[0:01]Wondry. A listener note: This story contains adult content and language. As the reality of what had been done to Mary Eifert began to sink in, Robert Henderson started asking questions about Dr. Christopher Dunch. I said anyone with a minimal amount of training would have hesitated to go forward with the next step when they realized that they were lost. Or could this possibly be an imposter impersonating a physician and a surgeon? He began to investigate. I got a copy of his uh picture that he had submitted with his application and then I got a hold of uh Dr. Kevin Foley, who was his fellowship uh mentor in uh Memphis, Tennessee. And did you talk to Dr. Foley? I did. I spoke to Dr. Foley. He essentially told me that uh during his mentorship, uh he had noticed any issues with Dr. Dunch. Henderson couldn't understand how a surgeon this incompetent could have ever made it out of residency. He decided to double check. I said, can I just send you a picture from his application to find out if we're dealing with the same person and and make sure we don't have an imposter circulating in the community here? And so he said, sure, so I sent him a picture. Within minutes, Foley confirmed that the doctor in the photo was in fact, Christopher Dunch. He had graduated from medical school. He had completed a residency in neurosurgery. He was a bonafide MD and a PhD.
[1:49]It's it's an unbelievable story. Hard for me to fathom that that's the guy that used to be my close friend and used to hang out and was my roommate. Cooper Bailey was Chris's roommate in Memphis when he was finishing college. Cooper knew Chris Dunch as a smart, driven, if somewhat absent-minded, friend. You know, he was athletic, you know, in great shape, um he'd good-looking guy, you know, all the girls liked him, you know, he'd excellent student. I mean, he was just, I mean, you know, you think of your all All-American guy, then that's what he was. If Dr. Henderson had trouble believing Dunch was a real doctor, the people who'd known him a long time, people like Cooper Bailey, would later have trouble believing the doctor he became. The news media has made, they make him out like you know, it's Dr. Death. You know what, that is what he is. He's become that. But that's not the, I don't know Dr. Death. You know, I know I know Chris Dunch.
[2:58]From Wondry, I'm Laura B. and this is Dr. Death. This is episode two, Chris and Jerry. The patients who put their trust in Christopher Dunch had good reason to. He made it to the operating rooms of Dallas with impeccable credentials. He graduated from one of the top spinal programs in the country and he'd worked hard to get there. He was born in Montana, but eventually his family settled in Memphis, Tennessee when he was in junior high. The four Dunch children enrolled in evangelical Christian school in the Memphis suburb of Cordova. A lot of kids there were the children of doctors, lawyers and CEOs. Chris's dad was a physical therapist and his mom stayed home. His family wasn't as well off as many of his classmates, but that didn't seem to matter, especially because Chris was a football star. He played nose guard and linebacker for the ECS Eagles. I say, Chris was very determined and then uh good-looking guy. Michael Francis was also on the team and was best friends with Chris's younger brother. He remembers Chris as a volatile teenager, something that could sometimes get him into trouble. I remember we were playing the first rank team in the state, and Brentwood Academy was our first game of the year, and I mean we were supposed to, you know, be one of the best in the state. went best in the state and um, I mean, it was a Friday afternoon. They were at Chris's house getting ready for the game later that day. Chris was so I guess ain't up, wrapped up, whatever you want to call it. But uh, I mean, he was just going crazy yelling and I mean, not really at anybody just more uh, I guess to stay pumped. But anyway, his dad came in and I mean, his dad was a bigger guy than than we were in Chris at that point. Uh ex-football player, missionary and I mean, he didn't take uh didn't take anything from anybody and definitely not any lip. I remember Chris was just running his mouth when his dad, as I said, picked him up by his hair and he came about three inches off the ground. Chris's dad could be strict, but he was by all accounts devoted to his family. Another teammate who didn't want to be named remembers Chris. You know, he wasn't much of a fighter, um just more of a a competitor and I don't recall him ever getting really angry and ferocious about anything, just uh just kind of, you know, had his goal, his his, you know, side on a goal and, you know, whatever it took to get there. That was one thing I heard time and time again. Christopher Dunch was driven. When he set his mind to do something, he wanted to do it better than anyone, whether it was drinking. Chris would, you know, be, you know, the kind that would want to funnel a beer quicker than, you know, anyone and or wrestling. He just when he gets something in his mind, it just was like non-stop. You know, I'm going to beat Cooper and wrestling. Or weightlifting. I'm going to beat Cooper and weightlifting, and he wouldn't back down. After high school, Dunch went on to Mississippi on a football scholarship at a small college in Jackson. It was a respectable achievement, but it wasn't enough for him. He soon had his sight set on a bigger goal, the Division One Colorado State Rams. He wasn't recruited, but tried out and made the team as one of only a small number of walk-on players. It was with the Rams that he met Christos Zawa. Chris was also a linebacker and both of us were on the bottom rung of the team, we were the new guys and so, um we kind of found a kinship in we both kind of uh subscribed to the Rocky uh Balboa school of how how you prepare to to take on the It was actually inspirational for me because I in my mind, I thought I was the hardest working guy in the team and to discover that there was a whole another level was actually um inspiring because I thought, wow, I mean, what's going to happen if I go to the level that Chris is working at? Chris wasn't a gifted athlete, but he was determined to rocky his way to football glory. So it wasn't just that he wanted to be a linebacker, he wanted to be the linebacker. I remember in one practice we were doing these drills and he was just really struggling to get it, so he would go through and he would screw up the drill and he'd go, coach, let me try it again. He'd go through and he'd screw it up and he'd be coach, I promise I can get this. Let me do it again. He'd go through, he'd screw it up again and at this point, everyone else is like, dude, move on, like, let's stop. But Chris wouldn't stop. So after practice, he'd go grab the coach and go, hey, will you come back over with me? I I think I I think I know how to do this drill and he'd sit and he'd do the drill. And the coach would sit there and he'd continue to do this drill where everyone else is like, hey, man, you got practice tomorrow, this isn't worth worrying about. And then after practice, he'd come to me and say, hey, what, you know, what are you seeing? What am I not getting in that drill? I'd explain to him, I'm like, hey, this is this is how this drill works. And then he'd have me practice with him and then the next day he'd come back and go, hey, coach, if you don't mind, could we do this drill again? And then he'd do the drill again and and, you know, you could see, oh, okay, he's getting a little better at the drill now.
[9:03]That was Chris. He wouldn't quit, even if it was obvious to everyone else that he really wasn't getting anywhere.
[9:14]Both guys got summer jobs together working concert security at Red Rocks Ampitheater. One afternoon, Dunch called Dozwo about a ride to work that night. They started talking about how to diffuse the inevitable fights among drunk, unruly fans. Dunch bragged that he'd be good at it, because he was a skilled wrestler. I made a joke, I'm like, dude, you're a terrible wrestler, and he hung up the phone on me and I thought, what a weirdo. As Dozwo tells it, the next thing he knows, Chris is at his front door in a T-shirt and shorts. And he's like, all right, come out in the front yard, we're wrestling. And I'm like, are you serious? And he I'm like, you drove all the way over here from your house to wrestle? And he's like, yeah, you don't He goes, you don't think I'm a good wrestler, so we're going to wrestle. And right there, in the front yard, they started to wrestle. So I wrestled him, he's a horrible wrestler, I pinned him very quickly and he immediately got up and was like, okay, I I think I slipped, we got to do it again. So again, I pinned him and now all my brothers are teasing him going, dude, you are a horrid wrestler. And so he goes walking off and goes back to his car and so we all go back in the house and then like 10 minutes later he comes walking back up, I hear another knock on the door. And there he is again and he's like, okay, you got to let me try again, I think I figured out what I was doing wrong. In 1991, after only a year in Colorado, he transferred again, this time to Memphis State. He longed for the familiarity of home. But all his transfers had unintended consequences. He was no longer eligible to play football, the game he'd worked so hard at was over. He called Dozwo about it. I could tell he had been crying, he was having a really hard time talking, he kept having to pause and I realized how much it meant to him. Meanwhile, Dunch's return to Tennessee from Colorado, meant he reconnected with some old friends. Cooper Bailey was having a drink at a Memphis bar one day when he saw Chris for the first time in years.
[11:30]I ran into him there and we began and I'm just like, what are you doing? And so he had kind of told me. Dunch and Bailey ended up becoming roommates for a time in college. They rented a house with a couple of other guys near the University of Memphis. Bailey remembers Dunch as a decent roommate, but with an unfortunate habit. Young guys, what do they do? If we a house full of guys and we're all going to go out, we usually have a few drinks beforehand. So we would all be having a few drinks beforehand and we, you know, we're getting ready and then we would all get ready and Chris would start running around the house. Where are my keys? Who's hid my keys? Where are my keys? Bailey says this happens so often, it became a running joke. You know, 20 minutes later we like, what are you doing? Come on, man, let's let's go. He's like, y'all y'all hid my keys. I'm like, no, we haven't, man, look, we're not waiting any longer. And we would all get up to go walk out the door and we'd open the door and there in the door is what is his keys. And he did that all the time. It got to where the point, Chris checked the door. Chris had checked the door. I'm like, man. So it just things like that and we would make the joke and he'd talk about being, I don't know, you know, I'm going to work, I'm going to cut people's heads and I'm going to work on them. I'm like, Chris, if I'm ever in the hospital, we would just make jokes, you're never working on us. And he's like, why? Why, man? You know how smart I am. I'm like, because you're probably the kind of guy that's going to end up sewing up, you'll end up sewing something up inside, you know, my head.
[13:00]And there was another high school friendship Dunch renewed when he came back to Memphis. Jerry Summers. I've known Jerry longer than I've known Chris. They went to the same high school, played on the same sports teams, so they had that connection that that I didn't have with them. Uh, but I was friends with Jerry just as much as maybe more, so. Like Cooper Bailey, Chris and Jerry had met on the football field in high school. Jerry graduated from Evangelical Christian school the same year as Chris. He was a big guy who could fill a room. He was six foot four with a deep voice and a hearty laugh. Jerry's just one of those kind of has a gregarious personality and, you know, he's a very likable guy. He as well was in a was a excellent athlete as as a young guy. And he was loyal. One time during his sophomore year, Chris was fighting with another boy and losing, badly, until finally Jerry couldn't stand it anymore. He jumped in to defend his friend.
[14:04]With college and football behind him, Dunch poured himself into a new passion, medical school. In 1995, he started at the University of Tennessee. By then, Christos Wall had fallen out of touch with Dunch, but heard from Dunch's brother about what he was up to. I remember him telling me, oh, Chris is going to be a neurosurgeon. He wants to be a brain surgeon. I'm like, of course he wants to be a brain surgeon. Just like he wants to be the linebacker. At the University of Tennessee, Chris became a rising star as a neurosurgery resident. The laboratory where he worked studied stem cells that might contribute to malignant brain tumors. But Chris thought the stem cells in his lab might be repurposed for another use. They could revitalize failing discs for people suffering back pain. He filed patents for this new disc stem cell technology with two other scientists from the lab. He raised money from investors and founded a company with a few of his supervisors, all while still getting his surgical training. While Chris was doing his neurosurgery residency, he and Jerry Summers were hanging out almost every day. Their good friend Jennifer Miller remembers they'd stop by Chris's house for drinks all the time. She remembers one day. Chris had his his white coat on, his doctor's coat and it said, Christopher Dunch, um PhD, MD, and I thought, oh my gosh. This guy is more intelligent than I thought he was.
[15:38]While Chris was preoccupied with his job at the lab, Jerry's job was to handle Chris. Chris had a terrible sense of direction. He was always getting lost. He couldn't balance a checkbook. Jerry was just, they had been friends for so long. Jerry just did whatever, um Chris needed. Did Jerry have his own job and he was helping Chris on the side? No, um at that time, Jerry Chris needed him just to work for him. As Chris finished his residency, he started looking for a job. A medical practice in Dallas contacted his supervisors at the University of Tennessee to verify that Chris really was as good as his resume made him seem. They were told that he was one of the best and smartest neurosurgeons they'd ever trained. On a recommendation form, one of his supervisors wrote, Chris is extremely bright and possibly the hardest working person I have ever met. He was offered a $600,000 advance and a temporary suite in a luxury hotel to come to Dallas and practice neurosurgery. But he couldn't imagine moving to Texas without Jerry. Well, I was here and he he did help moving to Dallas and he was closing the labs down here and I offered me to a job to help him get established in Dallas and to uh come work at his clinic there, help build a clinic there. So what kind of work did you do in Dallas? Um examples of the kind of things that you did for him. Promoting like his clinic and advertising for that and doing all the purchasing for opening up a new clinic. Did Chris rely on you quite a bit? Yeah, sometimes. Chris and Jerry both had romantic developments as they were getting ready to move. Chris had been dating a woman named Wendy Young who got pregnant, so she was moving to Dallas, too. And Jerry confessed he had feelings for Jennifer Miller. Well, I'd tell people that Jerry was moving with Chris, that um it made me sad. And um and I was like, why, why am I so emotional about Jerry moving and it surprised me. And um and then a few weeks after that was when Jerry told me that he was in love with me.
[20:51]I said, okay, well I'm, you know, I don't let me know when it's scheduled and I'll I'll come and um and help you. Jennifer flew in the night before. Jerry picked her up. When I got in the car from the airport and he was like, hey, you want to go to dinner? And I said, yeah. He's like, what do you want? And I was like, I was like, I don't know. He's like, I want a steak.
[21:15]The two went out for dinner. They sat at the bar and watched the University of Memphis basketball team play Southern Mississippi. It was about 9pm before they made it back to Chris's house. Jennifer and Chris sat in the kitchen and talked about Jerry's surgery. Chris said, um, hey, do you want to see the MRIs? Do you want to see what I'm going to do tomorrow? And I was like, yeah, I do. And um and so he went and got the MRI films and I remember he was holding him up in the kitchen and um to light and he was like, you know, here's here's the bulge or the herniation and um right here. So I'm going to go in and I'm going to fix it right there. And um it was a cervical a cervical disc. And I was like, oh, okay, well, that's that's pretty neat. Okay, you know, thanks for showing me. The next morning, Jennifer checked to see if Jerry was up. And the light was off and it was dark and I was like, hey. I was like, it's time to get up and he goes, I'm awake. And I was like, oh my gosh. I remember thinking, did he even get any sleep? And so I drove him to the hospital and um and he got out and um and walked in and I mean, like, you know, we like kissed and kissed each other to pack and he was like, I love you. I was like, I love you, too. And I was like, I'll see him in a couple hours. Jennifer returned to the house and then gave Chris a ride to the hospital. I went back home and I just had like an uneasy feeling. Jennifer and Chris's girlfriend, Wendy, went to lunch together while they waited. Jerry's mom called me while I was at lunch and she said, hey, where are you? And I was like at lunch, right down the street. And she said, um, well, something's wrong. Um Jerry's an ICU.
[23:14]When Jerry woke up, he couldn't feel anything from the neck down. He couldn't move. Chris told Jennifer it was from some unexpected bleeding that had lost a lot of blood during the surgery, but that he'd be fine. Chris ended up taking him back into surgery around midnight. Um and I remember being back at the house that night, maybe around 10pm and Chris is like the swelling's not going down and his spinal cord. Um and I need to alleviate the pressure. He was right about that. There was pressure on Jerry's spinal cord. During the operation, Dunch had damaged Jerry's blood vessels. To stop the bleeding, he'd packed the space with a substance called Gelfoam. He used a lot of gelfoam. It was constricting summer's spine and he'd removed so much bone that Jerry's head wasn't securely attached to his body. Another surgeon came in and did what he could for Jerry, but it was too late to help him. On the phone, Chris told Jerry's mother that he'd had complications, but that he would be okay in about a week. Chris would come in and and and Jerry was a very calm with Chris at the time. He was not yelling at Chris or anything like that. And and Chris was just like, oh, it's just temporary, it's just temporary, the swelling's going to go down, we just need to wait, we just need to wait. Jerry's ICU nurse said later that she felt Chris seemed remarkably unconcerned when he would come into Jerry's room. And he wouldn't tell his friend what was going on. Jerry kept telling his nurse, I know something's wrong. I know something's wrong. Was it becoming apparent at this point that he wasn't going to get over this? No, I still believed. I I still believed that that it was just temporary, it was just temporary. And and, you know, I would I would go to Chris's after the hospital during the day and I would go there in the evening and have dinner with Wendy and Chris. She would cook dinner and we would sit down and we would talk about, you know, this this or that or, you know, what we talked about the surgery, of course, and and how, you know, Jerry was going to get better. He laid in bed for days, at first angry, then depressed. Sometimes he cried. He felt that Chris was keeping him in the dark. All Jerry would say to me is I want to die, kill me, kill me, I want to die. If Jerry slept at all, it wasn't much. And then one day, something snapped inside of him. He started yelling. He's in there with some nurses and he he he said that's her. We did three eight balls of cocaine the night before surgery and had orgies. Jennifer called up Chris to talk to him both as Jerry's surgeon and as his friend. And I was like, something's wrong with Jerry. This incident, Jerry Summers screaming about a cocaine spree with Dunch the night before surgery would later be widely repeated. But when it came time for Jerry to testify under oath, he said he'd made up the accusations to get Chris's attention. He just wanted answers. Me and I guess I had just woken up and uh and I wanted to see Chris and so I was uh really mad and hollering and wanting him to be there. And I made a statement of something to the effect of I'll tell someone that you're doing drugs. Or something to that effect.
[27:16]And I don't remember exactly what I said, but the statement was only made so that he might hear it and go, let me get my ass down there. Soon after that, Jerry's mother arrived in Dallas. She and Jennifer started not getting along. Then his mother said that Jennifer was not welcome and she was removed from his visitor's list. At that point, I got banned from the hospital. Miller returned to Tennessee, heartbroken, confused. Soon after, doctors broke the news to Jerry Summers. He was permanently paralyzed and would likely live out the rest of his life in a nursing home. Did Chris ever seem upset about the outcome of your surgery?
[28:15]I never saw that. Jerry's mother brought him home to Memphis to recover.
[28:34]This is Dr. Death from Wondry, the network behind Dirty John, Business Wars, American Innovations, and many other great shows. To find out more, go to Wondry.com and stay tuned at the end of this episode for a preview of American Innovations. That phone in your hand, it's more powerful than all the computers that put a man on the moon combined. But how did we end up here? It wasn't by accident. Well, sometimes it was. It was also hard work and lots of incredibly surprising moments. I'm Stephen Johnson. I write about the history of ideas and innovation. On Wondry's new series, American Innovations, we'll tell you the stories behind DNA and the mapping of the human genome, the rise of the personal computer, artificial intelligence, air and space flight. In our first episode, we're going to tell you about Ps, salmon sperm, and a very misunderstood monk. American Innovations, available now. Don't miss a single episode by subscribing today on Apple Podcasts. American Innovations, the leaps of mankind as they happened.
