'Dr Death': From paralyzing patients to killing them, Christopher Duntsch wreaked havoc on the operating table
A new episode of CNBC's 'American Greed' brings to viewers the real story of Christopher Duntsch, otherwise known as "Dr Death." The Dallas-based former neurosurgeon is now in jail -- his botched surgeries left many patients disabled or in severe pain, or in some cases dead. According to Rolling Stone, out of 38 patients he operated on, 31 of them were left permanently paralyzed or seriously injured and two others did not survive. All these surgeries occurred between 2011 and 2013 when Duntsch was employed in four different Dallas-area hospitals.
When the law finally caught up with him, the disturbing details of negligence began to emerge. For instance, Duntsch would repeatedly misdiagnose patients and conduct unnecessary surgeries. In July 2012, he operated on Mary Efurd, which left her in a wheelchair. During a spinal fusion surgery, he severed one of Efurd's nerve roots and left surgical hardware in her back muscles. When another surgeon, Robert Henderson performed the corrective surgery on Efurd, he felt Duntsch's work was like a child playing with Tinkertoys or an erector set. Duntsch had drilled into her muscle instead of her bone and recklessly sliced into one nerve at the root, and deliberately twisted a metal screw into another. Efurd was left paralyzed as a result.
In April 2013, Duntsch operated on Phillip Mayfield who opted for surgery to alleviate chronic back pain. Duntsch's botched surgery on Mayfield had left his spinal cord completely deformed, which rendered him paralyzed.
Kelli Martin went for surgery for back pain as well, but Martin's artery was slashed during the procedure and she bled to death. Another patient, Floella Brown, had her vertebral artery -- one of the main blood vessels supplying blood to the brain -- slashed, and suffered a massive stroke, and died a week later. Duntsch's surgery on Mary Efurd was while Brown was still in the ICU. Another patient, Jackie Troy, woke up from her operation unable to talk - all but one of her vocal cords had been paralyzed after he cut into them. Her esophagus had been pinned under a plate that he placed near her spine, and her trachea had holes punctured in it. Similarly Jeff Glidewell also almost lost his voice forever after Duntsch mistook his esophagus for a tumor and sliced into it. Duntsch then stuck a sponge in the hole he had made and stitched Glidewell up, leaving the sponge inside him and forcing Glidewell to undergo emergency surgery.
Duntsch also operated on his childhood friend, Jerry Summers -- a tip reported that the doctor had allegedly used cocaine on the night before the surgery with Summers. Summers woke up unable to move his arms or legs from the spinal fusion surgery -- his vertebral artery was damaged and he lost two liters of blood while intubated. One patient, Lee Passmore, had part of his spine needlessly removed during an operation for back pain. During the surgery, he told Dr Mark Hoyle -- the general surgeon during Passmore's surgery -- that he was working by feel, not sight, resulting in heavy bleeding. Hoyle had to step in, stop the bleeding, and clean the wound before Duntsch continued.
Kenneth Fennell was having back troubles when he went to Duntsch in 2011 and got operated on by the doctor in November 2011. Fennell later found out that Duntsch operated on the wrong part of his back. Another patient, Barry Morguloff had bone fragments lodged in his spinal canal during an operation from Duntsch, which were only discovered months after the surgery when he sought a second opinion after having searing pain in his back and left leg.
'American Greed: Dr Death' airs on CNBC on Monday, February 1, at 10/9c.