Christopher Duntsch

Christopher Daniel Duntsch (born April 3, 1971) is a former American neurosurgeon who has been nicknamed Dr. Death for general and gross neurosurgical malpractice while working at hospitals in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. He was accused of injuring 33 out of 38 patients in less than two years, resulting in the maiming of 31 patients and the deaths of 2 others. He was allowed to continue practicing because hospital officials and regulators were incredulous that a surgeon could be incompetent to such an apparent degree. His license was finally revoked by the Texas Medical Board in 2013. In 2017, Duntsch was convicted of maiming one of his patients and sentenced to life imprisonment.

Early life

Christopher Duntsch was born in Montana and spent most of his youth in Memphis, Tennessee. His father, Donald, was a physical therapist and Christian missionary, and his mother, Susan, was a schoolteacher. He was the oldest of four children; he has two brothers, Nathan and Matt, and a sister, Liz. Duntsch is a graduate of Evangelical Christian School in Cordova, Tennessee, where he was a football player.

Duntsch initially attended Millsaps College to play Division III college football, and later transferred to Division I Colorado State University. Former teammates later said Duntsch trained hard but lacked talent. Duntsch returned home to attend Memphis State University (now the University of Memphis). Though he hoped to play football again, Duntsch had exhausted his football eligibility, and decided to switch to a career in medicine.

Duntsch participated in fewer than 100 surgeries during his residency and fellowship; neurosurgery residents typically participate in over 1,000 surgeries. She immediately moved in with him. They had two sons together, and broke up just before the birth of their second son in September 2014. In 2010, Duntsch moved to Dallas, Texas. He persuaded Young to come with him since she grew up in the Dallas area. Duntsch soon joined Baylor Regional Medical Center at Plano (now Baylor Scott & White Medical Center – Plano) as a minimally invasive spine surgeon with a salary of $600,000 per year plus bonuses. He also recalled that Duntsch's skills in the operating room left much to be desired; as Kirby put it, "he could not wield a scalpel". Lee Passmore, a Collin County medical investigator, experienced chronic pain and limited mobility after Duntsch cut a ligament not normally touched during that particular procedure, misplaced hardware in his spine, incorrectly located a screw used to keep the hardware in place, and stripped its threads so it could not be removed. Even if Duntsch had not stripped the threads, he placed the screw in a location that would have caused Passmore to bleed out if it had been removed. Vascular surgeon Mark Hoyle, who assisted with the operation, later recalled that Duntsch seemed oblivious to considerable bleeding. Hoyle became so disturbed by Duntsch's actions that at one point he physically restrained him, and later told Duntsch to his face that he was dangerous. Duntsch's behavior led Hoyle to question his sanity. Kellie Martin was undergoing a routine decompression operation—the simplest type of spine surgery— when Duntsch cut through her spinal cord and severed an artery. He continued operating despite clear signs that Martin was losing a large volume of blood, over warnings by a trauma surgeon colleague and anesthesiologist. Duntsch refused to acknowledge anything was wrong, hindering the ICU team's efforts to save Martin. When she awoke from anesthesia, she was screaming and clawing at her legs, forcing the ICU team to re-anesthetize her. Duntsch also stayed out in the ICU waiting room writing notes rather than attending his patient, even after Martin went into hemorrhagic cardiac arrest. Martin ultimately bled to death. He described Duntsch's surgery as an "assault" and concluded that Efurd would have been bedridden for the rest of her life had the salvage surgery not been performed.

While attempting to remove degenerated discs in Marshall "Tex" Muse's back, Duntsch left surgical hardware floating between the spine and muscle tissue. Muse woke up in considerable pain, but Duntsch convinced him it was normal. He then prescribed Muse so much Percocet that a pharmacist refused to fill the prescription; the pharmacist feared Duntsch was trying to kill Muse. Muse spiraled into opioid addiction that cost him his wife and his job. He later recalled that he read about Kellie Martin's death on the day before the surgery, but Duntsch had cursed him out when he called to ask about it. After The Texas Observer covered his arrest, Duntsch wrote a 30,000-word manifesto in the comments section rebutting his critics. He vowed to sue various newspapers that quoted Kirby's description of him.

Lawsuits In March 2014, three of Duntsch's former Mary Efurd, Kenneth Fennel and Lee filed separate federal lawsuits against Baylor Plano, alleging the hospital allowed Duntsch to perform surgeries despite knowing that he was a dangerous physician. Then-Texas Attorney General (later Governor) Greg Abbott filed a motion to intervene in the suits to defend Baylor Plano, citing the 2003 Texas statute that capped civil damages for medical malpractice at $250,000 and removed the term "gross negligence" from the legal definition of malice. The suit alleged that Baylor Plano made an average net profit of $65,000 on every spinal surgery performed by Duntsch.

Criminal charges Henderson and Kirby feared that Duntsch could move elsewhere and still theoretically get a medical license. Convinced that he was a clear and present danger to the public, they urged the Dallas County district attorney's office to pursue criminal charges. The indictments were made four months before the statute of limitations would have expired.

The last charge was for the maiming and paralyzing of Efurd. Prosecutors put a high priority on that charge, as it provided the widest sentencing range, with Duntsch facing up to life in prison if convicted. They also believed that charge was easy to prove in court; Duntsch was told repeatedly that he was not placing the hardware in the correct position and fluoroscopy images from Efurd's surgery proved this. Shughart countered that the 2011 email, sent after his first surgeries went wrong, proved that Duntsch knew his actions were intentional. On December 10, 2018, the Texas Court of Appeals affirmed Duntsch's conviction by a 2–1 split decision. On May 8, 2019, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals refused Duntsch’s petition for discretionary review. The four hospitals that employed Duntsch have ongoing civil cases against him.

Reactions Duntsch's conviction has been called a precedent-setting case, as it is believed to be the first time in U.S. history that a physician was convicted on criminal charges for actions taken in the course of medical work. The Dallas County district attorney's office called it "a historic case with respect to prosecuting a doctor who had done wrong during surgery."

In popular culture Wondery Media launched a podcast Dr. Death, with the first season of ten episodes focusing on Duntsch.

Dr. Death, an eight-episode television mini-series based on the podcast, began streaming on Peacock on July 15, 2021. It stars Joshua Jackson as Duntsch, Alec Baldwin as Robert Henderson, Christian Slater as Randall Kirby, and AnnaSophia Robb as Michelle Shughart. A follow-up docuseries, Dr. Death: The Undoctored Story, was later released on Peacock on July 29, 2021, featuring interviews with some of Duntsch's patients and colleagues, as well as with Henderson, Kirby and Shughart.

In 2019, Duntsch was the focus of the premiere episode of License to Kill, Oxygen's series on criminal medical professionals.

In 2024, an episode of Murder by Medic focused on Duntsch's case.