Because of Efurd's age, the injury to an elderly person charge he faced was a first-degree felony with a punishment of life in prison. Once his ineptitude became clear, most chose to spare themselves the hassle and legal exposure of firing him outright and instead let him resign, reputation intact. “I don’t think his plan was ever to become a surgeon,” he said. It was covered in blood. Instead of using a scalpel, he tried to pull Morguloff’s problem disk out with a grabbing instrument that could damage the spine. “Really and truly, in his own mind. According to doctors who later reviewed the case, Duntsch had damaged Summers’ vertebral artery, causing it to bleed almost uncontrollably. “That’s a dream for a hospital administrator,” Kirby said. He kept telling the scrub tech “’suck more, suck more. Creative Commons License (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). I was concerned that he would do the same thing in getting his license back whether it was six months later, a year later, two years later.”. The charge that sent Duntsch to prison centered on only one case: the permanent damage he did to Mary Efurd. There were three holes poked into Efurd’s spinal column where Duntsch had tried and failed to insert screws. Some had permanent nerve damage. ", He also wrote: "what I am, one of kind, a [expletive] stone cold killer that can buy or own or steal or ruin or build whatever he wants.". A key prosecution witness was Kimberly Morgan, who had been Duntsch’s surgical assistant from August 2011 through March 2012 and was also his ex-girlfriend. Most importantly, he added, “I was in pain and somebody, a neurosurgeon, said, ‘I can fix you.’”. Visit RateMDs for information on Dr. Jennifer Griffin Miller in Ann Arbor. By the end of the week, hospitals administrators told Duntsch he would no longer operate at Dallas Medical Center. Dr. Jennifer L. Muller MD has an overall patient experience rating of 3.7 out of 5, which was calculated from 6 reviews compiled from online sources. “Come on. At least two facilities that quietly dumped Duntsch failed to report him to a database run by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services that’s supposed to act as a clearinghouse for information on problem practitioners, warning potential employers about their histories. In the phone conversation, Boop said university officials had asked Duntsch to take a drug test, but he had avoided it, disappearing for several days. It is not a consumer reporting agency as defined by The Fair Credit Reporting Act and should not be used to determine an individual's eligibility for personal credit or employment, or to assess risk associated with any business transactions such as tenant screening. She loved Dr. Pepper and Elvis. “When asked about Dr. Duntsch’s weaknesses or areas for improvement, the supervising physician communicated that the only weakness Duntsch had was that he took on too many tasks for one person.”, In 2010, Boop faxed a recommendation for Duntsch to Baylor-Plano, checking off “good” or “excellent” in boxes asking about his skills and noting, “Chris is extremely bright and possibly the hardest working person I have ever met.” Another supervisor, Dr. Jon Robertson, who was an old family friend of the Duntsches and an investor in DiscGenics, noted on his recommendation that Duntsch had an “excellent work ethic.” (A University of Tennessee attorney said Robertson could not respond to questions.). Duntsch not only misplaced hardware in Passmore’s spine, but he stripped the screw so it could not be moved, Hoyle testified. In May 2015, the Texas Observer published an article with the headline, “‘Sociopath’ Surgeon Duntsch Arrested for Shoplifting Pants.” In the comment section underneath the article, Duntsch responded with a series of diatribes against everyone he thought had conspired against him. “He had his goal, his sight on a goal and whatever it took to get there,” said one classmate, who did not want to be named. When a couple of months passed and they didn’t hear about more bad outcomes, Henderson and Kirby said they assumed perhaps Duntsch’s mistakes had finally caught up with him. “It seems to be the custom and practice,” said Kay Van Wey, a Dallas plaintiff’s attorney who came to represent 14 of Duntsch’s patients. Robert Emmet Chambers Jr. (born September 25, 1966) is an American criminal and convicted killer. Use this database to know more about a surgeon before your operation. We calculated complication rates for surgeons performing one of eight elective procedures under Medicare, carefully adjusting for differences in patient health, age and hospital quality. “Let me be blunt,” it said. A vascular surgeon who operated at Baylor-Plano, Dr. Randall Kirby, said he met Duntsch soon after he started and found him to be an arrogant know-it-all. Turning into the hospital, another one.”, Three black cats on the way to the hospital. Thank you for your interest in republishing this story. In a recording Henderson made of the call, he says, “This is a bad, bad guy, and he needs to be put on the fast track if there’s such a thing.” She tells him she wishes they could suspend his license while they investigate, but the board’s attorneys wouldn’t go for that. Homesick, Duntsch left Colorado after a year and transferred again to what was then Memphis State University, now the University of Memphis. As the pain grew worse, it became clear his only choice was neurosurgery. SALINE, MI - Saline Area Schools elementary teacher Jennifer Miller died suddenly this week. In sworn testimony from 2014, an ex-girlfriend of one of his closest friends described a drug-fueled, all-night birthday celebration for Duntsch about midway through his residency. Explore Life Stories, Offer Condolences & Send Flowers. Other doctors started complaining, too. For Duntsch, the path into medicine was unconventional and, perhaps, a reflection of his tendency to fixate on unlikely goals. During the surgery, records show, Martin’s blood pressure inexplicably plummeted. Kirby sent the board a five-page letter on June 23, 2013, spurred by what had happened to Glidewell. Memorial Mass: 11:00 That same morning — with Brown still in the ICU — Duntsch took another patient into surgery. The Texas Health and Human Services Commission would not explain why, saying the records were confidential. The case was covered intensely by local and state media outlets. His first patient after his return was elementary school teacher Kellie Martin, who had a compressed nerve from falling off a ladder as she fetched Christmas decorations from her attic. There was no way Glidewell could have known from Duntsch’s carefully curated internet presence or from any other information then publicly available that to be Duntsch’s patient was to be in mortal danger. Then Lazar and other experts walked the jury through a litany of Duntsch’s surgical missteps. They patented technology to obtain and grow disk stem cells, and in 2008, they launched a company, DiscGenics, to develop and sell such products. “He had on jeans that were frayed at the bottom,” Glidewell said. Two died in the hospital, including a 55-year-old schoolteacher undergoing what was supposed to be a straightforward day surgery. Texas tells power plants to be winter-ready. “I was devastated, crying,” Robin Glidewell recalled. Classmates remember him as a turbine of sheer determination. Even though he was living in Colorado, he continued to return to Dallas to see his two sons. An autopsy would later find that Duntsch had cut a major vessel in her spinal cord, and within hours, Martin bled to death. “What’s the worst that can happen, a lawsuit?” he said. But Wondery CEO Hernan Lopez has said they had informed Clear Channel ahead of time what the show was about. Morguloff ran a pool service company. Hospital administrators also organized a comprehensive review of Duntsch’s cases, after which they determined that his days at the facility were over. In court, her family said they withdrew life support a few days later. Despite having clear-cut claims and serious, irreversible injuries, three patients I talked to said they had trouble finding attorneys to take their cases. After his arrest, the Dallas district attorney’s office subpoenaed every hospital on Duntsch’s CV for records of his surgeries, including those during his residency and subsequent one-year fellowship. Instead, he resigned, leaving on April 20, 2012, with a lawyer-negotiated letter saying, “All areas of concern with regard to Christopher D. Duntsch have been closed. Ultimately, Duntsch was forced out of DiscGenics and his partners and investors sued him over money and stock. While Duntsch appeared to be thriving during these years, more unsavory aspects of his life simmered below the surface. In the end, it fell to the criminal justice system, not the medical system, to wring out a measure of accountability for Duntsch’s malpractice. Join Facebook to connect with Todd Miller and others you may know. Please Note: The material on this website is provided for informational purposes only. Glidewell’s back problems had begun almost a decade earlier, in 2004, when he broke his back in two places in a motorcycle accident. Problem was, Dallas Medical Center did not perform those, or even have the proper equipment to do them. Some had pain that was hard to economically quantify. “As time goes on, the scar tissue and everything builds up, and I lose more and more function of that left side,” he said. The pain is continuous.”. When people said, ‘You weren’t going to be good enough,’ he outworked that and he made it happen.”. He was sentenced to life in prison. In his 2017 deposition, Summers acknowledged he made up the pre-surgery cocaine binge because he felt Duntsch had abandoned him, as both his surgeon and his friend. Multiple layers … Purchased for $30 million in 2012 by a Houston-based company, University General was one of only three hospitals serving Dallas’ southern half, an area that spans 200 square miles and includes more than 560,000 people. “After you’ve spent a night using cocaine, most people become paranoid and want to stay in the house. Death records are primary resources for details about the death, since they were typically created relatively near the time of the death. He called Boop at the University of Tennessee to ask about Duntsch’s training and spoke to officials at Baylor-Plano hospital. A nerve root was also damaged. Troy was being transferred to a Dallas hospital from a surgery center in the suburb of Frisco. Doctors who examined the case record suspected that Duntsch had drilled through a blood vessel. Duntsch’s trial began on Feb. 2, 2017, and focused on the charge related to Efurd, injuring an elderly person. Clear Channel, which owns the billboard space, told podcast producer Wondery it was removed because the show was considered "adult content," which is not permitted within a certain radius of hospitals, schools or churches. The nursing staff put down towels to soak it up. A doctor who had once watched in surprise while Duntsch performed a procedure at Baylor Plano examined Glidewell afterward. Despite Brown's deteriorating condition, Duntsch continued the operation on Efurd and put a screw in the wrong spot. All rights reserved. She was 105. “To get this guy off the streets so nobody else got hurt again was important,” he said. In 2017, Duntsch was sentenced to life in prison. (The Troy family would not comment for this story.) Since Texas capped damages in medical malpractice lawsuits, limiting the amount plaintiffs can be awarded for pain and suffering in most cases to $250,000, the number of suits filed and amounts paid out have plummeted. We’ve had egregious results at Dallas Medical Center. With Joshua Jackson, Dominic Burgess, Tracy Sallows, Alec Baldwin. He was jailed in Dallas County on five counts of aggravated assault causing serious bodily injury and one count of injury to a child, elderly or disabled person. Watch game, team & player highlights, Fantasy football videos, NFL event coverage & more “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.”. The review also found that Duntsch misdiagnosed the source of her pain and was operating in the wrong place. Two years after Duntsch left Baylor-Plano, the hospital’s decision not to report its review of his work or its results prompted an investigation by state health authorities. Get that blood out of there. But how to prepare is up to them. The charges of aggravated assault causing serious bodily injury came in connection with the September 2012 surgery of Jeff Cheney, the May 2013 surgery of Jennifer Rich, and Jeff Glidewell's June 2013 surgery, according to police records. Join Wondery+ for exclusives, binges, early access, and ad free listening. Kill me. Times Leader obituaries and Death Notices for Wilkes Barre Pennsylvania area . Morguloff was told no so often, he was surprised when attorney Mike Lyons finally took his case. Dr Christopher Duntsch earned the nickname Dr Death after he maimed, paralyzed and injured more than 30 patients - two of whom died - in his operating rooms, as a new podcast details . Why did it take so long for the systems that are supposed to police problem doctors to stop him from operating? She couldn’t turn over or wiggle her toes. “We are like a cash cow.”. When he found a large tissue mass in the patient's neck, he stopped the surgery but left a sponge inside Glidewell, who developed an infection. He had undergone successful back surgery once before, but the pain had returned. After a year of rehab, he tried to go back to his job working on air conditioning systems but lasted only months before the pain stopped him. They settled on five counts of aggravated assault arising from his treatment of four patients, including Brown and Glidewell, and one count of injury to an elderly person, because Efurd was over 65. Ms. MILLER works in Sarasota, FL and specializes in Obstetrics & Gynecology and Nurse Practitioner. These are people dying, and we’re stopping because you’re afraid of a lawsuit?”. They lived in a downtown luxury high-rise while Duntsch shopped for a house. Hours after a billboard went up Sept. 13 near Baylor Plano for the Dr. Death podcast, it was taken down. He had hoped to play football, but he tearfully told Dozois his multiple transfers had taken away his eligibility. On Sept. 18, his attorney filed an appeal in a Dallas court, arguing that the testimony on cases other than Efurd’s and the email read by Morgan unfairly influenced the jury. He trained hour after hour on his own and played linebacker on his high school team in Memphis, Tennessee. It was Duntsch, babbling about his family being in danger. His cybermanifesto ran to more than 80 pages when printed out. She was moved to another hospital but never regained consciousness. “And so I made a statement that was not something that was necessarily true. “It took a toll on my back even with back supports and exercise and a strong core,” Morguloff said. Duntsch’s attorney did not allow him to be interviewed for this story. “Christopher Duntsch, Texas Medical Board license number N8183, is an impaired physician, a sociopath, and must be stopped from practicing medicine.” Robin Glidewell also sent a letter, describing what happened to her husband. The head of the medical board at the time, San Angelo family physician Dr. Irvin Zeitler, said the investigation took a while because “it’s not uncommon for there to be complications in neurosurgery.”. Before we even get to Mary Efurd, you can see that it’s just ... it’s going downhill. When Kirby learned the details, he asked the doctor who referred the case to him about the surgeon: “Is it a guy named Christopher Duntsch?”, Duntsch had managed to get a job at Legacy Surgery Center, an outpatient clinic. In 13 years with the Dallas DA’s office, she’d prosecuted drug dealers, robbers, but never a doctor. It likely came down to simple economics. Since Texas enacted tort reform in 2003, reducing the amount of damages plaintiffs could win, the number of malpractice payouts per year has dropped by more than half. A pain specialist gave Morguloff Duntsch’s card. Summers lost more than two liters of … She now writes about crime, other breaking news and the Dallas Zoo. (Rimlawi declined to comment for this story.). “He is among giants up there, and he was trying to tell me over and over again how most of the spine surgery here in Dallas was being done inappropriately and that he was going to clean this town up.”. He’s got to be stopped.’”. “But we were able to solve it in the criminal courthouse.”. Vascular surgeon Mark Hoyle assisted with the operation. Elisabeth Semel, Director, Death Penalty Clinic | Clinical Professor of Law Martin Shapiro, Professor of Law (Emeritus) Carla Shapreau, Lecturer Astha Sharma Pokharel, Clinical Teaching Fellow, International Human Rights Law Clinic Devan Shea, Clinical Teaching Fellow, Policy Advocacy Clinic Dr Death is made by Wondery, the creators of LA true-crime podcast Dirty John. Sally Evelyn Henry Miller passed away early Tuesday morning, January 19, 2021 at her Savannah Court residence in Minden. He put his own pants into the cart and rolled the cart out the front door without paying for the pants he was wearing. She’d had neck surgery, but the surgeon had cut her vocal cords and one of her arteries. It was at University General that Glidewell had his neck surgery, knowing none of Duntsch’s by then two-year history of botching operations. “He was saying: ‘There’s so much blood I can’t see. Despite what Duntsch had told friends when he headed off to medical school, Page said Duntsch had staked his fortune on being a businessman, not a doctor. Created by Patrick Macmanus. The dramatist found fame in the early 1960s in … Biden signs major disaster declaration for 77 Texas counties, but Abbott asked for all 254, ‘They were not prepared’: After winter crisis, Texas will have to confront its energy, politics and culture, Here are the North Texas cities that have boil water notices and where you can get water for free, Dallas County adds 25 COVID-19 deaths; Jenkins hails lowest hospitalization totals since November, Texas officials cut number of COVID-19 shots for Dallas residents, county says, ERCOT ends emergency operations as grid returns to normal, but many North Texans are still without power, Texas rushes plumbers to fix broken pipes, airlifts bottled water as crisis focus shifts to damages, water supplies, later became one of the patients who sued Duntsch, has denied having anything to do with its removal, Griddy customers face $5,000 electric bills for 5 freezing days in Texas, Jerry Jones’ natural gas company ‘hits jackpot’ as Texas freeze drives up prices, From breaking Chinese norms to cross-country commuting, Bling Empire’s Jessey Lee ‘just happy to be part’ of reality series, After young mom’s death brought Parkland COVID unit to the breaking point, nurses seek hope to fight on. He passed a separate psychological evaluation and, after three weeks, was allowed to operate again, but he was told to stick to relatively minor procedures. Stay up-to-date with the crime and public safety news your neighbors are talking about. Summers seemed resigned to his injuries, to his friend’s role in them and to the systemic weaknesses that allow problem doctors to keep practicing. He received a confidential settlement but said, “It wasn’t much.” He took more solace from the criminal case. INSTANT DEATH RECORDS SEARCH. His older son had been born back when he at Baylor-Plano. “He basically can’t really feel things when he’s holding them in his fingers.”. She was an active 71-year-old who’d sought Duntsch’s help because back pain was keeping her off her treadmill. Duntsch lost his privileges but got new ones at University General Hospital despite efforts by at least one doctor to sound the alarm. Jennifer Lynn Miller, 55, of Forney, passed away peacefully November 9, 2018 in Forney. (For example, “yesterday” can be changed to “last week,” and “Portland, Ore.” to “Portland” or “here.”), You cannot republish our photographs or illustrations without specific permission. As he operated on Efurd, Duntsch quarreled first with Kissinger and later with his supervisors, insisting on a craniotomy for Brown, according to court testimony. “I don’t think it’s because of our charm,” Lazar added dryly. His pain returned after an earlier back surgery, but the surgeon recommended exercise and weight loss, not another procedure. In a 2012 phone call recorded by a Texas doctor who contacted Boop because he was alarmed by Duntsch’s surgical errors, Boop acknowledged that an anonymous woman had filed a complaint against Duntsch, saying he was using drugs before seeing patients. The destination for all NFL-related videos. “What happens sometimes is that doctors are allowed to resign in lieu of discipline so that the hospital can protect its perceived legal liability from the doctor,” said Van Wey, the Dallas trial lawyer. View the profiles of people named Jennifer Miller. Search strategies for locating other Australian-related Birth, Marriage and Death records within or accessible from the Library; Information on accessing divorce records and links to State/Territory archive collections and research guides; Most Australian States and Territories publish indexes to 'historic' births, deaths and marriages registered in their respective jurisdictions. Texas Medical Board records said that Duntsch removed bone from an area of Brown's body that wasn't required "by any clinical or anatomical standards." Graveside services will take place at 10 a.m. Saturday, Jan. 23 at Gardens of Memory Cemetery in Minden with pastor, Chaplain Sammy Morrow, officiating. The billboard showed a hand wearing a white surgical glove and holding a scalpel on a black background. In one comment directed at Kirby, he wrote, “You use the word without explanation impaired physician and sociopath. He would remain there for months. For days after the operation, Summers lay in the ICU, descending into a deep depression. Allegations include that Duntsch misplaced surgical hardware in a patient's spine, punctured another patient's throat leading to a life-threatening infection and irreparably damaged nerves. In the byline, we prefer “Author Name, ProPublica.” At the top of the text of your story, include a line that reads: “This story was originally published by ProPublica.” You must link the word “ProPublica” to the original URL of the story. Dr. Jennifer L. Muller MD is a female oncologist in Naples, FL with over 23 years of experience. For more information about canonical metadata, You can’t edit our material, except to reflect relative changes in time, location and editorial style. Glidewell was the last patient Duntsch operated on before being stripped of his license to practice medicine. Kirby said he argued with Duntsch, even offering to take over, but Duntsch insisted he knew what he was doing. At dawn, Duntsch slipped on his white coat and headed for rounds at the hospital. Neither Glidewell, nor the prosecutors, nor even Duntsch’s own attorneys said they thought his outlandish case had been a wake-up call for the system that polices doctors, however. He requires 24-hour caregivers and sat, tipped back, in his power wheelchair, as I talked to him about Duntsch. When he opened the window, they smelled the sour tang of alcohol and spotted an empty bottle of Mike’s Hard Lemonade on the floor of the car. University General suspended Duntsch's privileges. According to the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education, a neurosurgery resident does about 1,000 operations during training. He didn’t wear underwear. “He’d be, ‘Coach, I promise I can get this, let me do it again.’ He’d go through; he’d screw it up again,” Dozois said. and a Ph.D. As part of the program, he worked in a research lab, studying the origins of brain cancer and the various uses of stem cells. Her Stepfather Admitted to Sexually Abusing Her. “Had Baylor’s action been reported appropriately, I would anticipate the board would have met within days to have an immediate suspension,” said Dr. Allan Shulkin, a Dallas pulmonologist who was on the medical board in 2012. If you share republished stories on social media, we’d appreciate being tagged in your posts. On a link for something called “Best Docs Network,” Glidewell found a slickly produced video showing Duntsch in his white coat, talking to a happy patient and wearing a surgical mask in an operating room. He went to Las Vegas instead. Two of Duntsch’s supervisors from the university were among the first investors. As patients entering the operating room of Dr. Christopher Duntsch for routine spinal surgeries start leaving permanently maimed or dead, two fellow surgeons and a young … This collection includes indexes that can help you request the actual record, and in some cases, actual images of the death records. On July 24, 2012, Duntsch operated on Floella Brown, 64, a banker about to retire after a long career. We do not generally permit translation of our stories into another language. For some of his patients, the criminal case offered a last chance at justice they couldn’t get through the civil courts. “Phenomenal, great guy, loved him,” Morguloff recalled. Dr. Death, a six-episode podcast from Wondery and journalist Laura Beil, a former Dallas Morning News reporter, explores the life of Christopher Duntsch, who a colleague once referred to as a sociopath and a "clear and present danger" to patients.

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