Sociopath surgeon facing charges of killing and paralysing patients
09 Feb 2017
A surgeon who wrote in an email that he was ready to become a ''cold blooded killer'' stands accused of killing and seriously injuring his patients.
Christopher Duntsch, 45, from Texas, had also botched an operation on a close friend which left him paralysed but able to feel pain and touch.
The surgeon was charged with five counts of aggravated assault causing serious bodily injury and one count of injury to an elderly person after allegedly botching the procedures.
Duntsch is also facing charges of mutilating four patients and killing two others.
According to Dallas Morning News, Duntsch's childhood friend Jerry Summers, had spinal surgery carried out by Duntsch and woke up unable to move his arms or legs.
In a video testimony was played in court, Summers said, ''I don't remember feeling any pain, I just couldn't move. It just feels like your body weighs about 10,000 pounds and you can't pick it up.''
The operation was performed in February 2012, after Duntsch said he could help get rid of pain and numbness he had in his arm after a car crash.
The anesthesiologist who was present revealed that the blood loss during the operation was 10 times more than usual during the operation.
Summers now had incomplete paralysis – which meant he could not move his arms and legs, but still felt pain and touch.
In an email from December 2011, Duntsch revealed a desire to inflict pain upon his patients.
"I am ready to leave the love and kindness and goodness and patience that I mix with everything else that I am and become a cold blooded killer," he wrote to an employee.
In addition to the six incidents that led to charges being filed, according to court documents, the Dallas County district attorney found a total of 34 people had made allegations against Duntsch, claiming he "intentionally, knowingly, and recklessly caused bodily injury and/or serious bodily injury", according to D Magazine.
