Dr. Death: The Undoctored Story starts streaming on Peacock Thursday, July 29. ", "You, my child, are the only one between me and the other side. It's a complicated plank that he tried to walk. Right? Those were way more telling than the emails, I thought, because if you just read through those you get kind of a look into his mind. The Christopher Duntsch Surgery That Was So Bad One Doctor Called It 'Attempted Murder'. And we did have full access to doctors as well as Laura Beil, who did the original Dr. Death podcast. Was a Dallas Surgeon Stoned When He Maimed His Patients?Surgery is scary enough, but when you hear what happened to some people it may seem downright terrifying. 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. I expected some oohs and ahhs, but, for instance, the missing screw, when you get to the part that there was this screw where he had put it into the muscle. I think that it would do a disservice to the story to try to find the pretty pink bow to tie on the story, to let people know how this creature could possibly be. At first I thought it was simply my world and that it was too much for you. He's doing it on purpose. Even worse, some of the patients never got the chance to wake up. Patrick Macmanus also explains why the show's supporting characters were such a gift. Dr. Death stars Joshua Jackson as Christopher Duntsch, with supporting performances from Alec Baldwin, Christian Slater, AnnaSophia Robb and Grace Gummer. Left: Christopher Duntsch in surgery, Right: Christopher Duntschs mugshot. 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. 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. More reviews here. . So while I was writing in August and September of 2018, I had asked to reach out. I say to her 'someday, I'm going to be right and you're going to feel bad about this.' 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? It was for sure, a team effort, and it was a good team. ProPublica reports that Duntsch resigned voluntarily in April 2012. Beil is a journalist who has specialized in science and medical writing for 20 years, and lives in the Dallas area where much of Christopher Duntschs story takes place. See, this was actually one of the disadvantages that I had. Because how can I do anything I want and cross every discipline boundary like its a playground and never ever lose. It was a gold mine. But theres one lucky person who escaped, you know? Its weird because he seems like a normal guy through most of his early life, and then he turns into this really entertaining sociopath, kind of like the guy from Dirty John. had hundreds, but I figured the most important ones were the ones that play a role in the trial. 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. The True Story Behind Peacock's 'Dr. Death' | Time I have to figure out how to humanize this guy.'. Dr. Death begins streaming today on Peacock. How many of them struck you funny? By signing up you agree to ourTerms of ServiceandPrivacy Policy. 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. Dr Death received a life sentenceafter being convicted of maiming one of his patients. (A mock-up of the billboard Wondery paid to put in front of the hospital where its subject used to work). And at first, Duntsch appeared to have what it took: He enrolled in an M.D./Ph.D program at the University of Tennessee at Memphis College of Medicine and put in dozens of hours in cancer and stem cell research. 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. So for those of us at just the human level who are interacting with them, we have to realize that we don't just need the systems that have been created to operate better. Podcasts status as a new medium, in which the rules have yet to be codified crystallized for me a few weeks back, when I sat in a dark screening room at United Talent Agency with a group composed largely of fratty, agent-y men in suits listening to a non-fiction account of an evil surgeon. Entertainment Weekly may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. It was the status, because his friend Rand Page, said that he actually never intended to be a neurosurgeon, that he was gonna work at this [stem cell treatment] company and make his fortune there. She was a National Magazine Award finalist in 2016 and in 2018 won the Victor Cohen Prize for medical science reporting. 12 Unnerving Facts About Dr. Death Christopher Duntsch - Ranker 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. I can tell you that, with the intention of allowing audiences to come to their own conclusions, my conclusion is that Christopher is an extraordinarily complex and tragic figure. Because Im on there clearly, but when you can tell it through the tape, its so much better. Life After "Death": Lethal Surgeon Sentenced to PrisonWATCH NEXT: Attorney who represented Dr. Duntsch's patients discusses her cases (3 of 5) https://youtu.. What can I find out about this guy? They never would've made it to 38 surgeries. Some are on the tape, some are not, just for space reasons. Kyler Alvord leads PEOPLE's politics coverage as a news editor for the brand. And the American system, I often find myself having to remind myself that in the American system that the money comes first before the care. Our intent was to present the story as best we could, and then allow audiences to take away from it whatever they would like to, because I just don't believe that we can answer why someone like Christopher Duntsch is or why he did what he did. But depositions from Duntschs peers who knew him around that time period, between 2006 and 2008, point to cracks in the facade. You have these compelling heroes in Henderson and Kirby that are unlike, in my opinion, unlike other quote-unquote "heroes" in the true crime space, because these are two who are taking down one of their own. 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. Since sentencing, Christopher Duntsch has been serving time at the O.B. Its lucrative for the hospital. You have to be spare and selective with the details. There were some doctors and some plaintiffs attorneys, and later on journalists, who were all working to try to stop this guy. Their efforts to stop him, as documented both in the podcast and show, take a long time, as Duntsch moves between hospitals and continues injuring patients. The star of the new Peacock drama revealed how he got inside the head of the notorious Dr. Christopher Duntsch. Dr. Death's Christopher Duntsch Is Now Serving a Life Sentence 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. She is also a produced playwright, a host of podcasts, and a repository of "X-Files" trivia. 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.. In 2018, he filed for an appeal which was rejected by the court. 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. What are the potential pitfalls for you as a reporter? Right? So the outcomes are totally evil, and it is unconscionable that this man was allowed to continue to create this much chaos and pain in people's lives. Death' First Trailer, The Best TV Shows on Amazon Prime Video to Stream Now. Duntsch's criminal defense attorney claims her client made honest mistakes while performing risky surgeries. He had a very small but vitally important role. Well, the whole email thats coming up in episode three Its hard to pick out because it just goes on and on. And by bringing him into the center portion of the story, you essentially are asking the audience to have compassion or empathy for him, to understand him. I dont know, but that would be my guess. I didnt want to create a two-dimensional villain, and his dad, I think, wouldve provided the most humanizing voice in the story, but the attorney just wouldnt allow it. "You were a major in a military organization, and that is the only reason you can have a slight inkling of the manner in which I want you to treat me and respect me". His first drug of choice would be cocaine.. Dr. Death is not a show that you should consider watching right before your next trip to the doctor's office. 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. Were there some that you were trying to avoid sounding like. That is a wonderful question. And then in this case, it seems like if there is a mystery its just, what is this guys deal? How much of a factor is a for-profit medical system in helping this to happen? You did have a crusading whistleblower character in there. Some people woke up paralyzed; others emerged from anesthesia to permanent pain from nerve damage. Duntsch, 44, is being held in the Dallas County Jail on $600,000 bail on charges involving the death of one patient. 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. Dr. Mark Hoyle, a surgeon who worked with Duntsch during one of his botched procedures, told D Magazine that he would make extremely arrogant announcements such as: Everybody is doing it wrong. And that was a revolutionary act. 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. Christopher Duntsch was sentenced to life in prison in February 2017 for his heinous acts. Things seemed to be moving along smoothly. He performed only one surgery with the Minimally Invasive Spine Institute. A chilling new four-part docuseries explores the crimes of neurosurgeon Christopher Duntsch, better known as "Dr. Death". Other patients who went to Duntsch had similar experiences: entering the operating room with the expectation of relieving a great burden and waking up to an even worse reality. The good news is, is we had thousands of pages of research, thousands of pages of court documents, tons of hours of interviews. Dr. Christopher Duntsch had the hallmarks of an impressive neurosurgeon, at least in theory. So what it meant for the particulars of our show is that we had three excellent directors. 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. I realized what he really had to offer. So, I always try its like how do you tell their story, and what happened to them, and what theyve lived through, but without really exploiting them? The doctor denies doing anything wrong. How did this happen? As those watching the show know, Christopher was dubbed "Dr. Death" in D Magazine for his botched surgeries that caused the death of several patients and left others with disabling injuries. While Baylor-Plano conducted an investigation of Duntsch and his cases, and found that he would need to be let go, Duntsch was not technically fired from the hospital. We're certainly not there yet. I'm happy to be a part of a show that is redressing the failure of creative imagination that has placed a female director as some other thing, rather than a director, meaning a male director. So the training craft is being downloaded to a new generation of people whose faces look much more diverse than just a bunch of me-s. And that's good, but we're not there yet. 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. Entertainment Weekly is a registered trademark of Meredith Corporation All Rights Reserved. Alec Baldwin and Christian Slater in 'Dr. The medical boards will protect themselves. Right? It. But that was probably the one thing that was hardest for me to get used to was that balance between my wanting spare sound effects and their wanting to make a good podcast. He stayed in New York while everyone else went home. Summers is a former patient of Christopher Duntsch, who was nicknamed "Dr. Death." Duntsch is serving a life sentence in prison after killing and maiming more than 30 patients while working in the . Well, it was familiar content-wise because Im a medical reporter, so Ive never covered anything else. In the meantime, prosecutors were working with Kirby and Henderson to find a way to indict Duntscha challenge, considering Texas had never previously handled such a case. Naomi is an enterprise/ investigative reporter who has covered Dallas County government, Parkland Memorial Hospital, juvenile detention and the county jail. Christopher Duntsch - AKA Dr. Death - spent 18 months as a practicing surgeon at multiple Texas hospitals until he had his license revoked in 2013. Dr. Death season one review: a true crime podcast is even scarier - Vox The series, a lightly fictionalized version of the podcast, stars Joshua Jackson as the slick and overconfident Duntsch. Christopher Duntsch: The Remorseless Killer Surgeon Called 'Dr. Death' But some of the most important testimony came from Kimberly Morgan, Duntschs former assistant and ex-girlfriend, who shared parts of a 2011 email from Duntsch that appeared to lay out his true aims: Unfortunately, you cannot understand that I am building an empire and I am so far outside the box that the Earth is small and the sun is bright. KEEP READING: 'Dr. Did you find out if this guy was torturing animals as a child or anything like that? Duntsch focused on his research for a while but was recruited from Memphis to join the Minimally Invasive Spine Institute in North Dallas in the summer of 2011. It was also perhaps the definitive portrait of Orange County, California. Duntsch received his undergraduate degree from the University of Memphis and stayed in town to receive an M.D. It sort of just blew that flame into a full-fledged conflagration -- not because the hospitals were necessarily to blame, but his education. You have reached your limit of free articles. I can't think of a more enormous responsibility than trying to find an actor to play that role. 'Dr Death' Stars Share Why They Think Christopher Duntsch - TheWrap Dr Christopher Duntsch - YouTube Read the crime and public safety news your neighbors are talking about. I had an urge to do that very early in the process. 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. For example, I never knew before I started this that I had such strong feelings about sound effects. Two patients died from his actions and many more suffered permanent injuries, including his best friend, who left Duntsch's operating room paralyzed. She was a National . Each very different. Creator/Executive Producer Patrick Macmanus (Homecoming, Happy) knew he had a ready-made hit in Dr. Death when he first learned the story of Christopher Duntsch, the Texas neurosurgeon who permanently maimed and killed patients during routine procedures. He wanted to be the one that was front and center and really out there. The Peacock limited series, based on the Wondery podcast, covers the true story of Dr. Christopher Duntsch (played by Joshua Jackson ), whose surgical career ruined the lives of numerous. I believe that he's a product of nurture. 'Dr. Death,' The Neurosurgeon Who Left Patients Maimed Philip Mayfield, one of Christopher Duntschs patients, who was paralyzed after his surgery. Nurse who worked with Dr. Duntsch recalls his experiences - YouTube In a one-on-one interview with Collider, showrunner Patrick Macmanus explained how he approached telling the story of Duntsch's rise and fall while being fully aware that explaining his motivations would never be truly possible, how important it was to examine both Duntsch the man as well as the reasons why he was able to keep working as long as he did, and how having figures like Kirby and Henderson eased the way in adapting the podcast. Floella Brown went under Dr. Deaths knife in July 2012 and shortly after her surgery, she suffered a massive stroke caused by Duntsch slicing her vertebral artery during surgery. Duntsch was offered a $600,000 advance and a temporary suite in a luxury hotel to come to Dallas while the couple searched for a new home in Plano, according to a 2018 "Dr. Death" podcast, which inspired the Peacock series. JACKSON: Well, actually, I think it's even one step scarier than that. You had people in walkers. So my follow-up question to that is how has the show changed your relationship to going to the doctor? 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. So we had all of the tools at our disposal. I gathered very quickly that everything that he had accomplished in sports had come with the sweat equity, one old teammate told ProPublica in 2018. Lets just say that this was a back and forth discussion for a lot of it. And so, thats really what I zeroed in on, the whole systemic failure that allowed this to happen. Death' Review: Joshua Jackson Is Terrific in Terrifying Peacock Series That's as Sharp as a Scalpel. Duntsch was eventually stopped, thanks in no small part to the two doctors who worked to expose him (played by Christian Slater and Alec Baldwin). 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. And thats really true for any medical story, I think. 'Dr. Death' Surgeon Killed or Maimed 33 of His Patients - People So it was lovely to get to know her again as a director and just see how she has grown and blossomed and thrown herself into that role. In the Canadian system, you go for care first, and then you pay a couple of times a year into the system. Were there any surgeries that he actually did correctly? 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. And its all because of one surgeon named Christopher Duntsch a.k.a. And I need to think of it, not as a patient, but as a customer, which is a very difficult thing because you're in an extremely vulnerable place anytime you're interacting with the medical system. 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. Speaking only for myself, I could have listened to seven hours of the incredibly graphic stuff. The podcast is also becoming the go-to medium for in-depth profiles of fascinating sociopaths, allowing us to marvel at the sheer breadth of human behavior as we go about our mundane daily drive to work or do chores around the house. This thrilling drama is based on a hit podcast of the same. So really for us, we're in a place where we're actually conscious of it, but the industry still has time to go. or were you like, "No, we should push it further, we should make this really clear?". And I didnt want to seem like I was exploiting them, or making it sensational by really going into the horrible details of what he did each time. 'When They See Us': Joshua Jackson, Blair Underwood & Christopher Jackson on the Netflix Limited Series, 'Dr. 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. The episodes will include interviews from Duntsch's ex-girlfriend, who mothered his two children; his best friend, who he paralyzed during an operation; several of Duntsch's former colleagues, including a surgeon who physically tried to stop him during a surgery gone awry; and other victims and lawyers close to the case. I wanted to make it easy for myself. Did you feel a need to go talk to Christopher Duntsch in prison? A new crime drama called "Dr. Death" is inspired by the true story of Dr. Christopher Duntsch, a Texas surgeon who was said to have intentionally maimed 32 patients during surgery, two of whom. Death' Gets Life in Prison for Botched Surgery, How Other Doctors Tried and Failed to Stop Texas' 'Dr. But it ominously preceded Duntsch's short, and deadly career as a neurosurgeon in Texas, where prosecutors say he botched 33 of his 38 surgeries in less than two years. Believe it or not, there was stuff I took out. He was putting stuff in the wrong place. And you know, the hope and dream is that the generation that comes up behind me, it seems inconsequential whether it's all women, all men or a blend of something in the both. Now, a podcast called Dr. Death is breaking down the deranged surgeons criminal acts and shows how drug abuse and blinding overconfidence led to big trouble for the patients who found themselvesunderneath the spiraling doctors knife. Follow her on Twitter at @lizlet. Christopher Duntschs late friend and victim, Jerry Summers, claimed Dr. Death gave him his first hit of acid.. Magazines, Or create a free account to access more articles. Dr. Death in surgery. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our, Digital After this look at Christopher Duntsch a.k.a. His surgeries actually get even worse. In July, he performed an operation on a woman who lost a tremendous amount of blood and lost consciousness upon waking up after surgery. The former doctor will not be eligible for parole until 2045 when he will be 74 years old. There was one. And frankly, if it hadnt been for a couple doctors who were watching him, who knows? 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. I am somebody who adores the genre of horror. And so, that was one of my goals to start out with, is to just report the hell out of it. And from that, it became apparent that the story is really about our healthcare system. While he did make it on to a couple of college teamsone in Mississippi and one in Coloradoformer teammates said he had trouble keeping up in practice but would plead with coaches to let him keep trying.