The Real Dr Death
Neurosurgeon Christopher Duntsch severely maimed and killed the majority of his patients.
As the number of operations grew, people began to notice that Christopher Duntsch’s surgeries — even the straightforward ones — weren’t going as planned. Quadriplegia, significant blood loss, and in some cases, death didn’t stop the surgeon from entering the theatre, and it took years for someone to finally make a stand.
Christopher Duntsch was born in Montana in 1971, and eventually completed his MD-PhD and neurosurgery residency at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center. However, whispers of Duntsch’s drug use circled the hallways, with some friends claiming they’d seen him on shift after taking cocaine and LSD, and he was sent to complete an ‘impaired physicians’ programme before continuing with his residency.
Duntsch had chosen neurosurgery because of the money. By the time he met his girlfriend, Wendy, he was in over $500,000 of debt due to his involvement in medical startups and living outside of his means. The pair ended up moving back to Wendy’s hometown of Dallas in 2010, where Duntsch was hired at Baylor Regional Medical Center at Plano as a spinal surgeon.
With a salary of $600,000, plus additional bonuses, Duntsch’s money worries were taken care of, but there was…
