Prosecuting “Dr. Death”: Lead DA Michelle Shughart on How She Put a Surgeon Behind Bars

What does it take to put a doctor in prison for what he did in the operating room?

In this powerful episode of AdvoKAYte: Holding Healthcare Accountable, host Kay Van Wey sits down with Michelle Shughart, the lead prosecutor in the infamous “Dr. Death” case — the criminal trial that sent neurosurgeon Christopher Duntsch to prison for life.

Michelle pulls back the curtain on how a case unlike anything the Dallas DA’s office had ever seen became a historic prosecution.

In this episode, you’ll hear:

1. Michelle’s path to the Dr. Death case

• From handling everyday felonies and white-collar crimes to taking on a serially harmful surgeon with a trail of devastated patients.

2. Why this was truly a criminal case

• How the team dug through medical records, patient stories, and surgeon testimony to prove that what happened in the OR was far beyond “complications.”

3. Inside the mind of Dr. Death

• The chilling “stone cold killer” email
• Wildly abnormal surgical “complications” that “just don’t happen”
• A surgeon who didn’t know what structure he was operating on — and still thought he was doing a great job
• How narcissism, possible sociopathy, and drugs collided in the worst way

4. The victims and the numbers

• How subpoenas revealed that almost every patient he touched was harmed — and why it’s a miracle he was stopped before building an even bigger practice.

5. The hospital records you never see

• How Michelle used criminal subpoenas to access peer review files and internal documents that called his work “terrible” and “inexcusable.”

6. The defense strategy

• Why no doctor took the stand to defend his care, and how the defense tried to shift blame to hospitals and training programs instead.

7. The turning point in court

• How Dr. Randall Kirby and Dr. Robert Henderson raised the alarm — and how Dr. Mark Lazar’s testimony finally forced Dr. Death to confront what he’d done.

8. Where the story goes from here

• Why Michelle, Kay, and the rest of the team still work together to push for systemic change so this never happens again.

About Our Guest – Michelle Shughart

1. Felony Chief at the Dallas County District Attorney’s Office
2. Lead prosecutor in the Dr. Death criminal case
3. Now in the Crimes Against Children unit, which she calls some of the most meaningful work she’s ever done
4. Mom of two young kids, fighting every day for the most vulnerable

About the Podcast

AdvoKAYte: Holding Healthcare Accountable, hosted by medical malpractice attorney Kay Van Wey, uses real cases like Dr. Death to expose how the system fails patients — and what must change to make healthcare safer.

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