Dr. Death: Christopher Duntsch Maims Patients

March 2012 saw Duntsch perform routine surgeries.Duntsch performed a laminectomy on Kellie Martin to reduce her back pain after a fall at home.Kellie Martin sought relief from back pain after a fall at home. Duntsch performed a routine procedure removing bone tissue in the spine to ease pressure on nerves. During the 45-minute surgery, Duntsch cut one of Martin's arteries. Martin died from blood loss in the ICU.

A couple of months later,Floella Brown came to Duntsch for a cervical fusion to ease neck and shoulder pain. During Brown's surgery, Duntsch pierced her vertebral artery. Brown lost so much blood the operating room team had to mop the floor with towels. Duntsch claimed he could not see her spine to operate.Floella Brown came to Duntsch for a cervical fusion to ease neck and shoulder pain. Duntsch pierced Brown's vertebral artery during her surgery. Brown lost so much blood that the operating room team mopped the floor with towels. Duntsch complained he could not see her spine to operate.

Duntsch's attempt to stop the blood loss caused pressure buildup in Brown's brain. Brown had a massive stroke overnight, leaving her in a vegetative state. Her family removed life support days later. A neurosurgeon reviewing the case found an errant screw opened Brown's artery and blocked it. Duntsch misdiagnosed Brown, operating on the wrong area entirely.Philip Mayfield experienced back pain and chronic issues from his long career driving tractor-trailers. On April 9, 2013, Duntsch performed surgery to remove a disk from his spine. The planned 45-minute procedure stretched over an hour before Duntsch finally emerged and told Mayfield's wife the surgery succeeded.To stop the blood loss, Brown built up pressure in her brain. Brown had a massive stroke overnight, leaving her in a vegetative state. Her family removed life support days later. A neurosurgeon reviewing the case found an errant screw opened Brown's artery and blocked it. Duntsch misdiagnosed Brown, operating on the wrong area entirely.

Philip MayfieldMayfield suffered back pain and chronic issues from his long career driving tractor-trailers. On April 9, 2013, Duntsch performed surgery to remove a disk from Mayfield's spine. The planned 45-minute procedure stretched over an hour before Duntsch emerged and told Mayfield's wife the surgery succeeded.

In reality, Duntsch severely deformed Mayfield's spinal column, leaving him immobilized from his mid-chest to his toes. After five days in the ICU and hours of painful rehab, Mayfield needed a cane to walk. He could not ride vehicles for long periods.

Mayfield also developedDuntsch made the incision in the wrong spot before nicking a vertebral artery. He confused the muscles in Glidewell's neck for a tumor, cutting into his vocal cords, and removing part of his esophagus. Duntsch jammed a surgical sponge into the wound, then sewed it up. According to Duntsch's colleague, Dr. Randall Kirby, Glidewell's procedure was so botched that the operating room team forcibly restrained Duntsch from continuing the surgery.in 2014, fluid-filled cysts appeared in his spinal cord. These cysts compressed nerves, causing more pain and damage to the sensitive area.

Also, he began experiencing random fainting episodes andcomplex regional pain syndrome, a rare nervous system disorder causing skin blisters that slough off, plus chronic pain and skin sensitivity.

Duntsch's last patient, Jeffrey Glidewell, entered the operating room in 2013 for minimally invasive surgery to fix long-term neck pain. Duntschallegedly arrivedat the hospital three hours after the surgery was set to begin and started the procedure.

Duntsch made the incision in the wrong spot before nicking a vertebral artery. He confused the muscles in Glidewell's neck for a tumor, cut into his vocal cords, and removed part of his esophagus. Duntsch jammed a surgical sponge into the wound, thensewed it up. Duntsch's colleagueDr. Randall Kirby, Glidewell's procedure was so botched that "Duntsch was forcibly restrained from continuing the surgery by the [operating room] team."

Days later, Glidewell caught a bad infection from a sponge in his throat. Other doctors performed surgery to save his life.

In 2014, the the ex-girlfriend of Duntsch's close friendShe testified under oath that Duntsch attended a party and consumedDr. Duntsch used alcohol and drugsThis included coke, unidentified pills, and LSD. Duntsch supposedly seemed fine the next morning for his residency, even though he was still high.

Rand Page, a former business partner, claimed Duntsch kept coke in his desk drawer. Page also alleged the neurosurgeon started his day with alcohol when they worked together.

Dr. Randall Kirby reported Duntsch.Kirby worked with Duntsch during his residency at Baylor Regional Medical Center of Plano. Kirby helped Duntsch during Barry Morguloff's bad surgery in January 2012. Morguloff got a punctured vertebral artery and had bone fragments in his back muscles.

Following this incident and others, Kirby sent an extensive complaint to the Texas Medical Board. Other surgeons reported cleaning up Duntsch's surgical messes. This complaint caused the board to suspend Duntsch's medical license in June 2013.

Before Kirby's complaint, the CEO of Dallas Medical Center filed a report. The CEO alerted the Texas Medical Board they fired Duntsch. This firing happened after Duntsch's July 2012 surgeries allegedly caused Floella Brown's stroke.Mary Efurdsuffered damaged and amputated nerve roots and metal hardware in her back muscle.

Christopher Duntsch moved to Dallas with his girlfriend Wendy Young. He hired nurse practitioner Kimberly Morgan as his assistant and started a relationship with her. He told Morgan that Young, who was pregnant with their first son, was hisMary Efurd was Duntsch's close friend and secretary..

A piece of evidence used at Duntsch's trial to show intent to harm was a long email he sent to Morgan inDecember of 2011:

Anyone close to me thinks I likely am something between [God], [E]instein, and the antichrist. I can do anything and cross every boundary like a playground; I never lose. But I am winning, yet it is not happening fast enough. What is the problem, Kim? Everyone else is human; I cannot change that. So I pick and choose my humans, try to help them, and show them. Give them patience and kindness. Never harm anyone unless they try to do the same to someone I love.

You are the only one between me and the other side. I will leave the love, kindness, goodness, and patience I mix with everything else to become a cold-blooded killer. I will go faster, do better, and earn more respect and honor by controlling everyone in the brain, emotionally and mentally, bordering on abuse, taking no prisoners, and sending everyone in my way. They thought they could, much less tried.

After the email, Duntsch performed a botched surgery on his childhood friend Jerry Summers, leaving him quadriplegic. Duntsch also operated on Kellie Martin, his first patient to die from his surgery. Morgan ended her professional and personal relationship with Duntsch shortly after Martin's surgery.

Scans showBarry Morguloff's backScans showed Duntsch left bone fragments inside the patient's body during his January 2012 anterior lumbar spinal fusion. The surgeon who took over after Duntsch's surgery on Jerry Summers in February 2012 found a damaged spinal artery caused the patient's paralysis.

When Duntsch saw the patient's bleeding wouldn't stop, he packed too many coagulants around the artery. This compressed Summers's spine, leaving him paralyzed from the neck down, though he could still feel pain. Summers became aquadriplegicwith incomplete paralysis.

Dr. Robert Henderson performed surgery onMary EfurdAfter her July 2012 encounter with Duntsch caused more pain, Henderson found Duntsch created multiple misplaced screw holes, some without a surgical screw. Duntsch also damaged a nerve in Efurd's spine with a screw,amputated a nerve roothe attached the spinal fusion hardware to her back muscle instead of her spine.

In 2011, Duntsch began his career as a practicing surgeon at theMinimally Invasive Spine Institute. Duntsch performed surgery on a patient, then left for Las Vegas, meaning the patient got no aftercare. The institute fired Duntsch, but he stayed at Baylor Regional Medical Center in Plano.

At Baylor, Duntsch mishandled a spinal fusion onBarry Morguloff that caused more pain for the patient. Duntsch also made errors during the same procedure on his childhood friend, Jerry Summers, slicing a vertebral artery and making Summers permanently immobile. Despite allegedly causing Kellie Martin's death in March 2012, Duntsch quietly resigned from Baylor without anyone revealing his wrongdoings.

Duntsch claimed Summers's condition resulted from the patient's bad reaction to a drug used in the procedure and that anesthesia caused Martin's death.

When Duntsch applied to Dallas Medical Center, his background check showed no record issues. The center hired him. Dr. Robert Henderson, a surgeon at the facility, claimed Baylor said Duntsch was not a problem while he worked there.

After Duntsch performed a disastrous surgery on Jeffrey Glidewell in June 2013, the Texas Medical Board suspended his license. In December 2013, his license wasPermanently revoked.Duntsch had a proven pattern of causing patient harm. This followed multiple mishandled surgeries that allegedly resulted in two dispatched patients and many damages.Duntsch had a proven pattern of causing harm to patients.Duntsch caused harm to patients.

InJuly 2015Authorities caught Duntsch for five counts of aggravated assault causing serious bodily harm and one count of injury to an elderly person. The trial centered on the July 2012 surgery of Mary Efurd, a 74-year-old patient then.

Duntsch became thefirst doctorto receive a life sentence for medical malpractice involving botched surgery. He alsois the first known caseof a doctor being criminally convicted for actions during their work.

After getting his undergraduate degree in 1995 from the University of Memphis—then called Memphis State University—Duntsch enrolledin a dual MD and PhD program at the University of Tennessee College of Medicine in Memphis. At his alma mater, he reportedly finished at least five years ofsurgical residencyand joined the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society. After earning his MD and PhD, he finished a spine fellowhip program at Semmes-Murphey Neurologic and Spine Institute in Memphis.

While getting his degrees, Duntsch worked in a research lab and helped start a company focused on developing stem cells. He became a practicing surgeon in summer 2011 after joining the Minimally Invasive Spine Institute.

A legal restructuring in 2003changed the Texas Medical Board and patient protection laws. This made it harder to investigate and discipline doctors for malpractice and blocked alleged victims from getting money back. The maximum victim compensation is $250,000—a sum that barely covers legal fees, let alone hospital bills and lost wages.

Before the legislative changes, three bodies regulated Texas healthcare: the Texas Medical Board, the court system, and hospital management. Only the board stayed to regulate medical malpractice cases.

The Texas Medical Board manages state licensure. The board needs solid proof of malpractice before it can suspend a doctor's license. Even if someone files a complaint, investigations and legal actions take months or years. During this time, the accused doctor can keep practicing medicine.

According toThe Texas ObserverA 2012 study by Public Citizen showed that between 1990 and 2011, about 793 doctors lost their licenses. Less than half faced major malpractice penalties. Dr. Greggory Phillips allegedly abused prescription painkillers and had his license suspended. The Texas Medical Board then reversed that decision, giving him probation instead. Two of his patients died from an overdose. Phillips received a fine and must take a medical documentation course.

The Texas Medical Board got a complaint about Duntsch in late 2011. This happened right after he started neurosurgical procedures. Over 18 months, many medical professionals reported Duntsch's bad procedures to the board. Duntsch did not lose his license untilJune 2013

TheTexas legislatureThe Texas legislature shifts the proof burden to the plaintiff, not the defendant in medical malpractice cases. It also lets hospitals keep doctor information secret. People suing for wrongful death, serious injury, or paralysis must force hospitals to hand over internal documents about the incidents.

Because of these legal obstacles and high lawyer fees for the plaintiff, few hospitals pay out after facing a malpractice lawsuit.