70 Facts About Christopher Duntsch

Christopher Duntsch was accused of injuring 33 out of 38 patients in less than two years.

Christopher Duntsch was allowed to continue practicing because hospital officials and regulators found it hard to believe a surgeon could be so incompetent and dangerous.

Christopher Duntsch's license was finally revoked by the Texas Medical Board in 2013.

In 2017, Duntsch was convicted of maiming one of his patients and sentenced to life imprisonment.

Christopher Duntsch was born in Montana and spent most of his youth in Memphis, Tennessee.

Christopher Duntsch's father, Donald, was a physical therapist and Christian missionary, and his mother, Susan, was a schoolteacher.

Christopher Duntsch was the oldest of four children; he has two brothers, Nathan and Matt, and a sister, Liz.

Christopher Duntsch is a graduate of Evangelical Christian School in the Cordova, Tennessee, where he was a football player.

Christopher Duntsch initially attended Millsaps College to play Division III college football, and later transferred to Division I Colorado State University.

Former teammates later said that, while Christopher Duntsch trained hard, he lacked talent at the game.

Christopher Duntsch returned home to attend Memphis State University.

Christopher Duntsch completed his undergraduate degree at Memphis State in 1995.

Christopher Duntsch participated in fewer than 200 surgeries during his residency; neurosurgery residents typically participate in over 1,000 surgeries.

Christopher Duntsch was suspected of being under the influence of cocaine while operating during his fourth year of residency training.

Christopher Duntsch was sent to a program for impaired physicians for several months before being allowed to return to the residency.

Christopher Duntsch's supervisors were concerned enough that they did not allow him to operate without direct supervision.

Several of Christopher Duntsch's friends recalled him going to work after a night of doing drugs, with one saying he would never allow Christopher Duntsch to operate on him.

In 2011, Young approached Christopher Duntsch at a club upon noticing that "all the [other] girls were over there", making her aware that he was a doctor and that "of course, that's where you're going to go for money".

Christopher Duntsch's name appeared on several papers and patents, and he took part in a number of biotech startups.

However, by the time he met Young, Christopher Duntsch was over $500,000 in debt.

Christopher Duntsch decided to turn to neurosurgery, which can be a lucrative field.

Christopher Duntsch persuaded Young to come with him since she grew up in the Dallas area.

Christopher Duntsch appeared extremely qualified on paper: he had spent fifteen years in training, and his curriculum vitae was twelve single-spaced pages.

Christopher Duntsch soon joined Baylor Regional Medical Center at Plano as a minimally invasive spine surgeon with a salary of $600,000 per year plus bonuses.

Early in his tenure at Baylor Plano, Christopher Duntsch made a poor impression on his fellow surgeons.

Veteran vascular surgeon Randall Kirby recalled that Christopher Duntsch frequently boasted about his abilities despite being so new to the area.

Christopher Duntsch recalled that Duntsch's skills in the operating room left much to be desired; as Kirby put it, "he could not wield a scalpel".

Baylor Plano officials found that Christopher Duntsch failed to meet their standards of care and permanently revoked his surgical privileges.

The hospital initiated another peer review, but Christopher Duntsch resigned rather than face certain termination.

Christopher Duntsch moved to the Dallas Medical Center in Farmers Branch, where he was granted temporary privileges until hospital officials could obtain his records from Baylor Plano.

For instance, Christopher Duntsch came to work wearing the same tattered scrubs for three days in a row.

Christopher Duntsch lasted for less than a week before administrators pulled his privileges after the death of a patient, Floella Brown, and the maiming of another, Mary Efurd.

Christopher Duntsch had severed Brown's vertebral artery and refused to abort the surgery despite massive blood loss.

Christopher Duntsch then packed it with too much of a substance intended to stop the bleeding.

Christopher Duntsch did not respond to messages from the hospital for a few hours, then the next day scheduled an elective surgery on Efurd rather than care for Brown.

Hospital officials were exasperated when Christopher Duntsch refused to delay Efurd's surgery, and asked him multiple times to care for Brown or transfer her out of his care.

Christopher Duntsch suggested he perform a craniotomy on Brown to relieve the pressure.

Brown was left in a coma for hours, and was brain dead by the time Christopher Duntsch finally acquiesced to her transfer.

Christopher Duntsch later recalled waking up feeling "excruciating pain" of "ten-plus" on a scale of one to ten.

Several people in the operating room for Efurd's surgery suspected Christopher Duntsch might have been intoxicated, recalling that his pupils were dilated.

Christopher Duntsch described Duntsch's surgery as an "assault" and concluded that Efurd would have been bedridden for the rest of her life had the salvage surgery not been performed.

The damage to Efurd led Henderson to wonder if Christopher Duntsch was an impostor; he could not believe that a real surgeon would botch Efurd's surgery so badly.

Christopher Duntsch later recalled that in his view, anyone with a basic knowledge of human anatomy would know that he was operating in the wrong area of Efurd's back.

Muse woke up in considerable pain, but Christopher Duntsch convinced him it was normal.

Christopher Duntsch then prescribed Muse so much Percocet that a pharmacist refused to fill the prescription; the pharmacist feared Duntsch was trying to kill Muse.

Christopher Duntsch later recalled that he read about Kellie Martin's death on the day before the surgery, but Duntsch had cursed him out when he called to ask about it.

When Christopher Duntsch applied for privileges at Methodist Hospital in Dallas, the hospital queried the NPDB.

Christopher Duntsch stuffed a surgical sponge in Glidewell's throat to stanch the bleeding.

When other doctors discovered the sponge, Christopher Duntsch refused to return to help remove it.

Christopher Duntsch later described what he found after opening Glidewell back up as the work of a "crazed maniac".

Christopher Duntsch later told Glidewell that it was clear Duntsch tried to kill him.

Kirby claimed that it looked as if Christopher Duntsch had tried to decapitate Glidewell and contended that such a botched surgery "has not happened in the United States of America" before.

Christopher Duntsch proved to be Duntsch's last patient; University General pushed him out soon afterward.

The lead investigator on the case later revealed that she wanted Christopher Duntsch's license suspended while the ten-month probe was underway, but board attorneys were unwilling to agree.

Christopher Duntsch moved to Denver, Colorado, where he went into a downward spiral.

Christopher Duntsch declared bankruptcy after listing debts of over $1 million.

Christopher Duntsch was arrested for driving under the influence in Denver, taken for a psychiatric evaluation in Dallas during a visit to see his children, and was arrested in Dallas for shoplifting.

In March 2014, three of Christopher Duntsch's former Mary Efurd, Kenneth Fennel and Lee filed separate federal lawsuits against Baylor Plano, alleging the hospital allowed Christopher Duntsch to perform surgeries despite knowing that he was a dangerous physician.

Henderson and Kirby feared that Christopher Duntsch could move elsewhere and still theoretically get a medical license.

Part of the problem was being able to prove that Christopher Duntsch's actions were willful as defined by Texas law.

In July 2015, approximately a year and a half after his medical license was revoked, Christopher Duntsch was arrested in Dallas and charged with six felony counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, five counts of aggravated assault causing serious bodily injury and one count of injury to an elderly person.

Prosecutors put a high priority on that charge, as it provided the widest sentencing range, with Christopher Duntsch facing up to life in prison if convicted.

Christopher Duntsch was held in the Dallas County jail for almost two years until the case went to trial in 2017.

Shughart argued that Christopher Duntsch should have known he was likely to hurt others unless he changed his approach, and that his failure to learn from his past mistakes demonstrated that his maiming of Efurd was intentional.

Prosecutors wanted to show that Christopher Duntsch knew he was "reasonably certain" to maim Efurd, and should have never taken her into surgery.

Christopher Duntsch's defense blamed their client's actions on poor training and lack of oversight by the hospitals.

Shughart countered that the 2011 email, sent after his first surgeries went wrong, proved that Christopher Duntsch knew his actions were intentional.

The four hospitals that employed Christopher Duntsch have ongoing civil cases against him.

Christopher Duntsch's conviction has been called a precedent-setting case, as it is believed to be the first time in US history that a physician was convicted on criminal charges for actions taken in the course of medical work.

In 2019, Christopher Duntsch was the focus of the premiere episode of License to Kill, Oxygen's series on criminal medical professionals.