http://www.dmagazine.com/publication...tsch-dr-death/

Lee Passmore can’t feel his feet. His right leg is as stiff as his pressed blue jeans, and when he walks, he appears to use his hips to heave it forward. He also vibrates—his chest shakes, his right hand jitters. But Passmore is one of the lucky ones. He’ll tell you as much. He’s alive.

In November 2011, Passmore was hooked on prescription opiates. They numbed the pain radiating from his lower back, down each of his legs. He thought surgery might give him some relief, eliminate the need for drugs, solve both problems at once. His pain management specialist advised against an operation. But then he gave Passmore the card of a neurosurgeon named Christopher Duntsch.

Duntsch had only been in the Dallas area for a few months. He was taller than 6 feet, with a stubby nose and neatly cropped hair above bright blue eyes, and he had crafted a strategy that endeared him to patients and to referring physicians: I’m the best, he’d tell them. He always had a plan, always had a pitch, always had a way to fix you. His fellow neurosurgeons found him to be fast-talking and cocksure, a bit of a loner. And yet nearly all who met him said they liked him immediately.

But he’d make troubling, bizarre pronouncements, like “Everybody’s doing it wrong. I’m the only clean minimally invasive guy in the whole state.” That’s according to Dr. Mark Hoyle, who was the general surgeon during Passmore’s surgery. He met Duntsch that day in the physician lounge at Baylor Regional Medical Center at Plano, where the operation occurred. “I thought he was either really, really good, or he’s just really, really arrogant and thought he was good,” Hoyle says now.

This would be the first and last time Hoyle worked next to Duntsch. Hoyle’s job was to cut Passmore open and sew him up, and on December 30, 2011, he made a small incision just above the 36-year-old’s groin and moved the blood vessels and organs out of the way, allowing Duntsch clear access to the lower spine to remove a herniated disc. The disc was pressing on a nerve, which caused the pain.

But as Duntsch worked, Hoyle looked over and saw blood and not much else. It was pouring out of the epidural blood vessels and pooling in the disc space. But Duntsch kept going, as if he were fishing in a pond at night, saying he was working by feel, not sight. He announced that he would be removing the ligament that separates the disc from the spinal canal. This posterior longitudinal ligament is one of the spine’s two major stabilizers. It’s less than a millimeter from the spinal canal. Hoyle stepped in front of Duntsch to block his way.

“We need to talk about this,” Hoyle said, locking eyes with him. “That’s dangerous—even that attitude is dangerous.” Duntsch relented, allowing Hoyle to move in, stop the bleeding, and clean out the wound.

Long read but super interesting.