All language subtitles for American Greed s14e03 The Real Dr Death

In this episode of American Greed,
Christopher Dunge is a young spine

with a big salary and an ego to match.

They thought they had a young, hot
neurosurgeon with cutting

-edge skills and excellent training.

But instead of helping patients, he
hurts them badly.

I mean, it was the worst.

I mean, I've never seen anything like
it. Leaving one after another maimed,

paralyzed.

Even dead.

First thing I remember is not being able
to move.

What was going through my head at that
time was, what did he do to me?

And yet this killer surgeon keeps on
operating.

American Greed sits down with some of
those closer to the story to find out

drives Dunch's reign of terror from the
delusions of grandeur.

Anyone close to me thinks that I am
likely something between God, Einstein,

the Antichrist.

To the mounting depths.

Surgery was his out.

That was how he was going to make his
big buck.

To the hospitals that passed the buck,
according to lawsuits.

When hospitals look at somebody like
Christopher Dunch, I think they see

on. Leaving Dunch's victims at the mercy
of the man now known as Dr.

Death.

In March 2012, a school librarian goes
to a Dallas hospital for a routine back

surgery and bleeds to death.

Three months later, another patient
comes to another hospital for a neck

surgery, where she suffers a stroke and
later dies.

The day after this operation, a third
woman goes under the knife hoping to fix

her back issues, then wakes up screaming
in pain.

What all three have in common is surgeon
Christopher Dunch, seen here in a

cramped interrogation room at Dallas
Police Headquarters.

You moved here from Tennessee, is that
right?

Correct. Okay, so you just started, you
did all your schooling there and then

you came? Yeah, med school, Ph .D.,
graduate school, residency, fellowship

spine. It all sounds impressive.

But a prosecutor will say that in
Dallas, Dunch injures 33 out of 38

less than two years.

And now the once promising doctor has
gone from an operating room to an

interrogation room.

Hi, Dad, this is Christopher.

I was supposed to come home tonight, as
you know, and I'm not now.

Unexpectedly, the police came and picked
me up regarding the DA issues that I

mentioned to you.

This is the phone of one of the
detectives. If you would please call him

he'll tell you what's going on. I had no
idea what's going on with Bond and

what's going to happen next.

So I'll call you as soon as I can. Love
you. Thanks.

Christopher Dunch's career as a doctor
starts many years earlier in Memphis,

Tennessee.

There, he completes a joint MD -PhD
program.

and a neurosurgery residency at the
University of Tennessee at Memphis

of Medicine.

Then, he remains in the city to complete
a spine surgery fellowship.

His resume is about 12 pages long, so he
looks really good on paper, exactly the

kind of doctor that you'd be looking
for.

In all, Dunge spends 15 years in med
school, his residency, and his

A process meant to ensure he's got what
it takes.

Martin Lazar is a Dallas neurosurgeon
who first reviewed some of Dunch's cases

on behalf of plaintiff's attorneys.

When you operate on the brain or the
spinal cord, the good job has to be a

good job.

It can't just be journeyman.

But Dunch's resume reveals an
overwhelming interest in the Ph .D. part

dual M .D. Ph .D. degree.

With his name on multiple academic
papers, patents, and biotech startups,

clearly met with some early success, and
he doesn't keep it to himself.

In emails, he describes himself as a
supernova, sophisticated savant, and the

best surgeon and scientist in everything
I decide I want to be.

I can't remember how he phrased it.
One's having, like, God knowledge, I

believe, is what...

How he referred to his knowledge.

That was like, you know, one of our
problems.

In her first television interview, Wendy
Young tells American Greed she meets

the up -and -coming spine surgeon in
Memphis one late night.

I had worked at a strip club before.

And I've seen him around.

I thought he was cute.

And then, you know, it was like towards
the end of the night. It was very loud,

and all the girls were over there.

I think they knew he was a doctor.

So, of course, that's where you're going
to go for your money.

Dunge and Young will eventually have two
children together.

But by the time they meet, the up -and
-coming doctor is facing a mounting pile

of debt.

Bankruptcy records later show that he
owes $112 ,000 on one student loan.

and $19 ,000 on another, $127 ,000 on a
home, and he has debts to his

father that will grow to equal $220
,000.

All added up, Dunge is nearly a half a
million in the hole.

I think he learned very early on that
research maybe wasn't where he was going

to be making his money.

And so surgery was his out.

That was how he was going to make his
big bucks.

If Dunch's goal really is making big
bucks, he's chosen the right specialty.

The amount of money that a hospital gets
for what we do is in the millions

and millions of dollars for a single
neurosurgeon.

Dunch is recruited to work as a spine
surgeon in Dallas in 2010.

His starting salary?

$600 ,000 a year plus bonuses.

Kay VanWay is an attorney who will later
represent many of Dunch's patients.

He was dead broke when he came to
Dallas.

Here was an opportunity for him to start
right off with a very, very handsome

salary and with opportunity to make tens
of millions of dollars.

At first, Dunch will operate at Baylor
Medical Center at Plano, now called

Baylor, Scott, and White.

They thought...

They had a young, hot neurosurgeon with
cutting -edge skills and

excellent training, and therefore he
would be a very profitable addition

to their medical staff.

They're not alone in thinking they've
landed a catch.

Dallas is originally where I'm from.

And I decided, you know, if you go to
Dallas, I'll go with you. You know, in

beginning, he talks about marriage.

I'm Mr. Prince Charming. I'm going to
change your life.

You know, I left with him and then
believed in him.

And then, you know, he just kind of fell
apart.

Next on American Greed, Dunch's true
skills as a surgeon become painfully

apparent. I mean, he could not wield a
scalpel. It was pathetic.

And later...

One curious doc hears a disturbing
allegation about Dr.

Dunge. Some woman had anonymously placed
a phone call saying that he liked to do

drugs before he went to outbreak.

Now in Texas and about to start a $600
,000 a year job, young surgeon

Christopher Dunn seems to be feeling
confident.

In an email, he says he's come to the
city to do my thing, build my empire,

party with models without knowing their
names to make money.

Doing so involves something Dunn seems
to be good at, self -promotion,

this paid infomercial.

I treat all patients non -surgically at
birth, if at all possible.

And then if they fail that sort of stage
of the process, then they come back to

me to discuss surgical options.

But Dunch has other ways of letting
everyone know just how good he is.

When he was in conversations with
colleagues, he would just talk about his

training. He was going to be the
greatest minimally invasive spine

Dallas. and he came down to Dallas to
clean everything up because most of the

work here was being done wrong.

These were extraordinary statements
coming out of the mouth of someone that

got finished training.

I'd never heard anyone talk like that in
my entire career.

If Dunge's words to his colleagues are
troubling, they're nothing compared to

the deeply delusional thoughts he shares
in private.

In December 2011, he writes the
following in an email.

Anyone close to me thinks that I'm
likely something between God, Einstein,

the Antichrist. Because how can I do
anything I want and cross every

boundary like it's a playground and
never, ever lose?

What I am being is what I am.

One of a kind. A mother stone cold
killer that can buy or own or steal or

or build whatever he wants.

Three weeks after Dunge sends this rant.

Vascular surgeon Randall Kirby operates
alongside Dunge, giving him the chance

to evaluate the new arrival's self
-proclaimed skills.

I mean, he could not wield a scalpel. I
mean, it was pathetic.

And so I knew he had a real problem.

Alarmed at what he sees, Kirby later
testifies at trial that he voices

to Baylor Plano.

But Dunge keeps operating.

unaware of or unconcerned about his own
shortcomings.

One of his new patients is Jerry
Summers, who also happens to be Dunch's

friend. As their 1988 high school
yearbook shows, they've been together

they were teens.

In February 2012,

Summers comes to Baylor Plano so Dunch
can fuse together vertebrae in his neck,

a surgery that does not go according to
plan.

I think everybody in the OR became
pretty concerned because Dr. Dunge was

pulling a lot of muscle tissue out of
Jerry's neck, and there was just a lot

of bleeding.

When it's all over, complications arise.

Dunge goes MIA, and things go from bad
to worse.

Let's talk about what you remember when
you woke up. What's the first thing that

you remember?

The first thing I remember is not being
able to move.

And I just was kind of freaking out.

The surgery leaves Summers a
quadriplegic.

And a nurse will later testify at trial
that when she comes to see Summers a few

days after his operation, he makes a
startling claim.

He told this nurse, you know, I want to
report a crime.

I was doing drugs with Dr. Dunch the
night before the surgery. I was doing

balls, and eight balls is slang for
cocaine.

Dunch has denied this, as has Wendy
Young, the mother of his children, who

living with him at the time.

And Summers later recants, testifying
that with Dunch missing post -surgery,

mentioned eight balls to get his
friend's attention.

Dunge is never prosecuted for any crime
related to this incident.

But the nurse makes a complaint to
higher up.

Baylor Plano begins a formal peer
review, and Dunge takes a leave of

They immediately approach Dr. Dunge and
ask him, you know, to go take a drug

test. When he went to take his drug test
the first time, he did not take his ID,

so they couldn't do the drug test, but
he went back later and did end up

ultimately taking a drug test, and those
results came back negative. I think

it's important to note that when he had
the negative drug test, that it was

actually done five days after Jerry
Summers' surgery, and cocaine gets out

the body in three days.

With Dunge having passed his test, an
outside reviewer tells the hospital...

there's no indication Dunch has drug or
psychological issues, and Baylor Plano

reinstates his surgery privileges.

But they ask Dunch to only perform minor
surgical procedures.

His very next operation takes place on
Monday, March 12th, when a 55 -year -old

school librarian named Kelly Martin
comes in for what should be a routine

operation.

During the procedure, Dunch punctures a
blood vessel.

According to trial testimony, when
warning signs arise that Martin is

out, Dunch does nothing to fix the
problem and insists that everything is

He just didn't know what he was doing.
You can't not know it and be a

neurosurgeon.

That's how basic this is.

She essentially bled to death in a
upscale hospital.

In a major metropolitan city in the 21st
century,

patients aren't supposed to go in for a
routine, simple back

surgery and bleed to death.

Hearing about her death, Dr. Randall
Kirby testifies at trial that he calls

Texas Medical Board.

Still, Dunge keeps going.

Up next.

With Dutch's growing record of bad
outcomes, he couldn't possibly find a

gig.

Or could he?

He's got live bodies ready to go on the
operating room table, and they were off

to the races with Dutch.

Hospitals are supposed to track problem
doctors using something called the

National Practitioner Data Bank.

The National Practitioner Data Bank,
it's put in place to identify people

Christopher Dunch.

That's what Congress did. They put that
in place to identify people, bad doctors

like Christopher Dunch, and shut them
down.

Hospitals are responsible for reporting
the dangerous doctors they find in their

ranks. But it doesn't always work out
that way.

On April 18th, a committee at Baylor
Plano determines Dunch failed to meet

standard of care in his last two
disastrous cases.

But two days later, he resigns his
privileges, a known loophole that keeps

databank entry appearing spotless.

Had he been fired...

That would have been reportable to the
National Data Bank. So he was able to

circumvent a major safety feature

in the system. When Dunch later goes on
trial, one veteran physician testifies

that doctors know all about this
loophole.

Prosecutor Michelle Shugart says that in
general, others do as well.

Everybody knows when you're required to
report, and nobody likes to destroy

anybody's reputation. And so they use
these little techniques to find ways to

avoid having to report somebody.

Plaintiff's attorney Kay Van Way says
that's because in Texas, hospitals face

much heftier damages in a lawsuit from a
doctor claiming to have been unfairly

reported than they do from a patient.

claiming to have been badly treated.

It's easier for a hospital to just kick
the can down the road and let the doctor

become some other hospital's problem
than to risk backlash from the doctor.

Citing patient privacy and the
privileged nature of the case, Baylor

White declined to comment, but said they
are focused on providing high -quality,

trusted health care.

Now, out of a job, Dunch is facing
growing financial pressure.

Having arrived in Dallas with
significant debt, bankruptcy records

since borrowed hundreds of thousands
more.

And the doctor who calls himself the
strongest, smartest, coolest, fastest,

slickest, isn't about to call it quits.

I think he was highly driven by money.
He had tons of debt out there that he

wanted to pay off.

I think that was very much driving force
for him.

Fortunately for him, Dunch is recruited
to operate at this hospital, Dallas

Medical Center, just three months after
leaving Baylor Plano.

As part of the process, officials there
run an obligatory check of the National

Practitioner Data Bank.

They don't find anything in the data
bank.

Nothing has been reported about him.

Though they do request detailed files
from Baylor Plano, Dallas Medical Center

grants Dunch temporary privileges while
they wait for all his records to arrive.

Dallas Medical Center was struggling
financially.

He tells them he's got live bodies ready
to go on the operating room table, and

they were off to the races with Dunch.

On July 13th, Dunch gets an email saying
the red carpets are rolled out.

A week later, he gets his temporary
privileges, and within days, he's back

the OR, scheduling three surgeries
during his very first week.

Some of those he works with will later
say he's a mess.

One nurse testifies he asks a colleague
if Dunch is on something.

Dunch did not respond to multiple
requests for comment.

According to findings by the state
medical board, during his second surgery

Dallas Medical Center, Dunch lacerates a
blood vessel supplying his patient's

brain.

Experts testify...

He then packs it with too much of a
substance meant to stop the bleeding.

In doing so, he completely obstructed
that vital brain blood

supply, and the patient died as a
consequence of that blood vessel being

obstructed.

Now, two of Gunch's last three patients
have died.

In a statement to American Greed, Dallas
Medical Center says they've come under

new ownership and management since
Dunch's days there and that they follow

guidelines to ensure the safety of their
patients.

Coming up, as patient after patient is
harmed, one doctor goes searching for

info on Dunch.

It occurred to me that this was an
imposter who obviously had a few screws

and was willing to pretend to be a
surgeon.

After the surgery at Dallas Medical
Center that leads to the death of one

patient, Christopher Dunn botches the
operation on another patient, a 74 -year

-old woman named Mary Efert.

Some of the other people in the OR were
concerned about his intoxication state

at that point, that his pupils were
dilated.

After Efert's surgery, administrators at
the hospital yank Dunn's temporary

privileges and call in surgeon Robert
Henderson.

to take over Eford's care.

Miss Eford couldn't get out of bed. She
was screaming in pain. She couldn't bear

weight on her legs. They were
essentially flaccid.

Henderson will later testify that Dunge
operated in the wrong place on Eford's

back, that he amputated a nerve root,
and that he botched the implantation of

device meant to stabilize her spine.

device he was trying to implant was
supposed to uh end up in here

in the middle of this space but the
implant when i found it it was just

floating in the muscle he just made a
hole in the muscle with a coring device

and and suspended the metallic implant
in that space it was touching no

bone i couldn't imagine anybody who had
taken

an anatomy course in medical school
doing this much damage. That's how bad

was. And so it occurred to me that this
was an imposter who obviously had a few

screws loose and was willing to pretend
to be a surgeon.

Wondering if the guy in Dallas is really
the guy who completed a prestigious

spine surgery fellowship in Memphis.

Henderson calls Dunch's fellowship
supervisor.

I had obtained a picture of Dr. Dunch,
and I faxed it to him

while we were on the phone, and he
confirmed that, yes, that was

Dunch. Looking for more information,
Henderson also records a call with the

director of Dunch's residency program.

He hears about an alleged incident
involving Dunch from back in late 2006.

The year before his trip here, he got a
phone call from the hospital

administration saying that some woman
had anonymously placed a phone call

that he liked to do drugs before he went
to operate.

So I said, well, fine, send him down to
his place. I'm going to get his urine

checked. And he went down and checked in
and said, I can't pee right now. I'll

be back in an hour and disappeared for
several days.

And when he showed back up, obviously
that prompted a referral to the impaired

physicians group. And because of his
university house staff, it was all

by the university. And they sent him
back to us after a period of being off

evaluation and said, we don't find
anything wrong, keep training him. So as

as I know, he was okay.

Though UT Memphis would not comment.

The director of Dunch's residency
program said he was advised Dunch was

impaired and that his training should
resume.

Dunch's fellowship supervisor says he
was never informed of the incident.

These doctors said there were no
failures in Dunch's residency training

fellowship and that they never observed
any surgical issues with Dunch while he

was in Tennessee.

No issues with his procedures there are
known to exist.

The doctor who headed the UT
neurosurgery department at the time of

residency did not respond to multiple
emailed requests for comment.

But in an email, Dunge says he sometimes
partied every night of the week, always

showing up for residency five minutes
before rounds. All the while, the

neurosurgical resident.

And in a video deposition, a transcript
of which was filed in civil proceedings,

a young woman who once dated Dunch's
friend, Jerry Summers, testifies about

Dunch during his residency.

When was the first time you remember
seeing Christopher Dunch use illegal

It was at his birthday party.

There was LSD, acid, which is LSD,
cocaine.

Long after Dunge leaves Tennessee, the
woman alleges that after witnessing

dropping acid and hoovering up lines of
coke, she sees him don a white lab coat

as he prepares to do rounds at a
hospital.

And he left to go to work? Left to go to
work like it was nothing.

After you had witnessed him doing
cocaine and LSD all night long?

All night long.

Dunch will later tell a reporter he's
never had a drug and alcohol problem.

After hearing the story about Dunch
during his residency and seeing the

of his surgeries in Texas, Dr. Henderson
says he calls the Texas Medical Board.

Kirby, who says he's already called
them, testifies he learns about Dunch's

catastrophes and begins calling once a
month.

We tried everything we could, but, you
know, it took a long time to get the

moving in the right direction.

And unfortunately, there were some
patients that, you know, were injured

of it.

The board tells American Greed that in
order to act, they need written

complaints, that complex cases take
time, and that changes to hospital

require legislation.

Up next, can Dr. Dunge be stopped?

I have one last thing to remind the
Texas Medical Board.

Your mission is to protect the public.
Dr. Dunge is a clear and present danger

to the systems in Texas.

Morning.

Christopher Dunge has been operating in
Dallas for just over a year, allegedly

botching the surgeries of 10 patients.

leaving one a quadriplegic and two
others dead.

But the doctor who says he has more
education and degrees than God just

stop.

Prosecutor Michelle Shugart will later
argue at trial that a flawed system

allows Dunge to slither between
hospitals that she says failed the

The financial incentives are a huge part
of what was driving him and what was

driving the people all around him to
continue to believe in him and invest in

him despite the fact that there were all
these red flags.

Luckily for him, Dallas Medical Center
did not report him to the National

Practitioner Data Bank either.

And so his record was still clean.

That's another one of those loopholes
where...

He was never actually on full staff
there. He just had temporary privileges.

you're not required to report somebody
resigning temporary privileges under bad

circumstances.

In January 2013,

Dunge received surgery privileges at the
Legacy Surgery Center of Frisco, whose

new administrator tells American Read,
the hospital now goes by a new name, has

a new owner, and new managers.

When hospitals look at somebody like
Christopher Dunch, who has a great

educational background and is a
neurosurgeon, I think they see dollar

because neurosurgeons are one of the
most lucrative aspects of a

hospital's business.

Among the business Dunch brings in is
patient Philip Mayfield.

Mayfield is a father of three and a
former Navy man who spent years driving

truck.

Being a truck driver and having to do a
lot of driving, long -distance driving,

a lot of hours and lifting a lot, I
began to experience problems with my

getting shocks and tingling.

And then I recall one time I was lifting
something and my arm gave out.

After reading about Dunge on the
Internet, Mayfield and his wife meet the

who says his surgery will be one of
thousands he's performed without

complications.

The surgery would take approximately,
you know, 45 minutes.

And the healing time from the surgery
was, I think, I think approximately six

eight weeks.

And then I would be right back there,
you know, driving trucks and doing what

normally do. That's what he said.

But it didn't turn out that way.

When Mayfield comes to Legacy Surgery
Center for his operation, his wife,

Angela, waits for him up front.

Dr. Dunst did come out of the surgery
and told me that everything had gone

So when I went back there in the back, I
kind of noticed that he was just laying

there. I was fading in and out. I could
see everyone around me was, you know,

the nurses were frantic. I was in a lot
of pain, for sure.

I remember I couldn't move from the neck
down.

What was going through my head at that
time was, you know, what did he do to

After being transported to another
hospital, Mayfield finds out what Dunch

to him.

Another doctor will later testify the
spine surgeon damaged his spinal cord

a drill, leaving him with a leg that
will never return to normal and pain

will likely get worse over time.

But Dunch still isn't done in Dallas.

For months, doctors Randall Kirby and
Robert Henderson have been trying to get

the Texas Medical Board to stop Dunch.

In late May 2013, they learn he's landed
at yet another facility, University

General Hospital, which is now closed.

I got an invitation to meet Christopher
Dunch.

They were going to have a big
celebratory dinner for him. The

putting this on, and so Henderson and I
both got the invitation, and we went and

ate, for lack of better words.

You know, I called the owner of the
hospital and I said, you're going to be

big trouble.

But Kirby testifies that the hospital
lets Dunch keep his surgery privileges.

The administrator Kirby said he spoke to
did not respond to American Reed's

request for comment.

Another official at University General
told reporters that their decision to

give Dunge privileges came after they
received no negative information from

Baylor Plano or Dallas Medical Center.

Two weeks after his initial warning,
Kirby's phone rings.

The owner of the hospital said that they
had a patient that Dr. Dunge had done a

cervical fusion on that had a hole in
his esophagus and a retained sponge and

was septic and about to die.

According to findings by the state
medical board, in addition to puncturing

patient's esophagus, Dunch has left a
surgical sponge inside his body.

Then he's sewn him up and failed to deal
with the complications he's created.

I mean, it was the worst.

I mean, I'd never seen anything like it.
It was like a maniac went in there and

purposely hurt the patient and left.

According to news reports, by this time,
the Texas Medical Board has already

received multiple calls about Dunch.

There were lots of complaints early on
from those patients, even at Baylor

Plano, and he went to three other
hospitals after that, and they continue

complaints.

Now, Kirby packages up files on five
patients and sends them to the board

with an urgent warning.

The Texas Medical Board must stop the
sociopath Dunge immediately or he will

continue to maim and kill innocent
patients.

I have one last thing to remind the
Texas Medical Board.

Your mission is to protect the public.
Dr. Dunge is a clear and present danger

to the citizens of Texas.

Kirby's letter is impossible to ignore,
and he says it finally forces the board

to act.

They asked Dr.

Martin Lazar to review four of Dunge's
cases, and days after Kirby writes them,

they temporarily suspend Dunch's
license.

That December, they revoke it
altogether.

After 18 months, Dunch's days as a
Dallas surgeon have come to an end.

But as prosecutor Michelle Shugart
points out, Dunch has already harmed 33

patients. For them, it's too little, too
late.

Up next, Dunch heads to trial, and the
jury hears his disturbing words.

What I am being is what I am, one of a
kind, a mother, stone cold killer that

can buy or own or steal or ruin or build
whatever he wants.

Christopher Dunch's case lands on the
desk of Dallas County Assistant District

Attorney Michelle Shugart.

When we first got this case, we tried to
see if there were any other cases like

it where doctors had been prosecuted for
things they did in a surgery, and we

just couldn't find anything like it at
all.

To help her understand the complex
medical issues at play, Shugart consults

Drs. Martin Lazar, Robert Henderson, and
Randall Kirby.

Most of the time, you don't have
physicians who are willing to testify

other physicians, but in this case, they
were demanding to. They were insisting

on somebody listening to them.

After Shugart receives their help,
police arrest Dunch at a hotel in Dallas

July 2015.

Hi, Dad, this is Christopher. I was
supposed to come home tonight, as you

and I'm not now.

Unexpectedly, the police came and picked
me up regarding the DA issues that I

mentioned to you.

In February 2017,

Dunge goes to trial on a single charge
of injuring an elderly person, his

patient Mary Evert.

Over Dunge's objection, jurors will hear
from many other victims.

But the case centers around the charge
involving Everett's care, which brings

with it the possibility of a life
sentence.

I had excruciating pain.

I've never had pain like that before.

It was just almost, it was a 10 plus, if
you know what that means, on a scale of

1 to 10.

Shugart argues that because of earlier
failures, Dunge should have known he was

likely to hurt Evert.

His lawyers place blame elsewhere.

They didn't even try to defend the
things that he had done in the surgery.

So instead, they went with the idea that
basically it was everybody else's

fault. It was either the people who
trained him didn't train him right, or

hospital that he was working at should
have stopped him.

Anybody's fault except for Christopher
Dunch's.

But Shugart argues Dunch knew exactly
what he was doing and chose not to stop.

She shows the jury the chilling email he
sent on December 9, 2011, right as his

first surgeries in Dallas were starting
to go wrong.

What I am being is what I am, one of a
kind, a mother.

stone cold killer that can buy or own or
steal or ruin or build whatever he

wants.

On February 14th, the jury reaches their
verdict.

When the jury unanimously finds
Christopher Daniels guilty of

intentionally or knowingly causing
serious bodily injury to an elderly

individual.

Just one week later, Dunch receives a
life sentence, a move that some see as

only way to stop him from practicing
medicine ever again.

Now, the woman who once dreamt Dunch
would be her Prince Charming hears from

only by phone.

He has a job inside the prison.

I don't know what it is.

He works out, he reads, he studies the
Bible, you know, he'll call and say

goodnight to his boys.

Sometimes he'll have bedtime stories and
try to be as normal as possible.

For those who suffered by his hand,
seeing Dunst locked up brings some sense

closure.

But nothing can alleviate the pain still
felt by victims like Phillip Mayfield.

It's on another level.

You know, I had times where the nerve
pain would be so bad that my skin would,

you know, burn and peel.

Headaches that were just, you know,
blinding. I've had times where my whole

just shuts down.

Literally, it shuts down.

And I'm out.

According to trial testimony, Mayfield
is not alone in his suffering.

Based upon my clients alone, I can tell
you we have multiple

instances of severe spinal cord damage
resulting in paraplegia,

spastic quadriplegia, horrific 24 -7
pain

that cannot be controlled with any
amount of medicine.

And then there's the people who...

Practically bled to death, but didn't
bleed to death and lived.

And those are the success stories, I
suppose.

Some patients testify they are homebound
and have lost jobs.

Others, like Dunch's one -time best
friend Jerry Summers, have said Dr.

botched surgeries did more than just
wreck their bodies.

What kinds of activities do you miss
doing?

Generally everything because nothing

is much fun anymore.

How do you feel about Chris these days?

I don't know. I don't really know.

Though numerous lawsuits have been filed
involving Dutch and the hospitals where

he operated, many were settled with no
admission of wrongdoing.

Still, many ask, how did it all go so
wrong?

How did such a seemingly promising
doctor do so much damage? And why didn't

stop himself?

Dutch was so...

so desperate, and so completely
unwilling to accept the fact that

he was incapable of doing a good job,
that he was hurting people and taking

himself out of the equation.

His debt was definitely one of those
factors that had him just keep going. He

needed this money, so he had to keep
operating and doing these things. And

others wonder...

If Dunge was incapable of stopping
himself, why didn't somebody else step

It's the whole system that didn't stop
him.

I think they say he started this like in
2011.

My surgery was in April the 9th of 2013.

Why was he even allowed to touch me?

You know, knowing that he had harmed so
many patients before me. There was an

enormous failure, almost like a perfect
storm.

There's blood on a lot of people's
hands.

Many of the decisions that were made, In
this case, by multiple people along the

line who had the legal obligation and
the moral obligation to do the right

thing, their decision -making was
colored and tainted by financial

considerations. And that is just wrong
on every level that I can imagine.