Original subtitles

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.