{"id":134,"date":"2019-10-06T18:12:26","date_gmt":"2019-10-07T01:12:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mattpoland.net\/sherlockpod\/?p=134"},"modified":"2020-10-10T17:22:28","modified_gmt":"2020-10-11T00:22:28","slug":"dr-death-three-days-in-dallas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/mattpoland.net\/sherlockpod\/2019\/10\/06\/dr-death-three-days-in-dallas\/","title":{"rendered":"Dr. Death – “Three Days in Dallas”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

            Our\nhealthcare consists of the individuals we place our utmost faith in \u2013 we trust\nthe doctors performing our surgeries, we trust the hospitals protecting us,\nmost importantly, we trust our system of healthcare. As a patient, you\u2019re\ntaught to trust your surgeons, and believe that the simplest of operations will\nproceed with little error. What are you to consider when you wake up and your\nbody is maimed, and the loss of the ability to walk marks you as \u201cone of the\nlucky ones\u201d. The system we endow for healing, what do we make of our healthcare\nwhen it fails to protect, but rather place individuals in death\u2019s grasp? Dr.\nDeath <\/em>tells the story of Dr. Christopher Duntsch, a one well-respected\nneurosurgeon \u2013 who took advantage of our system\u2019s protections to grossly injure\nand wound the patients that placed their lives into his hands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            Dr.\nDeath <\/em>sets the tone in a positive light \u2013 warm music, advertisements, Dr.\nChristopher is depicted as one of kindest and most caring individuals to have\never graced the operating room. A well-known neurosurgeon, he was once thought\nof as the best of the best, in terms of spinal surgeries. However, this brief\nintroduction is quickly interjected by the pain and anguish of a series of\npatients; all of which suffered beneath the scalpel of Dr. Duntsch. The first\nepisode follows a series of shocking events following the surgeries performed\nby Duntsch; acts that are of greatest concern to those who are remotely\nfamiliar with the United States healthcare system. The cases in particular were\nsimilar to a degree: a patient would have slight back pain, only to be operated\nby Duntsch. Initially feeling fine, these patients were to later feel an\nimmense pain, greater than what they had brought into the operating room. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

            Medical\njournalist Laura Beil narrates this podcast, walking listeners through one of\nDuntsch\u2019s deadliest surgeries. In conjunction to Beil\u2019s dialogue, we are\nprovided excerpts from interviews with the medical staff whom interacted with\nDuntsch. Dr. Robert Henderson, another well-respected surgeon allows readers to\nexplore various perspectives from other professionals, and Kyle Kissenger, an\nOR nurse provides a first-hand depiction as to what had truly occurred during\nthe surgery. All such narrators speak with great imagery, providing gory details\nthat allow listeners to truly visualize what is occurring. Duntsch entering the\nOR, it was already quite clear that there was something wrong with him \u2013 he was\nforty minutes late to a surgery, wearing what appeared to be the same dirty\nscrubs that he had worn for the past three days. Kissenger further discusses\nthe details of this surgery, how Duntsch had continued to insert and remove\nscrews into various parts of the spine, and refused to listen to any advice\nprovided by those assisting the surgery. Henderson, on the other hand, guides\nlisteners through a post-operation patient that Duntsch had operated on, a\nwoman who was in immense pain. Henderson points out screws sticking out of the\nspine, loose rods attached to the spinal canal, bone fragments laying about,\nand most importantly \u2013 amputated nerve roots that result in the loss of the\nability to walk. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

            These\ninterviews and narrative dialogues add a sense of credibility, and\ncharacterization to the once well-respected Dr. Duntsch. They\u2019re primary\nsources, and professionals to some extent, who all have opinions on the ways in\nwhich both Duntsch and the system of healthcare had failed to protect their own\npatients. Beyond these medical professionals, Dr. Death <\/em>includes\ndialogue and interviews from previous patients of Duntsch who had survived his\noperations. One patient in particular \u2013 Shirley Mock, had returned to Duntsch\nfor what was assumed to be a check up surgery, only to return with even greater\npain than before. Listening to people such as Mock, these victims bring forth\ngreat emotion to the listeners, as you truly felt bad for a poor old woman who happened\nto be a victim of fraud. Music and sound effects continue to be highly\nprevalent throughout the editing of Dr. Death<\/em>. Noises from operating\nrooms place listeners in the perspective of those attending the OR, and\nsituations can quickly turn for the worst just by a slight change in sound.\nThese decisions based on background music placed greater emphasis on the\nwrongdoings of Duntsch \u2013 indicating the moments in which he not only forced a\nwoman to lose her ability to walk, but another losing her own life. These few\ncases, however, are just the beginning of this twisted tale, as Duntsch\u2019s\nactions as a surgeon are just a mere introduction to the flaws in our own\nhealthcare system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Word Count: 764<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

            Our healthcare consists of the individuals we place our utmost faith in \u2013 we trust the doctors performing our surgeries, we trust the hospitals protecting us, most importantly, we trust our system of healthcare….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[23],"class_list":["post-134","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","tag-engl200c"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/mattpoland.net\/sherlockpod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/mattpoland.net\/sherlockpod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/mattpoland.net\/sherlockpod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mattpoland.net\/sherlockpod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mattpoland.net\/sherlockpod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=134"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/mattpoland.net\/sherlockpod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":135,"href":"http:\/\/mattpoland.net\/sherlockpod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134\/revisions\/135"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/mattpoland.net\/sherlockpod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=134"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mattpoland.net\/sherlockpod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=134"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mattpoland.net\/sherlockpod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=134"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}