Dr. Death Episode 3 “Occam’s Razor” & 4 “Spineless”

Dr. Christopher Duntsch is now well known as Dr. Death by anyone who has heard of his horrendous crimes and sever grievous acts committed against the 33 patients who were allowed to fall into his hands by the medical system in the US. The third episode of “Dr. Death” opens with a chilling email written by Duntsch read by narrator Laura Biel. In the email Duntsch basically states he is ready to become a “cold blooded killer” and that nobody really knows what he was capable of. Biel leads this into interviews which describe the extent of Duntsch’s shortcomings such as his horrible skills as a surgeon and frequent drug abuse. It is made clear to the listener through the interviews and data used in the third episode that there was blatant neglect by both the hospitals and medical training programs Duntsch performed in. For instance, an interview with a practicing spinal surgeon Dr. Henderson about Duntsch’s surgery data from his residency which revealed that Duntsch had performed less than 100 procedures in his time in his neuro surgery training program, which was a renowned program, and Dr. Henderson was flabbergasted and claiming that he himself had conservatively performed 2500 in his program. Duntsch had also received recommendations from his supervisors in this program to a hospital, Baylor in Texas, even though, as revealed in an interview and depositions used by the narrator, the supervisors were made aware of the regular drug abuse of Duntsch to the extent of using drugs before seeing patients. At the end of the third episode an interview is presented where Dr. Henderson states “a number of practitioners where calling down to the Texas medical Board claiming that this doctor (Dr. Duntsch) seemed not even be trying to perform surgeries correctly and that he was actually trying to hurt people.”

The 4^th episode focused on the neglect of the medical system administration which dealt with Duntsch’s actions. Biel states that “If Baylor Plano had fired Duntsch out right at the first sign of trouble this story could have ended there.” The neglect committed by the administration at Baylor in this situation basically lead to the death of 3 patients by the hands of Duntsch. The culture of silence is talked about in the begging of the 4^th episode where hospitals let this neglect and botched surgeries go unreported to avoid any repercussion such as a lawsuit and loss of money. It was also stated in one of the interviews, if the administration at Baylor would have brought the egregious acts of Duntsch to the medical board Duntsch would have been suspended immediately to protect the public. Then it is revealed that many people had been reporting Duntsch to the Texas medical board and they had done nothing. Reports of deaths and paralysis resulting from surgeries performed by Duntsch, but the board still felt there was nothing to do. Which is an amazing example of neglect in the administration of the medical system. Biel uses interviews to show the danger for physicians are afraid to report or act against other physicians out of fear of lawsuits.

 The connections between the third and fourth episode seems to bring forward the neglect of the medical system stems from fear or lack of responsibility. The hospitals and physicians are afraid of repercussions resulting in lawsuits or negative feedback upon themselves. Biel uses many tactics to immerse the listener into the narrative she presents. She uses many sounds and music cuts to intrigue the listener and allow them to immerse themselves into the events taking place as she describes them. The intermittent music cuts allow a short and yet profound change in emotion felt during the flow of the narrative. The connections are solidified between episode by presenting a timeline which makes sense to the listener. She begins in the first episode towards the end of Dr. Duntsch’s practice with the death of a patient of his and basically goes from there explaining how this could happen. She effectively has done this so far through interviews, emails, and data she presents through out each episode. Each episode has a distinct agenda and message which is normally evident in the choice of title for each episode. It is a six-part series and the end is near but it has really made me think about how much trust is really put into a system which has flaws like any other since we are still human after all.

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