offers may be subject to change without notice. Were there any surgeries that he actually did correctly? Kirby, along with Dr. Robert Henderson (played in the series by Alec Baldwin), a spine surgeon who had been called in to fix Duntschs mistakes, were among the physicians who reported and attempted to stop him. Prior to his death earlier this year, Jerry discussed his relationship with Christopher in a new interview for Peacocks Dr. Death: The Undoctored Story. And so, the producers started Googling and decided that he would make a good story, and then they contacted me because they were looking for a local reporter in Dallas who could work on the story. That made it easy for him to hide from his past for a certain period of time. ", "You, my child, are the only one between me and the other side. How much did you worry about putting too much of that in there and it being too gory, or too graphic? Magazines, Digital Were there times when you would look at drafts and be like, "Maybe we should pull back on the administrative stuff?" Left: WFAA-TV, Right: D MagazineLeft: Christopher Duntsch in surgery, Right: Christopher Duntschs mugshot. Right? Following training, Duntsch settled in the Dallas area in 2011, joining the Minimally Invasive Spine Institute in Plano as a practicing physician. Its weird because he seems like a normal guy through most of his early life, and then he turns into this really entertaining sociopath, kind of like the guy from Dirty John. But at the end of 2012, Kirby was called to help yet another patient whod had her vocal cords and an artery cut during a neck surgerya surgery he discovered had been done by Duntsch at another clinic. I was working on a show called Happy [for SyFy] and I was sent the first three episodes of the podcast that hadn't come out yet. I know you talked to a lot of his college friends, how far back into Duntschs childhood did you want to go? And so, thats really what I zeroed in on, the whole systemic failure that allowed this to happen. At first I thought it was simply my world and that it was too much for you. So, yeah, I think the fact that he was in a profession that brings in a lot of money for hospitals was certainly a factor. Of those 38, 31 were leftparalyzed or seriously injured and two of them died from surgical complications. So what do you think, is he just crazy? WFAA-TVChristopher Duntsch a.k.a. You can find out more and change our default settings with Cookies Settings. He chose Dallas after learning that Young had family near the city and she offered to go with him. His resume included a combined MD/PhD program and neurosurgical residency at The University of Tennessee at Memphis College of Medicine and was bolstered by a prestigious spine surgery fellowship in the city, a research patent under his name and published academic papers. Philip Mayfield, one of Christopher Duntschs patients, who was paralyzed after his surgery. Death. You can take in more from a printed article. That was a big focus of Collider's one-on-one interview with Joshua Jackson, who spoke openly about the differences between the American and Canadian health care systems and why it's an important step for shows like Dr. Death to include an all-female directing team (Maggie Kiley, Jennifer Morrison, and So Yong Kim directed the eight episodes). So, in this case, it was just a lot that went wrong, starting with the fact of Duntsch himself. But the truth was far more complex. Vince Mancini is on Twitter. But neurosurgeons are big money makers. In June 2013, Duntschs medical license was suspended and fully revoked later that December. 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'. Im not saying it was the systems fault. I have 1M in debt, 10M invested, and 22 years of pain in misery already on the table", 2. Now, INSDE EDTION tracks the surgeon down to get some answers. His first drug of choice would be cocaine.. And you know, the hope and dream is that the generation that comes up behind me, it seems inconsequential whether it's all women, all men or a blend of something in the both. I'm going to answer it in a couple of different ways. Stars of 'Tiger King' : Where Are They Now? Was that something that he knew? I kind of wanted there to be three hours more of that, but when I was listening to it with some friends, they were putting their hands over their heads and saying No, no, no! They never turned it off though, which I think is telling, but it seemed like they were having a hard time listening. I limited myself to those emails that were produced as evidence in the trial, because the D.A. I have to figure out how to humanize this guy.'. I can tell you that, with the intention of allowing audiences to come to their own conclusions, my conclusion is that Christopher is an extraordinarily complex and tragic figure. 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. The day that Brown suffered her stroke, Duntsch operated again. The patient Duntsch operated on continues to walk with a cane and lives with chronic pain. Their efforts to stop him, as documented both in the podcast and show, take a long time, as Duntsch moves between hospitals and continues injuring patients. Well, let me think for a second. 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. So the training craft is being downloaded to a new generation of people whose faces look much more diverse than just a bunch of me-s. And that's good, but we're not there yet. Right? The one where EW follows up with the cast. Naomi is an enterprise/ investigative reporter who has covered Dallas County government, Parkland Memorial Hospital, juvenile detention and the county jail. 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. I didnt want listeners to grow tired of peoples pain. And I dont know that he really ever even wanted to be a neurosurgeon. What storytelling tools did you discover from working in a podcast format that you didnt have before, or maybe didnt think about before? It is good and healthy and natural and necessary for us to have other people and other perspectives, than just white men. In July, he performed an operation on a woman who lost a tremendous amount of blood and lost consciousness upon waking up after surgery. His surgeries actually get even worse. We've told lots and lots and lots of our stories. I just need to be able to do it. And he was able to explain away why he had left Baylor, and they looked at the National Practitioner data bank and there was nothing there, because Baylor hadnt reported him. 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 would say that he and I both were cokeheads. 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. By the time the Texas Medical Board revoked his license in June 2013, Duntsch had left two patients dead. 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. 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. He wanted to be the one that was front and center and really out there. They were trying to process the horror that was Christopher Duntsch as they were going along, because they couldn't answer the question that we began with: "Why does he do what he did?" 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. Death' First Trailer, The Best TV Shows on Amazon Prime Video to Stream Now. Before that, Naomi was a criminal justice reporter in Dallas, New Orleans and Baton Rouge. But from the people that I talked to, it wasnt so much the money, it was more that neurosurgeons are really prestigious, and theyre like one of the top people Like, if you go back and listen to what [Duntschs college friend and football teammate] Chris Dozois says, and how [Duntsch] was not great at being a linebacker, but he wanted to be the best one. Two patients died from his actions and many more suffered permanent injuries, including his best friend, who left Duntsch's operating room paralyzed. It was for sure, a team effort, and it was a good team. Right? How does a doctor get away with something like this? The True Story Behind Peacock's 'Dr. Death' | Time How did this happen? Over the course of two years, Christopher Duntsch operated on 38 patients in the Dallas area. Like, I could hear the people around me reacting. And that wasnt a manufactured thing. Kirby, who called the operation an attempted murder, and Henderson, both annoyed by the slow pace of the states investigation, ramped up their efforts to strip Duntsch of his practicing rights. Sign up for PEOPLE's free True Crime newsletter for breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases. In order to tell the story they hired Laura Beil as the lead reporter. So, tell me about the genesis of Dr. Death, and how it grew out of Dirty John. There were some doctors and some plaintiffs attorneys, and later on journalists, who were all working to try to stop this guy. Texas Neurosurgeon 'Dr. Dr. Death stars Joshua Jackson as Christopher Duntsch, with supporting performances from Alec Baldwin, Christian Slater, AnnaSophia Robb and Grace Gummer. Dr. Death: Where Is Christopher Duntsch Today? - Grunge Christopher Duntsch may be the most famous neurosurgeon in Texas. In July 2015, a grand jury indicted Dr. Death on five counts of aggravated assault and one count of harming an elderly person, his patient Mary Efurd, according to Rolling Stone. D MagazineChristopher Duntsch a.k.a. She is also a produced playwright, a host of podcasts, and a repository of "X-Files" trivia. Eventually, they indicted Duntsch on five counts of aggravated assault and one count of causing harm to an elderly person. Do you think we get an answer at the end of the show? Young was soon pregnantbut Duntsch had already developed a . Each very different. He is currently appealing this sentence. Ellis Unit outside of Huntsville,Texas. This position also granted him operating privileges at Baylor Regional Medical Center (Baylor-Plano). The podcast is also becoming the go-to medium for in-depth profiles of fascinating sociopaths, allowing us to marvel at the sheer breadth of human behavior as we go about our mundane daily drive to work or do chores around the house. He did his surgical residency at the University of Tennessee in Memphis, spending five years studying neurosurgery and a year studying general surgery. RELATED: 'When They See Us': Joshua Jackson, Blair Underwood & Christopher Jackson on the Netflix Limited Series. Jamie Dornan was originally attached to play Christopher in the beginning. The last hospital to employ Duntsch was the now-shuttered University General, where he botched another surgery after he mistook a patients neck muscle for a tumor. I wanted to talk to his father, and his father indicated that he did want to, but his appellate attorney wouldnt allow that for reasons that I dont understand. The doctor denies doing anything wrong. We need to actually reform them. Copyright 2023 Meredith Corporation. Patrick Macmanus also explains why the show's supporting characters were such a gift. Out of his 38 surgeries, only three had no complications. Dr. Mark Hoyle, a surgeon who worked with Duntsch during one of his botched procedures, told D Magazine that he would make extremely arrogant announcements such as: Everybody is doing it wrong. 5 years after 'Dr. Death,' doctors still come to Texas to leave pasts Theres a lot of attorneys not allowing things in this story it seems like. And that disconnect from reality, I found really compelling. Like, let the story speak for itself. Duntsch, hes an outlier for sure, but he exposed a lot of larger truths about the healthcare system. And because while we, as patients were told, well, the patient comes first. 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. So, theyre not as bad. 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. One lucky person actually improved. But the meta statement of "my gosh, a show can be shot by three women, who knew" we were 75 years past the place of thinking "can three men shoot a show all by themselves?" Summers is a former patient of Christopher Duntsch, who was nicknamed "Dr. Death." Duntsch is serving a life sentence in prison after killing and maiming more than 30 patients while working in the . Making a splash: A deep dive into the live-action, Alec Baldwin and Christian Slater team up to take down a dangerous surgeon in, Joshua Jackson replaces Jamie Dornan in Peacock's, Dr. Death review: Joshua Jackson is chilling. But there was so much that came together. In terms of the production, were you shooting at all chronologically or was itwere you kind of bouncing between time periods? Christopher Duntsch a.k.a. But in reality, you don't see a whole lot until the finale. Determined to play football for a Division I college team, Duntsch dedicated himself to training while in high school. His very first operation at the hospital would once again turn deadly. 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? JOSHUA JACKSON: Well, the first key and probably the most difficult hurdle for me to get over was to not judge him. Where Is Dr. Death Now? - Here's Where Christopher Duntsch Is Today in 2021 How much of a gift was it to have characters like the ones Alec Baldwin and Christian Slater play, to basically serve as protagonists? The best of these series retain the lurid appeal of the news magazine while offering the opportunity to go deeper; to tell stories that resonate as much as they titillate. We definitely amped up the sound effects. I have to say, it was nice to do something different. So many podcast series, from Serial to S-Town to the incomparable In The Dark, set out to solve a mystery. He was then brought on board at the Dallas Medical Center where he continued his carnage. During this time, he ran two successful labs and raised millions of dollars in grant funding. Im saying the system played a role in it, but it was clearly his fault. 'Dr. Death' Surgeon Killed or Maimed 33 of His Patients - People What are the potential pitfalls for you as a reporter? Write to Mahita Gajanan at mahita.gajanan@time.com. Anatomy of a Tragedy: The Story Behind 'Sociopath Surgeon' Christopher You had people that had lost loved ones, one of Duntschs defense attorneys told ProPublica. You had people in walkers. Fact Check: Was Dr. Oz Responsible for Cruelly Experimenting on Dogs? I had an urge to do that very early in the process. Dr. Death: The Undoctored Story starts streaming on Peacock Thursday, July 29. 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. After this, life for Duntsch fell apart. That it needs to be noted that like, well, you can only give these ladies so many slots. Would they have been just as willing to take on a pediatrician who had some baggage? Was a Dallas Surgeon Stoned When He Maimed His Patients?Surgery is scary enough, but when you hear what happened to some people it may seem downright terrifying. Duntsch received his undergraduate degree from the University of Memphis and stayed in town to receive an M.D. 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. So it really came down to the reporting and the telling of the story itself. Duntsch, sentenced to life in prison in February 2017, is believed to be the first surgeon sentenced to go to prison for a botched surgery, according to USA Today. And by bringing him into the center portion of the story, you essentially are asking the audience to have compassion or empathy for him, to understand him. But unfortunately, despite the fact I am winning it is not happening fast enough. He joined the publication in 2021 on the crime beat. Well, thats what takes six episodes to tell. I think his upbringing fanned the flames of that sociopathy and that narcissism. I think Ava is the first person to have a completely female directed show on Queen Sugar. Dr. Death is a new true-crime series on Peacock about the story of Dr. Christopher Duntsch. ProPublica reports that Duntsch resigned voluntarily in April 2012. Left: Christopher Duntsch in surgery, Right: Christopher Duntschs mugshot. The value of the doctors, right? Why Did Dr. Death Do It? 'Dr. Death: The Undoctored Story' Explains And it isn't like cops taking down one of their own. If convicted, he faces up to life in prison. Alec Baldwin and Christian Slater join the cast as two doctors who try to stop Duntsch from causing further harm. Once you got past Mary Efurd, I really didnt need to get into all that, because you got it. His very first operation at the hospital would once again turn deadly. He toldLocal Memphisin 2014 that he woke up from the surgery paralyzed, which ultimately left him a quadriplegic. I think that it would do a disservice to the story to try to find the pretty pink bow to tie on the story, to let people know how this creature could possibly be. JACKSON: Well, yeah, it gives you a healthy skepticism. He is absolutely a narcissistic sociopath. Some are on the tape, some are not, just for space reasons. 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. And then I believe it absolutely became a full-blown fire when he went through school and went through the different hospitals, administrations that he went through because he wasn't stopped. 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. There was one. Death': "He Thinks He's the Hero of This Story", 'Dr. So we shot the episodes in three different bricks. So it has to be taught through generations. I don't believe that anybody in any of the administrations were actively trying to encourage this man to do what he did. But not in front of my lawyers and accountants and partners and employees and friends. 'Dr. Death,' The Neurosurgeon Who Left Patients Maimed Duntsch declined a reporter's request for a jailhouse interview Tuesday. 'Sociopath' Surgeon Duntsch Arrested for Shoplifting Pants I think Patrickhe chose a very difficult path of how to tell this story, particularly by centering Duntsch. The Peacock limited series, based on the Wondery podcast, covers the true story of Dr. Christopher Duntsch (played by Joshua Jackson), whose surgical career ruined the lives of numerous people patients who trusted that he would help them get better. Because Im on there clearly, but when you can tell it through the tape, its so much better. And so there was no world where they were going to let him speak to me. PATRICK MACMANUS I didn't hear the podcast first. Well, it was familiar content-wise because Im a medical reporter, so Ive never covered anything else. So the outcomes are totally evil, and it is unconscionable that this man was allowed to continue to create this much chaos and pain in people's lives. Because how can I do anything I want and cross every discipline boundary like its a playground and never ever lose. The rambling, four-page email,sent Dec. 9, 2011, to an employee with whom Duntsch had a "personal relationship," has been submitted as evidence in Duntsch's criminal case. Actually, one thing you asked about, the pitfalls. You had people that could barely move. He was even part of a group that founded the biopharmaceutical company Discgenicswhich focuses on developing regenerative cell-based therapies to help with painand brought on two of his mentors in surgery as investors. A chilling new four-part docuseries explores the crimes of neurosurgeon Christopher Duntsch, better known as "Dr. Death". So we were bouncing around quite a lot. But some of the most important testimony came from Kimberly Morgan, Duntschs former assistant and ex-girlfriend, who shared parts of a 2011 email from Duntsch that appeared to lay out his true aims: Unfortunately, you cannot understand that I am building an empire and I am so far outside the box that the Earth is small and the sun is bright. Dr. Death (podcast) - Wikipedia 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 was fired after he performed a surgery and immediately left for Las Vegas, leaving no one to look after his patient. Dr. Death's Christopher Duntsch Is Now Serving a Life Sentence Creator/Executive Producer Patrick Macmanus (Homecoming, Happy) knew he had a ready-made hit in Dr. Death when he first learned the story of Christopher Duntsch, the Texas neurosurgeon who permanently maimed and killed patients during routine procedures. Naysha Lopez hilariously previews 'fashion' and 'some ugly stuff' on, Kandy Muse will be 'the main character' of. And so, he was an attractive hire. What was totally new was that Im a print journalist. He decided hed be a neurosurgeon and was not going to let anything, including lack of skill or training, stop him in his quest. And so, as it goes along, theres sort of less and less about what he did to each person. On that note, tell me a little bit about your background. Its lucrative for the hospital. But I think, it is good. How much of a factor is a for-profit medical system in helping this to happen?