The Horrific Story of Dr Death who Maimed more than Thirty Patients

Christopher Duntsch was an American neurosurgeon who brutally maimed and killed many of his patients. Although not a killer in the true sense of the word, he is most definitely a sociopath who gained pleasure from inflicting the worse types of pain to his patients. Duntsch has now found himself the lead character in the drama series Dr Death. As with most things, the truth is much worse than fiction.

Born in 1971 in Montana, Duntsch was born into a middle-class family. His father was a physical therapist and Christian missionary, his mother was a school teacher. Duntsch completed his undergraduate in 1995 and moved on to complete his Doctorate of Medicine and Philosophy in 2010. He specialised in neurosurgery. Although there was a suspicion of cocaine use in his fourth year of residency, nothing was proven. During this time, he started a long-term relationship with Wendy Renee Young and had two sons.

It wasn't long, though, before Duntsch started to show his actual colour within the medical profession. He gained the nickname Dr Death or Dr O and was accused of maiming 33 out of 38 patients in less than two years. Despite the evidence against him, the authorities chose to ignore this and he worked at many hospitals before being caught.

Baylor Plano

Baylor Plano was the first hospital that Duntsch worked in. As a neurosurgeon, he performed several operations. The list of problems with the surgeries read like a horror film.

Kenneth Fennell was left in chronic pain when part of the operation on his back went wrong. After a second operation, he was left paralysed on his left side, leaving him only able to walk thirty metres with the aid of a cane. Lee Passmore was left in chronic pain and limited mobility when his ligament was cut. Duntsch also left several screws in his back, making sure to strip the threads before closing up, so they could not be removed.

Barry Morguloff was found to have bone fragments in his spinal canal when his disc was pulled out with a grabbing tool. When he asked Duntsch for pain relief, Duntsch labelled him a drug seeker and refused the medication; he now uses a wheelchair. Jerry Summers went into surgery needing two neck vertebrae to be fused. Duntsch removed large amounts of muscle tissue which rendered him a quadriplegic.

During Kelli Martin's operation, Duntsch severed her artery; he refused to stop the surgery despite the blood loss. When she was woken in ITU, she awoke screaming and clawing at her legs, where the worried staff sedated her again. She bled to death shortly after.

Following these operations, suspicion was raised, and Baylor Plano issued a review of Duntsch and his practices. However, Duntsch resigned before this review was completed, rather than face termination. Baylor Plano, for their part, did not want to be faced with a wrongful termination suit so instead settled on a deal where they would provide Duntsch with a letter saying there was no issue with his practice.

Dallas Medical Centre

Dallas would be the next area that Duntsch would maim people in. He was granted temporary operating privileges as the centre were eager for him to start, but had not obtained all his records from his previous employer. Nurses who worked with him would repeatedly question whether he was under the influence of drugs, but would not intervene to stop him from operating. Three weeks later, these privileges would be revoked after the death of Floella Brown, when her artery was severed during surgery and the maiming of Mary Efurd.

Efurd went to the Dallas Medical Centre for a relatively routine operation. She woke in unbearable pain and paralysed. Dr Robert Henderson would then try a second operation to alleviate the problems. He described the surgery when he opened Efurd up as an assault. Nerve roots had been severed, with screws twisted into them. Both screws and surgical hardware had been left in her soft muscle tissue. Had it not been for the salvage operation that Henderson performed, she would have been left bedridden. Efurd would ultimately be Duntsch's downfall, but not before he had injured several others.

Dallas Medical Centre did not report the incident to the National Practitioner Data Bank (NPDB) as legislation stated this was not needed for surgeons who had temporary privileges.

South Hampton Community Hospital

During his time at South Hampton, later known as Methodist Hospital, Duntsch was responsible for another four botched surgeries. The most severe was Jeff Glidewell's maiming, who needed more than fifty surgeries to correct damage caused by Duntsch surgery. The damage to his body was extensive, including a severed vocal cord and oesophagus, a sliced artery and a surgical sponge that was left in his throat.

This time the hospital acted and sent a detailed report to the Texas Medical Board, branding Duntsch a sociopath. His license was suspended on 26th June 2013, following a full investigation; it was revoked on 6th December.

The surgeons downfall

From here, Duntsch's life took a downward spiral. He was declared bankrupt, arrested for driving under the influence and was caught shoplifting. During one visit to his children, he was in such a dangerous state he was admitted for psychiatric evaluation.

In July 2015, he was arrested and charged with six felony accounts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and five counts of aggravated assault leading to serious bodily harm. The prosecutors thought their best chance of conviction was to concentrate on one case only, the one they had the most evidence for, Efurd. Helped by Dr Henderson, they went to court on 20th February 2017; the trial lasted thirteen days. After four days of deliberation, the jury convicted Duntsch of maiming Efurd and Dr Death was sentenced to life in prison, hopefully giving his victims some relief from the pain he had inflicted.

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