But those graphic descriptions are only in the first episode, because you had to know. And then there were comments that he made himself on the Dallas Observer article [about him]. 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. Dr. Death is a podcast produced by Wondery that focuses on egregious cases of medical malpractice.The podcast is hosted and reported by Laura Beil and premiered September 4, 2018. When we are alone, my love for you will let you do so because that is your nature. The screen, almost vestigial now, displayed a still graphic. 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. I mean, truly a revolutionary act. You can't justit doesn't come out wholly formed. 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. He stayed in New York while everyone else went home. Two patients died, one from significant blood loss after the operation and the other from a stroke caused by a cut vertebral artery. His surgeries actually get even worse. Right? After several more months of botched surgeries, Duntsch finally lost his surgical privileges altogether in June 2013 after two physicians complained to the Texas Medical Board. Young was soon pregnantbut Duntsch had already developed a . So yes, there are definitely heroes in the story. We definitely amped up the sound effects. RELATED: Joshua Jackson on Playing 'Dr. Joshua Jackson on Playing 'Dr. 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. 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. And so, I tried to include those details that would really establish how bad he was. Lets just say that this was a back and forth discussion for a lot of it. Before working with him, Dr. Hoyle said that he didnt know how to feel about his fellow surgeon. (A mock-up of the billboard Wondery paid to put in front of the hospital where its subject used to work). Duntsch, hes an outlier for sure, but he exposed a lot of larger truths about the healthcare system. You had people that could barely move. The docuseries is a real-life companion piece to Peacock's scripted crime drama, Dr. Death, which premiered this summer. Yeah, I do, and theres another one that comes in later. I had never seen him like that. I know youve done this for a long time, but what are some of the things you have to be careful about in reporting a story like this? Dr. Death is not a show that you should consider watching right before your next trip to the doctor's office. At the same time, Duntsch was operating on another woman, and the staff in the room said they were unsure whether he was putting hardware in the right places and noticed he kept drilling and removing screws. That woman woke up in pain, unable to move. And there were a couple of reasons for that. Did you find out if this guy was torturing animals as a child or anything like that? In February 2012, he went under the knife for an elective spinal fusion surgery. 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. Would they have been just as willing to take on a pediatrician who had some baggage? According to D Magazine, Duntsch did so well in medical school that he was allowed to join the prestigiousAlpha Omega Medical Honor Society. 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. 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. Right? Duntsch declined a reporter's request for a jailhouse interview Tuesday. The Peacock limited series Dr. Death is in many ways much more a horror story than a drama, but the villain at its center is all too real. Because that one where he says that, Im God, Einstein, and I do what I want, but also I control things behind the scenes without anyone knowing in the same sentence that just cracked me up. To establish that Duntschs disastrous work had been a part of a longtime pattern, prosecutors brought several of his former patients on the stand to testify about their experiences. He had a very small but vitally important role. But from the inside, he sees himself as the victim of circumstance. How much of a gift was it to have characters like the ones Alec Baldwin and Christian Slater play, to basically serve as protagonists? You can take in more from a printed article. 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. In this case, Duntsch remained a popular hire in part because neurosurgeons bring more revenue to the hospitals they work for than nearly any other medical specialty, and officials are unlikely to second-guess a candidate with stellar credentials and recommendations. That it needs to be noted that like, well, you can only give these ladies so many slots. But on the other hand, they knew you had to have certain sounds to make the experience really real for people, and really immersive. 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. I believe that being born as a narcissistic sociopath was encouraged by his upbringing. 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?" 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 . How does a doctor get away with something like this? During this time, he ran two successful labs and raised millions of dollars in grant funding. 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. Of the 37 patients Duntsch operated on in Dallas over about two years, 33 were hurt or harmed in the process. The star of the new Peacock drama revealed how he got inside the head of the notorious Dr. Christopher Duntsch. Death' Review: Joshua Jackson Is Terrific in Terrifying Peacock Series That's as Sharp as a Scalpel. Do you think we get an answer at the end of the show? But unfortunately, despite the fact I am winning it is not happening fast enough. Ellis Unit in Huntsville and will be. He did his surgical residency at the University of Tennessee in Memphis, spending five years studying neurosurgery and a year studying general surgery. But the path to that point was a long one made difficult by the systems put in place to protect doctors and the institutions they work for, not the patients. In terms of the production, were you shooting at all chronologically or was itwere you kind of bouncing between time periods? I mean, the guy who you think is guilty from the first episode really is guilty. [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. I have to confess, I had not listened to Dirty John before they called me. And then on top of that, you have the systemic side of the medical system that ultimately failed in stopping him. And so there was no world where they were going to let him speak to me. The True Story Of Christopher Duntsch, The Killer Surgeon Known As Dr. Dr. Death in surgery. Duntsch, better known today as "Dr. Death," moved to Dallas in 2010 with impressive qualifications. Right? One conversation in Peacocks first episode of Dr. Death sums up the confusion many felt at watching Duntsch work: It was like he knew what he was supposed to do and he did the exact opposite.. The former American neurosurgeon was convicted for gross malpractice of maiming . He graduated from a top-tier medical school, was running research labs, and completed a residency program for neurosurgery. 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. I was really lucky that the first people to ever call me up and say, Do you want to make a podcast? were really good at it. And it isn't like cops taking down one of their own. After he arrived in town, he secured a deal with the Baylor Regional Medical Center at Plano and was given surgical rights at the hospital. 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. The patient Duntsch operated on continues to walk with a cane and lives with chronic pain. And now you have to have empathy for the people who are the victims of your central character. The podcast series and ProPublica report that Duntsch was ordered by the university to take a drug test, but managed to avoid it. Right? According to D Magazine, a doctor at the hospital where Duntsch worked said that Duntsch had been sent to an impaired physician program after he refused to take a drug test. And also, to let the tape tell as much of the story as possible. What storytelling tools did you discover from working in a podcast format that you didnt have before, or maybe didnt think about before? Out of his 38 surgeries, only three had no complications. She has a degree in political economy from Tulane University. 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. In 2018, he filed for an appeal which was rejected by the court. 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. And they have a really compelling sympathetic through-character that you can sort of latch onto the whole time, like in S Town, or Serial. The pair were childhood friends and eventually became roommates. Because whether it be a hospital network, whether it be a medical board, whether it be the legal system, it doesn't actually place the little guy first. According to Megan Kane, an ex-girlfriend of one of Duntschs friends, she saw him eat a paper blotter of LSD and take prescription painkillers on his birthday. 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. Duntsch took careful steps to put across the image of a hardworking, competent and caring person and doctor. 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. Of course, a pediatrician couldnt have done as much damage. Jodi Smith. While the state of modern journalism can often seem pretty dire, investigative, serialized podcast series stand out as one of todays few bright spots, one of the last places you can still find people willing to pay for good reporting. It was a conscious choice from the very beginning to not show the surgeries until the finale. ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY What is Dr. Death's origin story? And also, I knew that I was dealing with a story that probably half the listeners from the first episode were going to Google and find out the end. I couldnt go beyond that. Christopher Duntsch - AKA Dr. Death - spent 18 months as a practicing surgeon at multiple Texas hospitals until he had his license revoked in 2013. Tulsa Hospital Shooting Suspect Was a Patient Who Had Recent Back Surgery and Targeted His Doctor: Cops, One Brother Was a Hero, One Was a Serial Killer: New Docuseries Explores the Stayner Family's Plight. Right? Yeah. Thanks to the system, though, Duntsch was able to keep working and hurting people until two of his fellow doctors, Randall Kirby and Robert Henderson (played respectively by Christian Slater and Alec Baldwin), were able to expose him and put him behind bars. White men also have stories to tell. So while I was writing in August and September of 2018, I had asked to reach out. One lucky person actually improved. Per the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Duntsch will be eligible for parole on July 20, 2045, when he is 74 years old. He was putting stuff in the wrong place. 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. Probably with any medical story, really, you want to be most careful with the patients themselves. But I did have to let go and trust them. As is shown in the series, he drank too much and shoplifted hundreds of dollars worth of items, among other erratic behaviors. Its lucrative for the hospital. 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. In June 2013, Duntschs medical license was suspended and fully revoked later that December. Before going to medical school, Duntsch wanted to be a pro-football player. Write to Mahita Gajanan at mahita.gajanan@time.com. In America, health is a service. Thats why we have these hours and hours of tape, but that said, there are a few fundamentals that were wrong. Patrick Macmanus also explains why the show's supporting characters were such a gift. Chief among them is the mystery of whether Duntsch was homicidal or simply criminally inept. 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. And so, they wouldnt report him, so there wasnt a paper trail. Right? She received The Dallas Morning News Reporter of the Year award in 2016 and 2017. 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 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., The sad fact is that I would go faster do better and catch more respect and honor by f***ing every one in the brain, emotionally and mentally controlling them in a manner that borders on abuse, taking no prisoners, and sending everyone in my way, and especially that f***s with me to hell for the simple fact that they thought they could much less tried, 1 week and then everything unraveled. 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. Were there some that you were trying to avoid sounding like. So, in this case, it was just a lot that went wrong, starting with the fact of Duntsch himself. Im really appreciative to the producers for even entertaining the discussions with me as much as they did, because lets be honest, I dont know anything about making a podcast. 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. Coupled with the slow pace of the investigation the Texas Medical Board conducted, Duntsch was basically allowed to wreak havoc wherever he went until he was brought to a final stop. Going back to neurosurgeons being really lucrative for hospitals. 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. Well, thats what takes six episodes to tell. And created all sorts of discussion and blowback inside the industry. By signing up you agree to ourTerms of ServiceandPrivacy Policy. When he woke up, he was a quadriplegic with incomplete paralysis. Dr. Death in surgery. . So it really came down to the reporting and the telling of the story itself. Life After "Death": Lethal Surgeon Sentenced to PrisonWATCH NEXT: Former patient of Dr. Duntsch discusses botched surgery (1 of 5) https://youtu.be/9JwAnjnDs. The four-part docuseries features old footage and new interviews to tell more of the story about the neurosurgeon who was sentenced to prison after maiming or killing more than 30 patients. It sort of just blew that flame into a full-fledged conflagration -- not because the hospitals were necessarily to blame, but his education. They did a lot of cutting to my script, because Im used to print where you can put a few more details in, and you can have a little more have other characters, or other names, or other information in, because when you are reading, if you miss it, you can just go back and check. Its a lucrative surgery. Well, the whole email thats coming up in episode three Its hard to pick out because it just goes on and on. Prior to his death earlier this year, Jerry discussed his relationship with Christopher in a new interview for Peacocks Dr. Death: The Undoctored Story. Philip Mayfield, one of Christopher Duntsch's patients, who was paralyzed after his surgery. 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. Its interesting, because when I heard at the premiere, people were reacting to things that I didnt anticipate them reacting to. And I had none of those things. He was charming. 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. 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. But everyone around him, not wittingly or willingly, ended up sort of encouraging all of his worst attributes. I dont know, but that would be my guess. Entertainment Weekly is a registered trademark of Meredith Corporation All Rights Reserved. It was a rambling note that touched on Duntsch's frustrations with his business and personal relationships. This thrilling drama is based on a hit podcast of the same. Its not just about what happened, but how did this occur? 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. Naysha Lopez hilariously previews 'fashion' and 'some ugly stuff' on, Kandy Muse will be 'the main character' of. And frankly, if it hadnt been for a couple doctors who were watching him, who knows? 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. Was there anything that was particularly hard not to include? She was a National Magazine Award finalist in 2016 and in 2018 won the Victor Cohen Prize for medical science reporting. I will say I'm a hundred percent hypochondriac. The systems were telling us where their actual values lay. Collider: So one of the aspects of this show that makes it so compelling is the fact that we want to understand why this person is who he is. Hes cutting arteries. The value of the institutions was placed above the value of the patients. Well, if you want to just put in there that after the first episode its a lot less gruesome. 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? Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our, Digital Dr. Death is a new true-crime series on Peacock about the story of Dr. Christopher Duntsch. When I listened to the podcast, when I got into the conversation with Patrick Macmanus, when he gave me all the research material, I so wanted to make him evil. After a fall in her kitchen, Martin experienced chronic back pain and sought out surgery to alleviate it. Death.. He is currently housed in the O.B. Do you mind mentioning any of those? Its not just the story of Christopher Duntsch, its a story about the American healthcare system. This meant Summers could still feel pain, but was unable to move from the neck down. All three of them are fantastic each in their own right. 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. And so, in the end, I did have to trust them, and I do. This time on 53-year-old Mary Efurd. So, the other big mystery as you already pointed out was like, how did the medical system allow this to happen? 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. What was totally new was that Im a print journalist. 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. Naomi Martin. I think his upbringing fanned the flames of that sociopathy and that narcissism. Ellis Unit prison in Texas. And that was a revolutionary act. Martin would become Duntschs first casualty when she bled out in intensive care unit after her relatively common procedure. 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.