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Dallas surgeon wrote about becoming 'cold blooded killer'

A former Dallas neurosurgeon allegedly sent an email to colleagues revealing he was ready to become a 'cold blooded killer' using his hands as a 'deadly weapon'.

Dr Christopher Duntsch, 44, is accused of 'intentionally, knowingly and recklessly' causing harm to people he treated for sore necks and bad backs.

The chilling email, which was sent in 2011, has been pointed to by US prosecutors in their case against Duntsh claiming he intentionally killed two patients and left many more with life changing injuries.

The Dallas News reports that prosecutors say the email reveals the state of mind of the accused in the months before the botched operations.

The email reads: "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."

Dallas News reports that the email was among new evidence prosecutors presented against Duntsch at a hearing last week in which Criminal District Judge Carter Thompson refused to reduce Duntsch’s $600,000 bail.

Dallas neurosurgeon Christopher Duntsch allegedly sent an email to a colleague confessing he was ready to become a 'cold blooded killer'. Photo: Dallas Police
Dallas neurosurgeon Christopher Duntsch allegedly sent an email to a colleague confessing he was ready to become a 'cold blooded killer'. Photo: Dallas Police

Duntsch, 44, was arrested July 21 on five counts of aggravated assault causing serious bodily injury and a count of injuring an elderly person.

He performed those procedures at Dallas Medical Center, South Hampton Community Hospital and University General Hospital.

Dallas police reportedly said in a search warrant affidavit that Duntsch was also under investigation in the botching of at least 10 other patients’ surgeries in Plano and Dallas that occurred from November 2011 through June 2013.

Police reportedly said Duntsch 'knowingly takes actions that place the patients’ lives at risk'.

In indictments filed last month prosecutors said his hands amounted to a "deadly weapon" because he used them to improperly insert medical devices and screws into patients meant to alleviate nerve and other pain.

He operated on the wrong part of a patient's spine, damaged nerves and left one woman with chronic pain and dependent on a wheelchair, according to criminal and civil court records.

State records show he left a sponge in another patient following surgery.

A resident of Centennial, Colorado, Duntsch was arrested recently when he returned to the Dallas area to visit his two young children.

His attorney, Mario Herrera, said his client has not yet entered a plea but will defend himself against all charges.

"My client has defended himself throughout this process and has been successful in navigating through these waters," Herrera said.

Duntsch was issued a license to practice medicine in Texas in 2010, according to the Texas Medical Board. But within two years the board began receiving complaints about him.

The board in June 2013 took the initial step of suspending Duntsch's license to practice in Texas, finding at the time that he was "unable to practice medicine with reasonable skill and safety due to impairment from drugs or alcohol."

But when the board in December of that year revoked his license altogether, it determined that no evidence existed to support claims that he was under the influence when performing surgery.

In the agreement the board reached with Duntsch to revoke his license, it was determined that he violated standards of care for six patients.

Herrera said the agreement does not mean his client admits any wrongdoing alleged in the criminal charges.

Duntsch has had at least three lawsuits filed against him in the last few years.

One lawsuit filed in Dallas County contends he misdiagnosed the radiating neck pain one woman suffered and botched her 2012 surgery to the point she suffered a stroke and so much blood loss that she died days later.

State records show earlier that year another patient he operated on died when she sustained hemorrhaging that he failed to promptly identify.

Medical personnel who assisted Duntsch during a surgery in July 2012 say he appeared distracted and disoriented, according to one lawsuit.

At one point he "broke scrub" and left the operating room.

When he returned, Duntsch appeared to have lost his focus and his assistants questioned whether he was under the influence of drugs or alcohol, according to the suit.

Criticism that not enough was done to stop Duntsch sooner has focused on the hospitals where he worked and the Texas Medical Board.

A reference letter from one hospital that Duntsch used to secure privileges at another made no mention of accusations against him, The Dallas Morning News has reported.

Meanwhile, Jarrett Schneider, spokesman for the medical board, said in a statement that board investigations can be slowed when hospitals fail to notify the agency of improper conduct.

Investigations also can take time because state law requires evidence that a physician is a "continuing threat," which is a high threshold of proof, Schneider said.

Morning news break – August 25