But depositions from Duntschs peers who knew him around that time period, between 2006 and 2008, point to cracks in the facade. 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. So we had all of the tools at our disposal. Were there times when you would look at drafts and be like, "Maybe we should pull back on the administrative stuff?" And theyre great at Wondery, and theyre really good at doing what they do. By 2013, he had bounced around between hospitals, tarnished his reputation and had his medical license revoked. 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. Cookies collect information about your preferences and your device and are used to make the site work as you expect it to, to understand how you interact with the site, and to show advertisements that are targeted to your interests. Had he explored his research and stayed in that lane and never gone to operate, we'd be talking about him in an entirely different fashion today. Sure, yeah. After this, life for Duntsch fell apart. According to D Magazine, Duntsch did so well in medical school that he was allowed to join the prestigiousAlpha Omega Medical Honor Society. Some are on the tape, some are not, just for space reasons. You have reached your limit of free articles. You just reminded me, that was another danger that we were really grappling with. After a fall in her kitchen, Martin experienced chronic back pain and sought out surgery to alleviate it. So, in this case, it was just a lot that went wrong, starting with the fact of Duntsch himself. 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 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. In Dr. Death theres no question as to who the killer is, but there are still a few mysteries to unravel. She was a National . Dr Death Christopher Duntsch's late patient Jerry Summers - The Sun 'Dr. Death': AnnaSophia Robb on Playing ADA Michelle Shughart - Newsweek Its not just the story of Christopher Duntsch, its a story about the American healthcare system. 'Dr. Death' Surgeon Killed or Maimed 33 of His Patients - People That's something that I think the show captures really well, especially when it comes to bringing you into the worlds of the patient. One improved, and I think there were four, maybe that werent hurt, but they werent helped either. Yeah, and I listened to it twice, happily. Around 2006 and 2007, Duntsch began to become unhinged. In the Canadian system, you go for care first, and then you pay a couple of times a year into the system. 'When They See Us': Joshua Jackson, Blair Underwood & Christopher Jackson on the Netflix Limited Series, 'Dr. 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. Well, thank you for your time. 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. "Between god, Einstein and the antichrist", Anyone close to me thinks that I likely am something between god, Einstein and the antichrist. I think Patrickhe chose a very difficult path of how to tell this story, particularly by centering Duntsch. Right? The next question is how he was able to continue performing surgeries even as he butchered patient after patient. Peacock released the series to complement its scripted portrayal of the story, Dr. Death, which released a couple of weeks ago and stars Joshua Jackson as the titular character. I did talk to as many of his high school friends as I could. The Texas Medical Board began receiving official reports about Duntsch following the botched procedures at Dallas Medical Center, as multiple doctors began sending in complaints. He toldLocal Memphisin 2014 that he woke up from the surgery paralyzed, which ultimately left him a quadriplegic. The intent of the writing was to leave it sort of an open question for audiences to draw from it as they saw. 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. 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. In late 2010, Dr. Christopher Duntsch came to Dallas to start a neurosurgery practice. What was totally new was that Im a print journalist. 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. The trial of Dr. Christopher Duntsch in Texas was one of those most surprising revelations in the past few years.