'American Greed': Who is 'Dr Death'? How Christopher Duntsch bragged he was 'best fu**ing surgeon' and ended lives
The latest episode of CNBC's 'American Greed' focuses on a man called Christopher Duntsch — better known as "Dr Death." The Dallas-based neurosurgeon had extreme confidence in his abilities, so much so that he would proclaim himself to be the "best f***ing surgeon and scientist" and a "supernova sophisticated savant." However, he ended up botching so many surgeries — even routine operations — that ended up maiming and killing his patients.
Who is Christopher Duntsch?
Born in 1971, Duntsch grew up in Memphis, Tennessee, and graduated from the University of Memphis in 1994. He enrolled at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center, where he earned his MD and PhD, and graduated with honors, according to D Magazine. He remained at the University of Tennesee to carry out his six-year medical residency.
While he was a resident at the university, Duntsch allegedly abused drugs while on the job. An anonymous caller complained that Duntsch was doing so and he was asked to take a urine test. However, he ended up avoiding it and got sent to a program for impaired physicians, according to the details provided by 'American Greed'. Following the completion of the program, he was back to being a resident, with many of his colleagues being none the wiser about his alleged drug use.
After finishing at the University of Tennessee in late 2010, he moved to Dallas, Texas, where he began working in private practice. In November 2011, he was granted surgical privileges at the Baylor Regional Medical Center of Plano, Texas, now called Baylor, Scott and White. When he joined the medical center, he was offered an annual salary of $600,000 in addition to bonuses — a welcome respite for the doctor who had about half a million dollars in debts.
There, he would often brag about his supposed prowess in surgery. A former colleague, Dr Mark Hoyle, told D Magazine that Duntsch would proclaim things such as, "Everybody’s doing it wrong. I’m the only clean, minimally invasive guy in the whole state.” Hoyle himself would work with Duntsch on one surgery, but after seeing the latter's reckless performance — Duntsch needlessly severed a ligament in the leg of the patient, leading him to still suffer from back pain and numbness in his feet — he canceled any other surgeries he had scheduled with him.
But that was only the beginning of Duntsch's malpractice. As time went on, similar occurrences would repeat — a routine spinal fusion on a patient in January 2012 led to the patient's back pain increasing. The following month, Duntsch's surgery on Jerry Summers would leave the latter paralyzed below the neck to this day. Baylor only suspended Duntsch's surgical privileges for 30 days following Summers' botched surgery. When Duntsch returned to the operating room, he performed a routine back operation on Kelli Martin, who wanted to relieve back pain from a fall. What was supposed to be a simple surgery, however, ended up with Martin bleeding to death. Rather than being fired, Duntsch resigned, which meant that Baylor would not have to report the doctor to the Data Bank.
Following this, Duntsch joined Dallas Medical Center. In 24 hours, one patient died and another was permanently disabled. In less than a month, Duntsch was fired from the Dallas Medical Center and reported to the Texas Medical Board. Yet, Duntsch continued to perform surgeries. Often, colleagues would be suspicious that Duntsch was high during surgeries.
It was only in the summer of the following year, in 2013, that his physician license was suspended, followed by it being permanently revoked in December that year. According to Rolling Stone, out of the 38 patients Duntsch operated on, 31 were left permanently paralyzed or seriously injured, and two died.
Where is Christopher Duntsch now?
Later, he filed for bankruptcy and moved in with his parents in Colorado. In early 2014, he was arrested for DUI and sent to rehab, according to ProPublica. In July 2015, he was indicted by a Dallas County grand jury on six counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon (his hands and surgical tools). As his trial went on, the prosecutors revealed a letter Duntsch sent to former assistant Kimberly Morgan, in which he wrote, "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." In another section, he describes himself as “a mother****ing stone cold killer that can buy or own or steal or ruin or build whatever he wants.”
It took the jury just four hours after a 13-day trial to find Duntsch guilty of injury to an elderly person — the prosecutors chose to focus on Mary Efurd, since the injuries to her were felonious and carried the hardest penalties, according to The Washington Post. He was then sentenced to life in prison. An appeal to his sentence was rejected and his conviction was upheld in 2018. He is currently imprisoned at the OB Ellis Unit of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, with the earliest possible parole in 2045.
'American Greed: Dr Death' airs on CNBC on Monday, February 1, at 10/9c.