Dr. Christopher Duntsch is now well known as Dr. Death by anyone\nwho has heard of his horrendous crimes and sever grievous acts committed\nagainst the 33 patients who were allowed to fall into his hands by the medical\nsystem in the US. The third episode of \u201cDr. Death\u201d opens with a chilling email\nwritten by Duntsch read by narrator Laura Biel. In the email Duntsch basically\nstates he is ready to become a \u201ccold blooded killer\u201d and that nobody really\nknows what he was capable of. Biel leads this into interviews which describe\nthe extent of Duntsch\u2019s shortcomings such as his horrible skills as a surgeon and\nfrequent drug abuse. It is made clear to the listener through the interviews\nand data used in the third episode that there was blatant neglect by both the\nhospitals and medical training programs Duntsch performed in. For instance, an\ninterview with a practicing spinal surgeon Dr. Henderson about Duntsch\u2019s\nsurgery data from his residency which revealed that Duntsch had performed less\nthan 100 procedures in his time in his neuro surgery training program, which was\na renowned program, and Dr. Henderson was flabbergasted and claiming that he himself\nhad conservatively performed 2500 in his program. Duntsch had also received recommendations\nfrom his supervisors in this program to a hospital, Baylor in Texas, even\nthough, as revealed in an interview and depositions used by the narrator, the supervisors\nwere made aware of the regular drug abuse of Duntsch to the extent of using drugs\nbefore seeing patients. At the end of the third episode an interview is\npresented where Dr. Henderson states \u201ca number of practitioners where calling\ndown to the Texas medical Board claiming that this doctor (Dr. Duntsch) seemed not\neven be trying to perform surgeries correctly and that he was actually trying\nto hurt people.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The 4th<\/sup> episode focused on the neglect of the\nmedical system administration which dealt with Duntsch\u2019s actions. Biel states\nthat \u201cIf Baylor Plano had fired Duntsch out right at the first sign of trouble\nthis story could have ended there.\u201d The neglect committed by the administration\nat Baylor in this situation basically lead to the death of 3 patients by the\nhands of Duntsch. The culture of silence is talked about in the begging of the\n4th<\/sup> episode where hospitals let this neglect and botched surgeries\ngo unreported to avoid any repercussion such as a lawsuit and loss of money. It\nwas also stated in one of the interviews, if the administration at Baylor would\nhave brought the egregious acts of Duntsch to the medical board Duntsch would have\nbeen suspended immediately to protect the public. Then it is revealed that many\npeople had been reporting Duntsch to the Texas medical board and they had done\nnothing. Reports of deaths and paralysis resulting from surgeries performed by Duntsch,\nbut the board still felt there was nothing to do. Which is an amazing example\nof neglect in the administration of the medical system. Biel uses interviews to\nshow the danger for physicians are afraid to report or act against other\nphysicians out of fear of lawsuits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u00a0The 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\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Word Count: 745 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 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…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[23],"class_list":["post-371","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","tag-engl200c"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/mattpoland.net\/sherlockpod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371","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\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mattpoland.net\/sherlockpod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=371"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/mattpoland.net\/sherlockpod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":376,"href":"http:\/\/mattpoland.net\/sherlockpod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371\/revisions\/376"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/mattpoland.net\/sherlockpod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=371"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mattpoland.net\/sherlockpod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=371"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mattpoland.net\/sherlockpod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=371"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}