Deconstructing Christopher Duntsch of Dr. Death Season 1
Real Crime Profile
Real Crime Profile / Wondery
4.2 • 10.5K Ratings
🗓️ 16 November 2020
⏱️ 55 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The RCP team analyzes the horrific story of Christopher Duntsch, a neurosurgeon whose arrogance and recklessness in the operating room left a trail of victims — patients who first came to him to alleviate their pain, ended up maimed and in some cases, dead.
Jim and Laura forensically deconstruct Duntsch’s behavior and the real motives behind his actions. Lisa wonders why Duntsch was able to get away with his botched surgeries for so long — when so many medical professionals and patients reported him.
You can tune into Wondery’s amazing podcast “Dr. Death Season 1” here:
https://wondery.com/shows/dr-death/
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hey, Prime Members, you can listen to Real Crime Profile ad-free on Amazon Music. Download the app today. |
| 0:13.0 | Imagine you're struggling with back pain for months. No one can tell you what's wrong. Then you find a doctor. |
| 0:23.0 | In the words that he said that I wanted to hear was I can fix you. And you know, those are magic words. |
| 0:31.0 | I was in pain and somebody in neurosurgeons had I could fix you. |
| 0:35.0 | You trust till take care of your problem. Nothing but good reports and a list of accolades that were two pages long. |
| 0:44.0 | When you talk to him, he's engaging, he seems very intelligent, he's witty, he's charming. |
| 0:50.0 | He'd always talk about I'm going to be a doctor. |
| 0:54.0 | But he has this dark side that he likes to keep separate and hidden from everybody else. |
| 1:01.0 | This is a story about 33 patients who put their trust in a prominent surgeon in Dallas. |
| 1:08.0 | Stay true for a name for the record. Christopher, Daniel, Duns. |
| 1:13.0 | And wish they hadn't. |
| 1:20.0 | In commercials, Dr. Christopher Dunch calls himself the best neurosurgeon in all of Dallas. |
| 1:41.0 | He specializes in relieving back and neck pain. |
| 1:44.0 | Then they come back to me to discuss surgical options. |
| 1:47.0 | But these folks couldn't disagree more. |
| 1:50.0 | They say he's a butcher and a drug addict who named them during surgery. |
| 1:55.0 | It feels like somebody has an ice pick planted squarely in my back. |
| 2:02.0 | Lee Passmore says he never had crippling nerve spasms until Dr. Dunch needlessly removed part of his spine during a procedure to relieve back pain. |
| 2:12.0 | I shouldn't be this way. I'm sorry. |
| 2:16.0 | According to Passmore's attorney, Dr. Dunch had a serious drug problem since he was a resident. |
| 2:22.0 | There is one report that he spent an entire night doing cocaine at a party. |
| 2:29.0 | And then when the sun came up, put on his scrubs and went off to the hospital to treat children. |
... |
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