Patrick Macmanus also explains why the show's supporting characters were such a gift. Dr. Death is a podcast produced by Wondery that focuses on egregious cases of medical malpractice.The podcast is hosted and reported by Laura Beil and premiered September 4, 2018. Death' Based on a Shocking True Story, Joshua Jackson Becomes a Dangerous 'Sociopath' Surgeon in 'Dr. And then the rest were injuries. I have to say, it was nice to do something different. Then it seemed that it was nothing more than boring to youso then I thought it was my vodka bottle and neurostimulants, but I watched you closely and besides concern for my healthy you were chill and rolled with me on that., What I am being is what I am, one of kind, a mother f****** stone cold killer that can buy or own or steal or ruin or build whatever he wants.". Well, it was familiar content-wise because Im a medical reporter, so Ive never covered anything else. Per the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Duntsch will be eligible for parole on July 20, 2045, when he is 74 years old. On paper, Duntsch was a star pick for any hospital system once he completed his residency, thanks to years of research and study of the use of stem cells and several strong recommendations from his prior supervisors. Right? At first I thought it was simply my world and that it was too much for you. JACKSON: Well, yeah, it gives you a healthy skepticism. Do you think at some point he came to the conclusion that he really was a horrible surgeon, or do you think to this day he thinks everybody else is wrong? That it needs to be noted that like, well, you can only give these ladies so many slots. Right? After a fall in her kitchen, Martin experienced chronic back pain and sought out surgery to alleviate it. Then check out the horrifying story of Simon Bramhall, a surgeon who admitted to burning his initials into patients livers. 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. He was then sent to a program for impaired physicians and still allowed to complete his surgical trainingthough how thorough the training was is unclear. They suffer with everything from agonizing spinal problems to severely damaged vocal chords and they say their problems are the result of botched surgery performed by the same surgeon, a doctor many of them claim is a butcher and a drug addict. The 50 greatest TV and movie detectives of all time. That was a big focus of Collider's one-on-one interview with Joshua Jackson, who spoke openly about the differences between the American and Canadian health care systems and why it's an important step for shows like Dr. Death to include an all-female directing team (Maggie Kiley, Jennifer Morrison, and So Yong Kim directed the eight episodes). 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. Naomi Martin. To become a neurosurgeon, one typically has to complete over 1000 surgeries in residency, but somehow, reporter Laura Beil discovered that Duntsch only completed 100. So many podcast series, from Serial to S-Town to the incomparable In The Dark, set out to solve a mystery. 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 sad fact is that I would go faster do better and catch more respect and honor by f***ing every one in the brain, emotionally and mentally controlling them in a manner that borders on abuse, taking no prisoners, and sending everyone in my way, and especially that f***s with me to hell for the simple fact that they thought they could much less tried, 1 week and then everything unraveled. 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. "License to Kill" and "Botched" host advises on how - YouTube So really for us, we're in a place where we're actually conscious of it, but the industry still has time to go. Yeah, I do, and theres another one that comes in later. MACMANUS: You said it right there, it was a gift. Since sentencing, Christopher Duntsch has been serving time at the O.B. In Dr. Death theres no question as to who the killer is, but there are still a few mysteries to unravel. A CT scan would later reveal that Efurds nerve root had been amputated, there were several screw holes nowhere near where they were supposed to be, and one screw had been lodged in another nerve root. 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. Collider: And I wanted to start off just by kind of asking, there's so much of the character that you're playing, especially given that it's based on a real person, and I was wondering, what was key for you in terms of unlocking how to approach it? And what happened after shows how Duntsch was able to continue working as a surgeon in Texas, despite the trail of broken trust, chronic pain and death he left behind. She received The Dallas Morning News Reporter of the Year award in 2016 and 2017. Alec Baldwin and Christian Slater join the cast as two doctors who try to stop Duntsch from causing further harm. Scheduling just got in the way there. Tulsa Hospital Shooting Suspect Was a Patient Who Had Recent Back Surgery and Targeted His Doctor: Cops, One Brother Was a Hero, One Was a Serial Killer: New Docuseries Explores the Stayner Family's Plight. You can't justit doesn't come out wholly formed. In America, health is a service. I felt sick for most of the last three years in the best possible way. His very first operation at the hospital would once again turn deadly. That's something that I think the show captures really well, especially when it comes to bringing you into the worlds of the patient. Death' Review: Joshua Jackson Is Terrific in Terrifying Peacock Series That's as Sharp as a Scalpel. (He was later let go from the company over money issues). Who Is Kimberly Morgan, 'Dr. Death' Christopher Duntsch's Assistant and a Ph.D. from a top-tier medical school, a decade of experience, and a central role in a pioneering stem-cell treatment. And now you have to have empathy for the people who are the victims of your central character. Duntsch declined a reporter's request for a jailhouse interview Tuesday. White men also have stories to tell. Following his blunders, Duntsch resigned from Baylor Plano in April 2012 before they could fire him. On that note, tell me a little bit about your background. Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? And also, I knew that I was dealing with a story that probably half the listeners from the first episode were going to Google and find out the end. Duntsch moved on fairly quickly, to the Dallas Medical Center, where officials allowed him to begin operating while they conducted his reference checkswhich ended in disaster. Of the 37 patients Duntsch operated on in Dallas over about two years, 33 were hurt or harmed in the process. . Dr. Death begins streaming today on Peacock. Before working with him, Dr. Hoyle said that he didnt know how to feel about his fellow surgeon. And I, as an actor, want to have the ability to work for the whole smorgasbord of humanity as my directors, as my costars, as my writers, because it makes the stories that we're telling more compelling, not less. Over the course of two years, Christopher Duntsch operated on 38 patients in the Dallas area. That was probably the biggest adjustment for me, was just the spareness of the script. Christopher Duntsch was sentenced to life in prison in February 2017 for his heinous acts. 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. Patrick Macmanus also explains why the show's supporting characters were such a gift. After he arrived in town, he secured a deal with the Baylor Regional Medical Center at Plano and was given surgical rights at the hospital. 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. Duntsch was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison. The medical boards will protect themselves. 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. I don't think anybody but Christopher Duntsch can answer that question. But police sayanemail Duntsch wrote in 2011 points to his mind-set in the months before he "intentionally, knowingly and recklessly" messed up the procedures. Death' First Trailer, The Best TV Shows on Amazon Prime Video to Stream Now. She was transferred to another hospital and died. And so, he was an attractive hire. So yes, there are definitely heroes in the story. The charismatic neurosurgeon was actually a successful researcher before he starting killing people in the operating room. I was working on a show called Happy [for SyFy] and I was sent the first three episodes of the podcast that hadn't come out yet. Going back to neurosurgeons being really lucrative for hospitals. 'When They See Us': Joshua Jackson, Blair Underwood & Christopher Jackson on the Netflix Limited Series, 'Dr. 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. Duntsch was fired after he performed a surgery and immediately left for Las Vegas, leaving no one to look after his patient. So we were bouncing around quite a lot. 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. 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. Im the only clean minimally invasive guy in the whole state.. The system was attracted to his very real charms. The patient Duntsch operated on continues to walk with a cane and lives with chronic pain. One, since the [Mary] Efurd case in the one that eventually goes on trial, I thought it was important to know what happened in that case, so thats one. Duntsch was not reported to either the data bank or the Texas Medical Board, preventing him from being tracked as he continued his career elsewhere in the state. Im saying the system played a role in it, but it was clearly his fault. Crucially, as is recounted in careful detail in the podcast, in part because of the voluntary exit, Baylor-Plano was not required to report Duntschs actions to the National Practitioner Data Bank, a resource medical professionals and hospital administrators use to track which doctors have been fired, suspended, had their licenses revoked or have had to make malpractice payments. The question of how Duntsch was able to operate with impunity for so longwhen surrounded by many people who tried to raise the alarm and faileddrives Dr. Death, which jumps across time in each episode to show what the doctor was like as a young man, friend and medical student, and then later as a surgeon, a partner and a father. Inside The Death Of Chris Benoit, The Professional Wrestler Who Killed His Family And Then Himself, Archaeologists Just Uncovered A Massive Roman Phallic Carving In Spain And It Might Be The Biggest Ever Found, What Stephen Hawking Thinks Threatens Humankind The Most, 27 Raw Images Of When Punk Ruled New York, Join The All That's Interesting Weekly Dispatch. Many in the crowd wore the custom eye masks wed been given, to add to the audio immersion effect. Where Is Dr. Death Now? - Here's Where Christopher Duntsch Is Today in 2021 Believe it or not, there was stuff I took out. She came in to have two vertebrae fused, but when she woke up she experienced severe pain and couldnt stand. Dirty John would seem hard to top the story of a psychotic con-man who spent his days playing Counter Strike, posing as a doctor and telling fake war stories. Copyright 2023 Meredith Corporation. How much do you think that affected Duntschs decision to become a neurosurgeon in the first place? And that's frankly what I found so compelling about the character is that it's not easy. This meant Summers could still feel pain, but was unable to move from the neck down. Offers may be subject to change without notice. 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 did talk to as many of his high school friends as I could. So we shot the episodes in three different bricks. Christopher Duntschs late friend and victim, Jerry Summers, claimed Dr. Death gave him his first hit of acid.. And from that, it became apparent that the story is really about our healthcare system. Now, INSDE EDTION tracks the surgeon down to get some answers. Dr. Death, read about how reckless surgeon Robert Liston killed his patient and two bystanders. And that's only four years ago. Such significant injuries should have been never eventssomething that should never occur in an operating room, a surgeon told D Magazine, which covers the Dallas-Fort Worth area, in a 2016 piece that inspired the eventual Dr. Death podcast. Right? And thats really true for any medical story, I think. Thanks to the system, though, Duntsch was able to keep working and hurting people until two of his fellow doctors, Randall Kirby and Robert Henderson (played respectively by Christian Slater and Alec Baldwin), were able to expose him and put him behind bars. He graduated from a top-tier medical school, was running research labs, and completed a residency program for neurosurgery. JACKSON: Yeah. Do you think we get an answer at the end of the show? RELATED: 'When They See Us': Joshua Jackson, Blair Underwood & Christopher Jackson on the Netflix Limited Series. 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. The good news is, is we had thousands of pages of research, thousands of pages of court documents, tons of hours of interviews. This time on 53-year-old Mary Efurd. Left: Christopher Duntsch in surgery, Right: Christopher Duntschs mugshot. He was charming. 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. Victim of Real-Life 'Dr. Death' Believes There Are Others Like Him Out For example, I never knew before I started this that I had such strong feelings about sound effects. I have to figure out how to humanize this guy.'. I mean, the guy who you think is guilty from the first episode really is guilty. Based on true events, as documented in the Wondery podcast, the series stars Joshua Jackson as Christopher Duntsch, a Texas physician who repeatedly crippled or killed patients in his care through surgeries which were either grossly incompetent or malicious. 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. Ive been writing in print for a long time, so I really enjoyed the chance to do something different. And thankfully, knock on wood, I've never had some spectacularly horrific outcome, like Christopher Duntsch, but I grew up in Canada and I'm Canadian. JACKSON: Well, it's not. Some are on the tape, some are not, just for space reasons. But I think, it is good. I listened to this with some friends at one point, and there was a lot of cringing at the medical butchery descriptions. 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. I believe that it was an outgrowth of the fact that by the time these administrations caught up with what he was doing, they had already moved him on. You just reminded me, that was another danger that we were really grappling with. The value of the doctors, right? So it really came down to the reporting and the telling of the story itself. Out of his 38 surgeries, only three had no complications. In February 2012, he went under the knife for an elective spinal fusion surgery. In Canada, health is a right. She is also a produced playwright, a host of podcasts, and a repository of "X-Files" trivia. And so, when youre writing, its like, Okay, well, what is this have to do with the tape thats coming up? Something in print, you dont have these really long quotes for people. 'Dr Death' Stars Share Why They Think Christopher Duntsch - TheWrap Well, if you want to just put in there that after the first episode its a lot less gruesome. Why Did Dr. Death Do It? 'Dr. Death: The Undoctored Story' Explains According to D Magazine, Duntsch did so well in medical school that he was allowed to join the prestigiousAlpha Omega Medical Honor Society. Right? Dominic Burgess on Playing Real Life Jerry Summers in Peacock's Dr Christopher Duntsch, the focus of Peacock's true crime series Dr. Death, looked good on paper. I dont know, but that would be my guess. Death': "He Thinks He's the Hero of This Story", 'Dr. Death': "He Thinks He's the Hero of This Story", So when it comes to the question of how he was able to get away with it for so long, that involves a lot of breaking down the administrative and legal aspects that keep a doctor like him in a position of doctoring. 'Dr. Death': AnnaSophia Robb on Playing ADA Michelle Shughart - Newsweek I had never seen him like that. Despite her qualifications as a reporter, Beil was also a podcast newbie. Chief among them is the mystery of whether Duntsch was homicidal or simply criminally inept. JACKSON: I mean, I think, leaving aside our show, it means that finally the industry as a whole is starting to redress some of the failures of imagination that have led us into a predominantly male, predominantly white-dominated creative industry. He decided hed be a neurosurgeon and was not going to let anything, including lack of skill or training, stop him in his quest. So many of these serialized investigative podcasts, they tend to grow out of some kind of mystery. Do you mind mentioning any of those? Thats why we have these hours and hours of tape, but that said, there are a few fundamentals that were wrong. And so, as it goes along, theres sort of less and less about what he did to each person. 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. I think his upbringing fanned the flames of that sociopathy and that narcissism. Joshua Jackson as Christopher Duntsch in 'Dr. 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. Dr Death received a life sentenceafter being convicted of maiming one of his patients. But theres one lucky person who escaped, you know? He shared: We were like 19 years old, I remember we were driving down the road, and he was like, You wanna take a hit of acid., And I was like, Yeah, Ill take a hit of acid with you. And we popped, hit acid., Jerry revealed: I had never taken a hit of acid before. Once you got past Mary Efurd, I really didnt need to get into all that, because you got it. MACMANUS: You know, it's interesting that you asked that question because it was something that we talked about quite a bit, even before we had the writers' room I'm talking three years ago, I think I got the podcast exactly three years ago next week and my answer was that I genuinely don't believe we will ever be able to answer who Christopher Duntsch was and why he was, and it was not my intention, nor was it our writer's intention, once we got to the writers' room, to answer that question in full. The first one is the most graphic. Coverage of Duntschs case, the podcast series and the now-streaming Peacock series all make sure to underscore that his story is part of a major systemic failurea common theme in true crime stories. Well, thank you for your time. His father was a missionary and physical therapist and his mother was a school teacher. You did have a crusading whistleblower character in there. That would be my guess. Duntsch took careful steps to put across the image of a hardworking, competent and caring person and doctor. Does that make sense? Christopher Duntsch - AKA Dr. Death - spent 18 months as a practicing surgeon at multiple Texas hospitals until he had his license revoked in 2013. 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. Dr. Death is not a show that you should consider watching right before your next trip to the doctor's office. But there was so much that came together. 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But unfortunately, despite the fact I am winning it is not happening fast enough. 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. "This defendant single-handedly. So it has to be taught through generations. Well, it was a team effort. Duntsch, sentenced to life in prison in February 2017, is believed to be the first surgeon sentenced to go to prison for a botched surgery, according to USA Today. Later, following another accusation that he was abusing drugs before doing surgeries, Duntsch was relegated to mostly minor surgical procedures at the hospital. How many of them struck you funny? And then there were comments that he made himself on the Dallas Observer article [about him]. D MagazineChristopher Duntsch a.k.a. When Josh and I had our first conversation, he said to me from the beginning, 'I've got to figure out how to approach this character without any judgment. I didnt want listeners to grow tired of peoples pain. Alec Baldwin and Christian Slater in 'Dr. Its lucrative for the hospital. He had 15 years of medical training under his belt, his CV reportedly spanned 12 single-spaced pages and he exuded confidence all of which landed him a job performing minimally invasive spinal surgeries. Prior to serving as Senior TV Editor at Collider, her work had been published by Vulture, Variety, The AV Club, The Hollywood Reporter, IGN, The Verge, and Thought Catalog. When he arrived in Dallas in late 2010, Duntsch's resume spoke of a skilled neurosurgeon: An M.D. He joined the publication in 2021 on the crime beat. But the actuality is, is that these hospitals will protect themselves. The Peacock limited series Dr. Death is in many ways much more a horror story than a drama, but the villain at . How much of a gift was it to have characters like the ones Alec Baldwin and Christian Slater play, to basically serve as protagonists? RELATED: Joshua Jackson on Playing 'Dr. In the doc, Jerry, who died in February from an infection connected to the botched surgery Christopher performed on him in 2011, gave an interview about their friendship and the operation that eventually led to his death. You have reached your limit of free articles. She also said that he kept a pile of cocaine on his dresser in his home office. This attitude and outlook stuck with Duntsch as he set out to achieve something beyond football and landed on surgery. Yeah, and I listened to it twice, happily. One improved, and I think there were four, maybe that werent hurt, but they werent helped either. No one but Christopher Duntsch can know exactly what hewas thinkingwhen the. So, theyre not as bad. His surgeries actually get even worse. Its a lucrative surgery. "Dr. Death" Memphis victim dies years after botched surgery Lets just say that this was a back and forth discussion for a lot of it. And so, the producers started Googling and decided that he would make a good story, and then they contacted me because they were looking for a local reporter in Dallas who could work on the story. It. Kirby, who called the operation an attempted murder, and Henderson, both annoyed by the slow pace of the states investigation, ramped up their efforts to strip Duntsch of his practicing rights. And so, I think if you translate that to his desire to always want to be on top and to always want to be the most prestigious, I would guess that, that had probably more to do with it than the money. What can I find out about this guy? 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. And even after he eventually lost that appeal, the train had already left the station.
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