License to Kill

- Patients were injured on the operating table.

When they cut me open,

something went really bad, wrong.

- The first words out of Jeff's mouth was,

"What did he to do me?"

- It was like a crazed maniac procedure.

Was it an honest mistake?

- I couldn't feel my feet, I couldn't talk,

I wanted to die.

- Or was it a warning that a murderer was on the loose?

- I wanted to lunge at him and shake him.

And that's when it hit,

my world just turned upside down.

- His deadly weapon was his hands

and his surgical tools.

- This guy's trying to kill people for a living.

I knew he just needed to be stopped.

- As a doctor and certified expert

for the California Medical Board,

I knew first-hand that most medical professionals

will go to any length to help their patients.

But in some cases,

there are those with a deranged mind

and a license to kill.

In 2011, when 55 year-old Texas mom, Kellie Martin

decided to have surgery to treat a minor back injury,

she thought a positive outcome was all but guaranteed.

But on the day of her procedure,

Kellie's family was shocked to discover

how quickly the routine became catastrophic.

- It sounds really cliché and corny to say it,

but people growing up said we were like

the Beaver Cleavers.

- My wife, Kellie, I met her in college.

She caught my interest and apparently I caught hers.

We dated throughout college, got married,

and we basically started a family.

Lauren was born first,

and Caitlin was born few years later.

And as they grew older,

we got involved with their school activities,

sports activities.

We had a-- we had a wonderful time.

- We were so lucky to have two parents

that A, were still married, and that B, loved us so much.

Our family was very close.

My father being a police officer,

and my mother, you know,

she works in the education field

as a librarian.

- She's very passionate for her daughters

and her family as well.

You know, we did everything together.

She's a very loving woman.

In November of 2011,

her and my dad were taking Christmas decorations down

from the attic, and she fell down,

and she hurt her back.

- She felt a twinge in her back,

and Kellie got back up.

And she walked around, she worked it off.

But Kellie's pain continued after the fall, kept going on.

And I could tell some days

she could do chores around the house,

and some days she couldn't get in and out of bed.

We had a big trip planned to Antigua,

but she was in pain.

It just kept going on and going on.

And we thought this is never gonna go away,

and we need-- we need to address this some way.

And that's when we went to the family doctor

and told him about what she's been experiencing.

And so, the doctor gave us his card.

And it said, "Doctor Christopher Dunstch."

- When you hear the schools that he went to

and, um, how prestigious it was

to be able to have him as your physician,

you felt really lucky to be able to get in.

- Dr. Duntsch seemed very knowledgeable.

Knew exactly what he was talking about.

He suggested that we get an MRI.

- Dr. Duntsch showed me the MRI.

I saw the source of the pain.

And I knew that it was causing my mom discomfort,

and I didn't want her to have that pain anymore.

Kellie Martin had torn

a piece of the disc material

from between the vertebrae

and dislocated it into the spinal canal.

And that was compressing on nerves

and producing intense pain.

Dr. Duntsch recommended that she undergo

a procedure to remove it.

A laminectomy is a basic spine procedure.

This is the simplest operation

that neurosurgeons do in the spine.

- The procedure my mom was going to have

was explained to us as a simple procedure.

As simple as possibly even getting a cavity done.

- On the day of the surgery, Kellie, she was concerned.

You could see that on her face a little bit.

And, but, you know, I was there to reassure her.

And then I kissed her, and I told her, "I love you,"

and "I'll see you in an hour."

An hour goes by, I hadn't heard anything,

nobody's come out to me, so I went to the desk.

And I asked her if she could give me an update.

And they just told me that they're still in the OR,

they're still working on her,

and I said, "Okay," and, "Just keep me posted."

More time went on, now I'm kinda worried.

So, I asked her again, "Can you please call?"

And she said,

"It looks like they're about to finish it up,

"and that the doctor will come out

and see you in a few minutes."

Dr. Duntsch came out, took me to this little room,

and said, "The surgery went well..."

but he said that "they may have to keep her overnight.

But we'll see, we don't know."

They may have to take her up to ICU to finish up.

I said, "Okay, do what you gotta do."

- I get a phone call from my father,

and he says, "They're gonna take her to ICU,

"and I think that it would be really great

"if you and Lauren could come

and that she could see you when she wakes up."

- My sister and I walked into the hospital.

My father was sitting in the waiting room.

So, I went through the double doors,

and there's a nurses' station.

And I said, "Hi, my name's Lauren Martin,

I'm looking for my mother, Kellie."

And she looked at me,

and her face changed completely.

- She comes around the desk and ushers us

and, like, shifting her body so that we can't see

what's going on behind her.

And moves us into the waiting room,

and that was kind of a moment that I knew

something is not right.

They ask us to go into the small private room.

About 15 minutes after being stuck in that little room,

one of the ER physicians comes in

and says, "We're still working on her.

"There's some blood loss, we're trying to figure out

"where it's coming out of, and we're gonna figure it out,

"and we're gonna keep working on her.

We're not giving up."

- And now we're 21/2 hours, three hours into this thing.

And I had a sick feeling in my gut

that something's wrong.

- My dad is starting to kind of rock back and forth,

um, my stomach is really hurting.

And then what happens is that an ER doctor comes back

and says, "She's in cardiac arrest,

and we're performing CPR."

And, um, at that point,

I-- there was a trash can and I just started throwing up.

I knew even after, like, ten, twelve minutes,

a person on-- you know, having CPR

is not gonna be the same.

You're not getting oxygen to your brain.

I that something was wrong,

and I knew I was losing my mother.

Coming up...

- Nurses, they're saying, like,

"Randy you won't believe what we just saw

in the operating room."

It didn't have any resemblance to surgery

as we know on the planet Earth.

- I'm realizing that there's a darker side to him.

I personally felt that

there was a killer on the loose,

and no one could stop him.

- My husband is laying there basically dying.

We were at the hospital

for my mother's surgery.

We've been here now for hours,

and Dr. Duntsch came out, I would say, at least twice.

And every single time he came out, though,

he said, "We're keeping her stable,

you can go in shortly."

- The surgery Kellie Martin had that day, a laminectomy,

is a safe, outpatient procedure,

because it involves a small incision

to simply remove a piece of dislocated disc material

that was pressing on nerves and causing her pain.

But there was nothing minimal or safe about what transpired.

- There was the anesthesiologist,

the pulmonologist, the ER doctor, and Dr. Duntsch.

All of them came in very somber.

No one was smiling, no positive energy.

The ICU doctor...

Said, "We did everything we could..."

But they just couldn't save her.

We lost her.

She didn't make it, we lost her.

- I remember at that moment when they said,

"Kellie is no longer with us,"