After hearing nearly two weeks of evidence against disgraced neurosurgeon Christopher Dench, it took the jury in Dallas, Texas, only a few hours to find him guilty of mutilating patients.
After at least a year of botched surgeries that left two patients dead and dozens paralyzed or seriously injured, he was sentenced to life in prison in February 2017.
The conviction was based on one victim, but Donch was accused of widespread errors that included improperly placing screws and plates along patients’ spines, leaving a sponge in another patient and cutting a major vein in another, according to an Associated Press report. from that time. Records also showed that he operated on the wrong part of a patient’s spine, damaged nerves, and left a woman in chronic pain dependent on a wheelchair.
The story of “Doctor Death” and how he was able to continue his work before his license was finally revoked is the stuff of nightmares. When the patient lies on the operating table, they put their lives in the hands of the medical team; The surgeon in charge is not supposed to make mistakes.
But Donch has done it over and over again, and the story of how he was able to continue working on a series starring The Affair, Dawson’s Creek star Joshua Jackson as the titular Doctor Death, and Christian Slater and Alec Baldwin as two doctors who fought to expose him has now been filmed as the story of how he was able to go on to work on a series starring The Affair and Dawson’s Creek star Joshua Jackson.
Christian Slater plays Dr. Randall Kirby, one of the good guys, in Dr. Death. Pic: Barbara Nitke / Peacock / StarzPlay
Slater — known for films including True Romance, Heathers, Pump Up The Volume and Robin Hood: Prince Of Thieves in the late ’80s and early ’90s, and more recently in TV series like Mr Robot and Dirty John — plays one of those. Real Doctors ended up with vascular surgeon Randall Kirby, whom he met after filming on the show.
“It’s a terrifying story,” Slater tells Sky News. “[It’s] So scary that someone like that could get away with what he’s been doing for so long. He’s a real performer, and he was able to play the role but he lacked all the skills to really perform those surgeries.
“[Dr Kirby] Dr. Christopher Donsch, he said, shouldn’t have gone beyond just operating on mice. This should have been where his career stalled, and he should never have been allowed to work on humans.”
Over eight episodes, Dr. Death tells the story of a rising star in the Dallas medical community, a man who promised to change the lives of patients with spinal problems. A man who believes he can play the role of God. At best he was woefully inept but arrogant and utterly misguided. At worst he was evil.
It was “incompetence mixed with ego, and narcissism – a sociopath,” says Slater, based on his conversations with Dr. Kirby. “he is [Kirby] I saw him in this regard. He earned Christopher Donsch’s certification at work. He stood on a body and watched it perform so foolishly that it frightened and frightened him. These are the moments within the show that are horribly real and as accurate as we can make them out.”
Joshua Jackson plays Donch, the titular death doctor. Pic: Peacock / STARZ PLAY
As a viewer, it’s not just what you see on the screen but what you can hear that makes the show so terrifying and gruesome. “The sounds… they stayed with me after we finished shooting the scenes, they’re still on my mind,” Slater says. Fortunately, they managed to maintain a light mood behind the surgeon’s masks. “Of course, we take it very seriously, but there’s an element of humor that comes with it because Josh and I are so inept at being doctors, you know, behind our masks we’re going to laugh a little bit.”
In addition to examining Duntsch and his catalog of horrors, the series also looks at the American health care system and how malpractices have managed to persist; How he was commuting between clinics enabling him to work longer and how the profit was placed on patients.
“Our healthcare system is one that has been scrutinized and questioned for a long time now and is in dire need of revisions,” says Slater. “The scary thing is that Christopher Donsch was able to tap into a part of the healthcare system that wasn’t just designed to protect patients, but also to protect doctors. And with that, he was able to navigate through the system, and the system kept kicking the can down the road, and he was able to To continue to enable and get away with what has eluded him for so long.”
Dr. Slater Kirby teams up with Dr. Robert Henderson of Alec Baldwin to expose Donch. Pic: Peacock / STARZ PLAY
He adds that people put paramedics “on stilts and we treat doctors as gods and forget that they are human and that they are, you know, fallible and will make mistakes.” Donch was an extreme case for that.
Ego, greed and narcissism. Traits that can apply to people in power in all walks of life, including Hollywood. When I ask Slater if he’s come across any similar characters, and how he’s dealt with them, he seems to be alluding to the newest former president of the United States, Donald Trump, rather than anyone in the entertainment industry.
“It’s not always easy, especially when you have someone coming from a place like that delusional and being in one of the highest offices in the country,” he says. “I feel like that’s what it’s been like for the past four or five years, that we’ve just been living in the land of illusion and so far removed from honesty. Narcissism and prosocial behavior have been empowered for a long time now. And I can’t wait to go through this process.”
And as something of an industry veteran, what does Slater know now that he wished he had known when he first started acting in the ’80s?
“I think I appreciate every moment. I think I’ve learned in the past that I’ve been very, very, very lucky in my career. I’ve had great opportunities to work with some amazing people. In fact, it’s only later that you realize how special some of these experiences have been. Really. So I think today I learned to be as in the moment as possible and appreciate every aspect of what I have to do.”
Which includes Doctor Death. Slater asks how many have you seen; Tell him I just finished episode three.
“Wait until you reach Episode 8,” he says. “They get more and more intimidating.”
Dr Death will be shown on Starzplay in the UK from September 12th