Original subtitles

**

**

**

**

**

[ Siren wailing in distance ]

-Christopher Duntsch operated on 38 patients here in Dallas.

And of those 38,

33 ended up injured and 2 died.

**

Jeff Glidewell was the very last patient

that Duntsch operated on.

Duntsch mistook part of his esophagus for a tumor.

He really did a lot of damage to Jeff Glidewell.

-[ Groans ]

-And he had already hurt so many people.

**

Think about how appalling it is that there had been

30-some other patients injured before we get to Jeff.

That's really atrocious.

-By the time Jeff Glidewell's catastrophe occurred,

I was already elbow deep in the Dr. Duntsch litigation.

Ultimately there were about a dozen

of Dr. Duntsch's patients that I represented.

-My wife hired Kay Van Wey.

I was still kind of out of it at the time.

She had found out through Dr. Kirby

that Kay Van Wey was handling some of the other patients

that Duntsch had really messed up before my surgery.

**

-We just felt that we had the medical equivalent

of a serial killer on our hands.

**

-We wanted to do everything we could

to get the medical board's attention,

but more importantly, we wanted to get the message to the public

because there were still people out there

who were lambs being led to the slaughter.

So I told Dr. Henderson, I said,

"I know this great investigative reporter, um, from prior cases.

Let me call Brett Shipp, see if he'll do a story

because the one way for sure that we can warn other hospitals

is to have it blasted all over the evening news."

-We're talking multiple victims

from a guy who's still practicing medicine?

This is a big story.

And I'm like, "I want to talk to Duntsch,

and then I want to talk to the medical board."

Within three days, I had Duntsch on the phone.

He was very quick to demonize his accusers,

and, "I'm not guilty of anything.

I'm one of the best surgeons in the city."

He was sociopathic, narcissistic, a madman.

There is a horrendous creature practicing medicine,

killing and crippling people.

A killer is on the loose.

I called the Texas Medical Board, and, of course,

I wasn't gonna get anything out of them.

But they needed to know that they were being watched,

and they were gonna be held accountable.

It was shortly after that

that I think they suspended his license.

**

-The final straw was Jeff Glidewell's case.

It was so bad and atrocious.

So many things had gone wrong.

And Kay Van Wey and Dr. Kirby and Dr. Henderson

were able to get through to the medical board

and say, "Look, here's another atrocious outcome.

You have to stop him."

-It took a long time for the Texas Medical Board

to suspend Dr. Duntsch's license.

It was a relief.

-I felt like at least we were getting some traction.

Once we had his license suspended,

he couldn't hurt anyone else.

-The trail of bodies

and maimed patients he left behind

was enough that he should have been stopped

long, long before he got to me.

**

-To talk about your mother in past tense

and being 35 years old

is not something that I wish upon anybody.

Christmas has never been the same.

When you have the birth of your first child

or when you walk down the aisle and she's not there.

You know at the end of the day,

this is one of the happiest days of your life.

But it could be happier, but she's not here,

and that to me is...

that to me is the most heart-wrenching part.

-He's already injured 30-something patients before me,

and I find out on the news? -Yes.

-Now, that's crazy.

And even killed, you know, a couple of patients.

That's scary. -It was really mind-blowing.

-How did this happen?

Christopher Duntsch is a murderer.

-Yeah. He's a stone-cold killer.

**

-I remember seeing my apartment door on the news

and not understand why these people were harassing me.

You have people outside our house.

It's very creepy, and I don't understand it.

I felt overwhelmed. I shut my blinds.

I never opened my windows anymore.

I became depressed.

We were getting death threats at that time.

I became very concerned for my safety.

One day I had just got home, and there was a man

in a ski mask quickly approaching my vehicle.

I was unloading my -- my son at the time.

He was a few months old.

I remember this man -- he was very, very large --

coming at me pretty quickly.

**

I remember barely getting the door shut,

and I found my phone and I called Christopher

and he wouldn't answer.

**

After that, I called the police.

I was very, very nervous.

It scared the crap out of me.

Like, my body's shaking right now going back to there.

'Cause it took the police forever to get out there.

But no one was ever -- They didn't find anybody.

One of those things I just didn't understand.

**

-So they suspended his license, but they didn't revoke it.

You can suspend it. That's great.

But that implies there's a chance

that the suspension could be lifted

and he can get his license back.

-Dr. Duntsch had the right

to have a hearing in front of the Texas Medical Board

and try to substantiate

why his license shouldn't remain suspended.

-Duntsch used his legal team to threaten hospitals

and other doctors who might be trying to stop him.

And he certainly used them

when he was negotiating with the Texas Medical Board.

Duntsch and his attorneys negotiate a agreement for him

to give up his medical license

in order for the medical board to stop their investigation.

**

-He's a danger to society

whether he has a medical license or not a medical license,

whether he has a scalpel in his hand

or a pencil in his hand.

-We even went to, you know,

the police department to file a report.

Nothing's done.

-Nothing. He couldn't be touched.

-Yeah. He couldn't be touched.

And it wasn't just me, other patients.

-My father, Don Martin, is a police officer,

and my father truly felt that this was criminal.

There was a murderer basically out on the loose.

So my father did actually reach out to the police department

and tried to file a case.

But nothing happened.

-I myself had been to the D.A.'s office twice in person.

This was after I finally got off my feeding tube,

and I got turned down at the front door.

They told me, you know, "We can't even file a complaint

without a police report."

So, I went straight

to the Dallas police department headquarters.

They're like, "We don't know what to tell you."

So, I basically gave up at this time.

I'm like, "I don't know what to do."

-Police do investigate doctors.

I think the difficulty in this case

was that we were talking about something

that occurred in the operating room.

What's the demarcation between medical malpractice

and a criminal act?

**

-I called the D.A.'s office, and they met with us.

And they had a hard time getting their hands around this

and they said, "This is medical malpractice.

This is the Texas Medical Board's problem,

and it's the civil court's problem.

It's not a criminal thing."

And I said, "No, you've got a pattern of injury

over a period of, like, 14 months."

They kind of dismissed us.

-I had heard rumors that he applied

for a medical license in California

and a couple other states.

-He remained a real threat to society

if he got that license back.

**

-I had a relationship

with the Texas Medical Board as a consultant.

I got involved when the medical board asked me

to review four of Duntsch's cases

and issue a formal report and I did.

**

They asked me what I thought should be done,

and I told them, "His license should be revoked."

**

-Finally in December 2013, the board revoked his license.

**

-The medical board revoked his license

because of the legwork and heroic intervention

of Dr. Henderson and Dr. Kirby

and their attempts to blow the whistle.

It takes courage to do what both those doctors did.

**

-Once you start doing something like this, you've got to push it

over the goal line, because he's out there.

And if you don't keep pushing and pushing

until you get your way, it can snap back on you.

-It was a downward spiral pretty rapidly

after he lost his license.

**

He lost everything,

so having to face the reality was very hard for him.

We were getting evicted.

He moved to Colorado, moving in with his parents.

I decided not to go with him.

Eventually, I got my own apartment.

A few weeks later, I took my first son

to visit him for Christmas, and then I became pregnant.

We ended up getting in a fight.

I found out that there was more women

and I was just like, "Whatever, I'm out of here."

So I went back home to Dallas.

I didn't really know how to feel anymore.

But while he was out in Colorado, we kept in contact.

He became a little depressed.

His parents said he slept a lot.

He wasn't the normal Chris. He wasn't happy.

-At this point, Duntsch's life has kind of fallen apart.

He's no longer able to practice medicine.

He owes a lot of people a lot of money.

Ultimately, he does end up filing for bankruptcy.

He basically doesn't have any income.

Things are not going well for him.

**

He is arrested for driving under the influence.

He was found by police officers driving on two flat tires.

**

Ultimately, on that case,

he ended up getting 12 months' probation and a small fine.

-After Duntsch was picked up for DUI,

he starts getting a lot of national press.

-Do you have a drug and alcohol problem, sir?

-No, ma'am, never have.

-I caught up with Dr. Duntsch outside Denver,

where he now lives.

I talked to a doctor who said

that you were like a serial killer.

Do you have a response?

-Yes, I'll deal with that in the context of libel later

when I'm defending myself.

**

-Chris came back to my apartment from Colorado after his DUIs.

He kind of let himself into my apartment

by climbing up to my balcony.

I was on the third story.

**

We ended up getting into this really big fight.

Then he slapped me and he threw a remote

and hit me with the remotes, and he was yelling profanities

very loud where everyone could hear.

Saying "prostitute" and "whore,"

calling my mom all kind of names.

At this point, I've had enough, and so I called the police.

**

Now, he had hurt me, so I just rather them take him to jail

and give him a time-out

and let us continue to live in our environment

that I created after he messed up everything.

**

-I think he built up this idea in his head of who he was

and what he was going to do with his life.

And now all of that had disappeared

and wasn't coming back.

I think he finds himself in a state

where he's struggling to figure out, "Who am I now?"

**

-There's absolutely no doubt

that he became more and more unraveled.

It's very, very irregular and unusual for a doctor

who's being sued by me in a malpractice lawsuit

to get my e-mail and reach out directly to me.

His e-mails were crazy.

He had a lot of animus towards me personally.

He projected that I was the source

of a lot of his problems and difficulties.

He said essentially,

"Although you're a completely incompetent idiot,

I think that I can team up with you

and the two of us could go against Baylor.

You'd need to pay me, you know, 'X' amount of money,

but I'll be your expert witness

and you hire me and pay me money"

and this just crazy, elaborate scheme.

**

I definitely felt Dr. Duntsch could be dangerous.

I have dealt with tough customers before,

and I haven't been scared,

but I did kind of have one eye over my shoulder

because I felt Dr. Duntsch was very unstable mentally.

**

**

-On March 28, 2015, I came back to my home.

I knock-- You know, I tried to get in.

My dead bolt is shut.

I knocked on my door. Somebody knocks back.

I'm like, "Who in the [bleep] is in my house?"

**

Chris ended up being inside.

And when he opened the door,

I could see that Chris was covered in blood.

He had my gun in one hand and a knife in the other.

**

-Chris was bloody.

He had blood all over him.

He seemed really distraught, and I was scared.

My entire house had been turned upside down.

There was a ransom note, even, for myself

and my children, written in blood.

I didn't know if he was there to harm me

or what his true intentions were.

At this point, I'm, like, freaking out,

and I just -- I leave.

He chases me down to my car.

He's like, "I can explain."

He said somebody had been there, and they hit him on the head.

I thought, "Is this somebody that you've pissed off?

Was it you?"

I still don't know the answer.

I told him, "I'm not safe here anymore. I'm leaving."

**

-One morning very early, Duntsch was at a bank

beating on the door trying to get in.

**

They end up taking him to a hospital

for mental-health evaluations.

**

**

-Our attorney called my father

and told us that Dr. Duntsch has been arrested.

And we thought it was because of something medical.

**

He was arrested for shoplifting...

at a Walmart.

**

He had stolen the most odd things,

like office supplies,

pairs of pants.

-Christopher Duntsch just starts taking things.

He has a shopping cart that he's putting things into,

random things like a, you know, keyboard.

He ends up pulling on a pair of pants,

he puts a hat on his head.

**

He just takes a bunch of items, puts them in his cart

and then goes and meets a different cart

that he has set up where he's already

put some plastic bags into it

and he starts transferring those items into this plastic bag.

**

And then he tries to walk out the door, at which point

he's stopped by their security people

and taken to the back.

**

-Here is this guy who had everything,

and now he's having to steal pants from Walmart.

-When Dr. Duntsch got arrested for shoplifting

and it got picked up by "The Texas Observer,"

everyone in the medical community

read that article and the blog.

I knew he was actively looking at that,

and I'm not a big Internet person,

but I had to comment.

**

Well, I just told him he'd never get his license back

if I could help it.

I knew it'd get under his skin.

**

-He posted that online, and then Duntsch responded.

-It leads to this days-long rant

in the comment section of this article.

And it doesn't do him any favors.

**

-It is clear that anyone that read that diatribe

knew this guy was insane.

-I really told Randy, "Randy, you should be scared.

You shut him down. He can't operate anymore.

You've taken away his livelihood.

So Randy, you got to get a gun, man."

I said, "This guy's gonna try to kill you. He's nuts."

**

-My brother-in-law, who is a judge in Dallas,

he gave me the name of a woman

that worked for the D.A.'s office.

-I was an assistant district attorney with Dallas County.

When Jeff Glidewell came back to our office

asking if the D.A.'s office was still investigating

and were we going to be taking any action,

I stepped in and kind of just took over it

because it was such an interesting

and fascinating case.

-[ Groans ]

-He operated on 38 patients, and 33 of those were injured,

including one quadriplegic, and two deaths.

**

That all occurred over 18 months

that Duntsch was practicing in Dallas.

I met with Kay Van Wey and Dr. Henderson and Dr. Kirby

because they were all really invested in this case,

and they had a huge knowledge base for me to draw from.

-I told Dr. Henderson and Dr. Kirby,

"I've been down this road before with prosecutors.

Don't expect much.

They don't like prosecuting doctors.

They like to stay in their wheelhouse of armed robberies,

you know, whatever it is, burglaries.

They know that. They don't know medicine.

They don't know how to do these cases and they don't want to."

-This was a really big case.

You know, it's not like anything that we normally handle.

We could not find any case where a doctor

had been prosecuted for things that he did

in the surgery related to his actual surgical technique.

It had never been tried before.

That, I think, made this really complex and unique.

I know that I had a lot of anxiety about it,

a lot of sleepless nights.

It's a massive case, and you don't want to miss anything.

-I was so impressed by Michelle's tenacity.

She didn't know anything about neurosurgery.

But she just kept learning and working and learning

and working and studying.

-What sticks with me the most is meeting the patients.

Each one of their stories was unique and different

and yet so appalling

and would touch the heart that you can't forget that.

When Mr. Brown was telling me about how Floella had died,

you know, we were crying there with him.

You know, these are good people who try

and do the right thing with their lives

and they're just being, you know, injured and slaughtered.

We presented the entire case to the D.A.,

and ultimately it was decided

that we should file criminal charges.

All of us wanted to see justice done for the patients.

**

-Michelle Shughart sent an investigator to my house.

I filed an assault charge against Duntsch.

**

-The Dallas district attorney says,

"We are so sorry for your loss,

and we have heard of a number of other cases

involving Dr. Duntsch

and we feel we have a serious problem."

It was the first time that I felt...

someone has actually paid attention.

**

-The morning I presented this case to the grand jury,

they listened to all of the evidence that we had at the time

and we asked them for an indictment.

Somebody shoots another person,

then the gun is the deadly weapon.

However in this case, our deadly weapons were scalpels and hands

because he used his hands to operate on these people.

Ultimately they did decide to indict the case,

and we didn't know whether or not he would flee.

So it was important to us that we catch him while he was here.

**

They found him at a hotel in Dallas...

...and they arrested him.

**

[ Police radio chatter ]

**

-Our office filed six different charges

against Christopher Duntsch.

Five of them were aggravated assault with a deadly weapon

and causing serious bodily injury.

And then the other charge was injury to an elderly person,

and that's Mary Efurd's case.

-In the interrogation room, he seemed to be intimately aware

of the details of each of those patients

and also equally as confident

that he hadn't done anything wrong.

**

-It's hard for me to tell temperature,

hot or cold or feel pain on the left side of my body.

And then the right side of my body

doesn't have motor skills.

-He keeps insisting that he helped these people,

that his patients are better.

And watching him try to explain the unexplainable

is really disturbing.

-It's fantastic.

He's trying to explain away all those deaths and maimings.

He has a perfect excuse for what happened

to every one of those cases.

[ Cell door squeaking ]

**

-I specialize in criminal cases,

capital murder cases, and murder cases primarily.

I had never seen a case like this.

By the time the criminal cases came down,

he had run out of money,

so he was technically indigent at the time

and that's why we were appointed to represent him.

It was difficult talking to him to believe

that he could screw up as badly as they alleged he did.

He was still supremely self confident.

We had an evaluation by a psychologist to determine

if there was some sort of issue that we could use in trial.

We did not find any mental illness

that we could use as a defense.

-How in the world did this guy get through the shrinks?

He's a nut job.

I-I was assuming that he would be found

innocent by reason of insanity

and be in some loony bin somewhere

because I'm telling ya, the guy is nuts.

**

-In the state of Texas, insanity means you don't know

the difference between right and wrong.

And he did.

He was not insane.

[ Traffic noise ]

-Duntsch went to jail in July of 2015,

and the trial was not until the spring of 2017.

And so he spent his time waiting for a trial in the jail.

He would regularly talk to his family on the phone,

and we can listen to those calls.

-Hello, this is a prepaid collect call from...

-...an inmate at... -Dallas County Jail.

-This call is subject to recording and monitoring.

-Yeah, it is loud, isn't it?

-He had been planning on applying to a couple

other states for his medical license again.

Of course that was something that we found to be...

a pretty scary prospect.

**

-The case had already gotten quite a bit

of publicity here in Dallas. It had been on TV.

There had been a couple of really good articles,

including one in "The Dallas Morning News,"

a really detailed cover story in "D Magazine,"

which is where the nickname Dr. Death came from.

-The allegation was that the scalpel was the deadly weapon

in the aggravated assault indictments.

But a surgeon obviously has to use a scalpel

in every single surgery.

We thought that it was absurd to criminalize that

because -- because every surgeon would be guilty.

-There were multiple patients involved,

but the district attorney's office decided to start

by taking Mary Efurd's case to trial first.

-We picked Mary's case because we felt like the things

that happened in her surgery were so abnormal

that it could stand on its own

even if the jury didn't hear from any of the other patients.

Duntsch put all sorts of screw holes into her muscles.

A lot of things went wrong in this surgery

that never should have happened.

It also gave us the largest punishment range --

from 2 years in prison up to life in prison.

**

-What are we looking at here in state's exhibit 4?

-My back. The scar on my back.

-We started the trial with Mary Efurd's testimony.

-I could not move my feet and legs

and my thoughts were, "Something is wrong."

I was crying and pleading and begging with him

to give me something to stop the pain.

-Mary Efurd was a sad case.

She had to come in in a wheelchair.

We didn't want the jury to be any more mad at him

than they probably were by just listening to what she said.

And we didn't cross-examine her.

That would be a waste of time.

-Did he follow the Hippocratic oath?

-Its major tenet, um, first do no harm...

he certainly didn't.

-I used Dr. Henderson's surgery video

to show the jury the horrible things

that he had done in Mary Efurd

that would have been obvious to a layperson.

-He did virtually everything wrong.

I never saw Duntsch. I'd never met him.

I'd never spoken to him.

And the first time I saw him in person

was at the trial when I testified.

I became concerned whether or not he was a physician

and was a surgeon.

-Before the trial, we had a really big hearing

where, you know, we, the state, were arguing that

we should be allowed to get into all of Christopher Duntsch's

other patients that had been injured.

**

We felt like it was important for the jury to understand

that he knew he had hurt all of these other people beforehand.

That really went a lot to the mental state

that we had to prove in Mary's case.

-We tried to keep it focused on Mary Efurd

and not allow the other...dozen to come in,

and we couldn't.

**

-It was really a big win for us when the judge decided

to allow us to put on those other patients.

Our strategy was to lay the foundation for the jury

of "Here's all the other patients

that Duntsch had injured and that he knew about

before he even went into Mary Efurd's surgery."

**

-It feels like your body weighs about 10,000 pounds,

and you can't pick it up.

They came to me.

I gave them testimony, uh, in my building downstairs.

-Is this difficult for you to talk about?

**

-I...Yeah.

The deposition wasn't something I really wanted...

I did not want to do, but I did my part to help.

-So he says...?

-I can fix you.

And those were magic words.

He's repeating himself.

His nurse was covering for him. Um...

Sorry, man, but you looked high as a kite.

**

The judge immediately struck that from the record,

and I got in trouble for that.

He said, "You may not address the defendant."

"Yes, sir."

-The trial was very heart-wrenching to see and hear

and to feel what every victim has gone through

and continues to go through day by day.

I testified that my oldest son, most of his,

you know, high school playing football,

I missed that.

Christopher Duntsch, he did not show

not one ounce of remorse.

-It was very difficult for my father testifying

right across from the man that killed my mother.

-I asked him, "Is she gonna be okay?"

[ Voice breaking ] He said, "Yes."

-The testimony of every single victim

was devastating.

-One of the most dramatic portions of the trial

was when we were trying to put in an e-mail

that he had written that's titled "Occam's Razor"

that he sent to Kimberly Morgan

and it seems kind of like a cocaine-fueled rant.

**

-We tried to keep that out of evidence.

We tried to couch it in terms that he was just being stupid.

It didn't mean anything in the big scheme of things,

but none of that worked.

The e-mail came screaming in,

was read and did not help at all.

-He says in this e-mail, "What I am being is what I am.

One of a kind, a mother [bleep] stone cold killer

that can buy or own or steal or ruin

or build whatever he wants."

**

-The Occam's Razor e-mail was quite insane

and the ramblings of a madman.

-This is someone that's actually using his power for evil.

**

-Do you take it as true that he either was...

believed himself to be God,

the Antichrist, or a cold-blooded killer,

or was that just the ramblings of somebody who was on drugs,

the ramblings of somebody who was mentally ill?

**

-He performed worse than any neurosurgeon

I've ever seen in an O.R.

-Dr. Duntsch at the trial was a shell of who he was.

He had an expressionless face.

But when Dr. Lazar was explaining

exactly what happened,

I mean, that's the only time he really paid attention.

-Dr. Martin Lazar was very charismatic

and would step off of the witness stand

and talk to the jurors.

He brought in anatomy models that he would show them

on the model exactly how it worked

and they really seemed to enjoy his testimony.

-It was a disaster...

an unmitigated disaster.

I think the jury recognized

that there was a pattern of a depth

and level of incompetence that's staggering to anybody.

-He listened to him intently.

At that point, he thought, "Ugh,

I think that Dr. Lazar might be right."

-I think he figured out at the end of the trial,

he really was a bad surgeon.

-I don't believe after Dr. Lazar testified

that he wanted to testify.

We didn't have any option but to try to find an expert

to counter Dr. Lazar.

We could not find one to do that.

We did find one who was a professor

who would testify that this was a systemic medical problem.

-The only way that this happens

is that the entire system fails the patients.

Again, there are multiple things that have to occur

in order for -- for us to be here.

-This was like the perfect storm of failures.

Every level in the system failed.

Some of them are institutional.

Some of them are because of pure greed.

How do you mitigate greed?

-All these hospitals that latched onto him

were very happy that they had

this money-generating neurosurgeon.

**

-I think Chris had a lot of pressure

that drove him to keep going.

I think that other people around him

were pushing him to make money.

-All along the path of his career

when there were people who could have stopped him,

who should have stopped him, they just passed him on.

The system in which he operated

is supposed to have checks and balances

that keep this from happening.

But if you're looking at who's responsible,

number one is Christopher Duntsch.

He injured these people.

He is responsible for the death of two people.

**

-One of the biggest hurdles I felt like we had

was trying to really convey how important it was

that physicians also be held accountable

for the things that they're doing.

-Duntsch needed to be taken off of the streets.

He has to pay for what he did.

**

-I'm nervous about the outcome.

I mean, I don't know if this is a slam-dunk situation or not.

-I was worried he might be found not guilty.

-He was a bad surgeon,

and he should have stopped himself and he didn't.

And will a jury convict a surgeon of things

that he did during the surgery?

I had no idea.

**

**

-As we waited for the jury,

there was always this puzzling piece in my mind

because it had taken so long to finally get to this point,

that I thought, "Maybe it won't happen.

Maybe he won't get convicted."

**

-"We, the jury, unanimously find Christopher Daniel Duntsch

guilty of intentionally

or knowingly causing serious bodily injury

to an elderly individual."

**

-I hope I'm speaking for all the other families

and their loved ones also.

I think we -- we can feel good about it.

We feel like justice was done.

-In a courtroom, you're not supposed to applaud

any kind of verdict,

and there was a lot of people in tears and clapping,

including me.

-I was in total disbelief

that they actually found a doctor guilty

for the things he'd done in an operating room.

-I could feel the relief from the patients behind me.

We did it.

-It was the right outcome.

I mean, he's guilty.

Guilty as charged.

-I don't think that Dr. Duntsch

was surprised at the guilty verdict.

He knew based on the expert testimony that he messed up.

**

-So we didn't know, "Is the jury just gonna give him

a short sentence or will they go for life?

And are they going to be lenient on him

because he's a doctor?"

**

-Is it fair for Christopher Duntsch,

who was enabled to do these surgeries,

who couldn't have done it without the help

of all of these big hospitals, all these other doctors,

is it right for him to go away,

to be thrown away when all of them profited?

All of them have blood on their hands.

-Dr. Duntsch deserved a life sentence.

And my clients believed that he deserved a life sentence.

-Why didn't he stop?

Because of greed.

He wanted to live the high life,

and neurosurgeons make the big bucks.

Why didn't he stop?

Because he has no conscience.

He hurt all of these people, he took lives.

Everybody who is injured has to live with these injuries

the rest of their life.

They want you to show him mercy,

but he showed his patients no mercy.

He gave them a life sentence,

and he should have a life sentence.

And that's ultimately just what I argued to the jury.

**

**

-All rise.

-"We, the jury, having found the defendant,

Christopher Daniel Duntsch, guilty of injury

to an elderly individual as charged in the indictment,

unanimously assess his punishment

and confinement in the institutional division

of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice for life."

[ Spectators murmuring ]

**

-This is what I waited four and a half years for.

-This was a voice for Kellie, and we're so thankful.

And hopefully we can move on with our lives.

-This will not bring my mother back,

but it is some sense of justice for all of the families.

-I never in my wildest dreams

imagined Dr. Duntsch would get a life sentence.

-I'm so thankful that he got the severest penalty

that he could have gotten for what he did.

-I was very ecstatic.

-I was just over the moon, happy with it.

Felt it was so deserved.

-Now you are going to feel the pain and the hurt,

not living the life of luxury

that he was as this prestige doctor.

That was all stripped away from him.

**

And now he's confined to this life sentence

in a small room of misery.

**

-Just happy to know

that he won't be coming out to hurt anyone else.

-It's the first time a doctor's been tried

and convicted of conduct in an operating room.

**

First time ever.

I was ecstatic.

I don't think he's eligible for parole till 2046.

He'll be in his 70s then.

**

-He will think about the victims every single day

for the rest of his life.

-All rise.

-I saw the trial on the news.

-"...Justice for life."

-I cried when they said life imprisonment.

I look at my children.

I felt like, "How am I gonna explain this to them?"

**

-I know that a lot of people will say, "Well, you know,

he got what he deserved."

I just wish he would have gotten into

an impaired physician program or something before all this damage

was done to not only me but to all the other people

that Dr. Duntsch hurt.

**

-This is a landmark case.

The case is so well known,

you can say "Dr. Death"

and so many people know immediately what that means.

-A number of stars had to align

in order for that to happen in Texas,

because Texas likes to protect its doctors.

-The story is not really about Christopher Duntsch.

The story is about our healthcare system

and the protections that are in place to keep this

from happening and how everything failed.

It happened over months and months

and that really tells you

how vulnerable we can be as patients.

-The system failed us.

It really, truly failed us and all of these victims.

**

-Mostly, the practices haven't changed

because the laws haven't changed.

It's always about the money.

**

-There are holes in the safety net of our healthcare system.

This could have been you. It could have been me.

It could have been anyone.

-Somebody needs to be out there to change this.

-Medicine in the United States is buyer beware right now.

This could happen again if we're not vigilant.

**

**

**

**

**

**

**

**