Line #33 Series/DrDeath


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/slwrlz3rzvaijixge5fi4um2k4png.jpeg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350:Bad. Medicine.]]
3	->"''He's either the most incompetent surgeon I've ever crossed paths with ... or he's a sociopath, and he's doing all of this on purpose.''"
4	-->-- '''Dr. Robert Henderson'''
5
6	Based on a 2018 Wondery podcast of the same name, ''Dr. Death'' is a 2021 eight-part true crime/medical drama hybrid Creator/{{Peacock}} [[MiniSeries mini-series]], which stars Creator/JoshuaJackson, Creator/AlecBaldwin, Creator/ChristianSlater, and Creator/AnnaSophiaRobb. It tells the true story of Dr. Christopher Duntsch, a former neurosurgeon who, in 2017, made history as the first surgeon to go to prison for his poor outcomes.
7
8	In 2011, Christopher Duntsch (Jackson), a confident young spinal neurosurgeon, sets up shop in Dallas-Fort Worth after training at the University of Tennessee. With glowing recommendations and an impressive list of research accolades, Duntsch wows employers, and seems to be destined for greatness. However, not everyone is impressed, as Duntsch's ego immediately irks many of his colleagues. But it soon becomes clear that Dallas has a much bigger problem than a megalomaniac physician: Duntsch's patients begin suffering devastating, nigh-unheard of complications on what should be routine surgeries, up to and including quadriplegia and death. Finally, Drs. Randall Kirby (Slater) and Robert Henderson (Baldwin)--two surgeons who have seen enough of Duntsch's carnage--join forces with the ambitious young Assistant District Attorney Michelle Shughart (Robb), hoping to stop him before he kills or cripples another patient.
9
10	The show tells its story nonlinearly, jumping between Duntsch's time playing football at the University of Colorado, his training years, his disastrous tenure operating in Dallas, Kirby's and Henderson's investigation, and finally, Duntsch's trial. All throughout, the show invites the viewer to wonder just ''why'' Duntsch did what he did, but never suggests one explanation as the "right" one: instead, it lets viewers decide for themselves what they think Duntsch's pathology most likely was.
11
12	An accompanying documentary series, ''Dr. Death: the Undoctored Story'', is also on Peacock and features interviews with the people portrayed in this show.
13
14	A second season of the show was released in 2023. This season stars Creator/EdgarRamirez as Paolo Macchiarini, an Italian thoracic surgeon who was discovered to have performed illegal experiments on patients with synthetic tracheas of his own design that turned out to cause fatal rejection, and Creator/MandyMoore as Benita Alexander, an NBC News producer who became romantically involved with Macchiarini only to discover his deceptions regarding his medical practices and their relationship.
15	-----
16	!!''Dr. Death'' contains examples of:
17	[[folder: Season 1]]
18	* AbandonTheDisabled: Ordinarily, when a surgery goes awry, the surgeon is expected to personally break the news to the patient. Duntsch abandons his patients as soon as they're out of the OR. He does this in an especially cruel way to [[spoiler: Jerry, after leaving him a quadriplegic]].
19	* ArmyOfLawyers: Dr. Skadden, Duntsch's former mentor, literally surrounds himself with one when Michelle Shughart visits him in Memphis.
20	* BailEqualsFreedom: Duntsch thinks so, and the prosecution is worried that he might be right: getting out on bail could buy him enough time to set up shop somewhere else and keep maiming people.
21	* BeingEvilSucks: In the end, Duntsch destroys everything he's ever worked for. His girlfriend and his mistress both leave him after seeing how vile he is, he loses custody of his son, his friendships are all destroyed, his reputation is in ruins, his once-promising research is abandoned, and finally, he ends up serving a life sentence.
22	* BittersweetEnding: Duntsch is sent away for life but the damage he did can never be undone and the people he maimed or whose loved ones he caused the deaths of still have to live with the effects of his actions. And the hopelessly broken medical system which allowed him to get away with it is still in place. The final line of the epilogue outright says that what happened with Duntsch ''will'' happen again.
23	* BloodyHorror: When Duntsch's patients begin hemorrhaging, the camera focuses on the blood. During Duntsch's first botched surgery at Baylor, he nicks an artery, resulting in a spray of blood soaking himself and the assisting surgeon in the face.
24	* BodyHorror: Lots and lots of it. The show doesn't hold back at all from showing just how horrific Duntsch's surgeries were and the gruesome effects they had.
25	* BrooklynRage: The Chief of Surgery at Dallas Medical Center is from the Bronx and loudly and profanely berates Dunstch, who only has temporary privileges at the hospital, for trying to throw his weight around.
26	* BuddyCopShow: There's no better way to describe the dynamic between Kirby and Henderson. They're even fighting crime.
27	* BystanderSyndrome: Dozens of people see firsthand what Duntsch is capable of, but nobody does anything to decisively ''stop'' the madness. Doctors refuse to work with him, his nurses quit, and hospitals oust him, but this just leaves him free to set up shop elsewhere and keep butchering patients.
28	* CATTrap: Jerry is already distraught after his surgery, but he really breaks down when he goes into an MRI machine.
29	* CompositeCharacter:
30	** The show's portrayal of Randall Kirby is a combination of the real Kirby and R. Mark Hoyle, another vascular surgeon who worked with Dunstch's in the operating room and later testified against him. Hoyle still has a role in the series, but it's reduced to one scene in the OR, with Kirby assuming Hoyle's entire role in the courtroom.
31	** Robert Henderson in the series is a combination of the real Henderson, who tirelessly campaigned to end Dunstch's medical career, and Dr. Martin Lazar, who provided expert testimony during the trial to explain how Dunstch botched his surgical procedures.
32	** Josh Baker represents multiple medical professionals[[note]]largely Kyle Kissinger, a OR nurse who observed Dunstch's dirty and torn scrubs and alerted Dallas Medical Center's Chief of Surgery when Dunstch tried to order a craniotomy[[/note]] who saw Duntsch's work and tried to put a stop to him.
33	** Kayla Gibson was distilled from various people who knew with Duntsch during medical school and residency[[note]]the person who reported Duntsch's cocaine use to the University of Tennessee was a nurse who happened to be at the same party as Duntsch, but was never romantically involved with him[[/note]]. Her relationship with Duntsch exists to foreshadow Duntsch's abuse of Wendy and Kim.
34	* CripplingOverspecialization: Duntsch gets on Kirby's radar precisely because they have vastly differing specialties, orthopedics and vascular, respectively. Some spinal surgeries require access through the front of the body rather than the back. Orthopedic surgeons, however, lack the training to get to the spine through all the organs so they bring on vascular surgeons to clear the way, so to speak. Kirby came into assist Duntsch, thinking everything would be routine only to get an up-close look at Duntsch's horrifying behavior in the operating room.
35	* CruelAndUnusualDeath: Two of Duntsch's patients die after he slices their vertebral arteries, leading one to bleed out and rendering another brain-dead.
36	* DeterminedDoctor: Kirby and Henderson are a new take on this trope: when they get tired of treating Duntsch's patients after he's already butchered them, they go to the law to protect the public from his "care."
37	* DigitalDeaging: Creator/JoshuaJackson is deaged to play Duntsch as a college student.
38	* DrFeelgood: As a resident, Duntsch runs a side hustle writing prescriptions for ADHD meds.
39	* DrugsAreBad: Duntsch's drug habit starts out innocently enough--he actually conceives a novel idea for treating spinal degeneration while he's on LSD--but unfortunately he also gets high in the operating room. By the time he's practicing independently, his drug use is presented in an entirely negative light.
40	* EstablishingCharacterMoment: Henderson and Kirby each get one that highlights their differences in personality and sets them up as {{Foil}} for each other. Both are introduced performing surgery and seem similarly knowledgeable and experienced, but Henderson conducts himself very staidly and seriously, whereas Kirby is joking around with his staff and seems almost casual about the whole thing.
41	* EverythingIsBigInTexas: Again and again, from shoutout to ''Series/{{Dallas}}'', to Kirby's character, to the way in which "Big Baylor" Medical Center markets itself.
42	* ForScience: Duntsch tries to rationalize his actions by saying that he needs the money that he'll make from surgery to fund his research. However, his lavish spending, and the fact that he never enters a lab once he's done with residency, might make one doubt his sincerity.
43	* FreudianExcuse: Averted. The show is full of vignettes from Duntsch's youth, but it never suggests that anything in particular ''made'' Duntsch into what he became.
44	* GallowsHumor: After reading one of Duntsch's poems, Kirby snarks that he may actually be a worse poet than a surgeon.
45	* {{Gaslighting}}: Duntsch uses his charm to convince a patient that her operation went wonderfully, and even gets her to record a testimonial for him. He didn't fix her pain, and actually left a ''sponge'' in her incision, but he convinces her that it was a suture. At least she's more or less as healthy after the operation as she was before it; by Duntsch's standards, this was a pretty good outcome.
46	* GoodLawyersGoodClients: Averted. Chris is an asshole, but his public defender is a decent person who's just stuck with a delusional lunatic of a client. She refuses to defend Chris's indefensible actions in court, and instead argues that he was poorly trained, never should've practiced in the first place, and that the tragedy came about thanks to flaws that were InherentInTheSystem. She (almost) convinces him that he won't get his medical license back and will worsen his situation if he keeps trying.
47	* {{Greed}}: Duntsch is the worst culprit here, but he isn't alone. Hospitals hire him because as a neurosurgeon he might bring in lots of revenue, and they let him resign instead of firing him when he threatens to sue them.
48	* HistoricalVillainDowngrade: Duntsch's behavior, both personal and professional, is actually toned down for the series,
49	** As nasty as his [[DomesticAbuse treatment of Wendy is]] in the show, it was even ''worse'' in real life. The show omits the worst of it, such as a time when he beat her so badly while she was pregnant that she needed to go to the emergency room, or an incident after they'd separated when he drunkenly broke into her apartment and was found covered in blood and bruises while holding a knife and gun with a ransom note written in blood nearby.
50	** The screenwriters treat Duntsch's research pursuits as legitimate, and portray his interest in biology as his sole redeeming trait. In reality, Duntsch's colleagues at Discgenics[[note]]a biotech startup that Duntsch was involved in, that went belly-up during the financial crisis of 2008[[/note]] have recalled him as a lazy drunkard whose only job was wining and dining prospective investors, and in an interview with Christian Slater, the real Randall Kirby said that he reviewed Duntsch's research and found to be either plagiarized or nonsensical.
51	* HookersAndBlow: At least Strippers and Blow. Jerry loves this, and he gets Duntsch to join him in Memphis. It's how Duntsch meets Wendy.
52	* IRejectYourReality: Pretty much Duntsch's entire worldview. It starts from refusing to hear anyone against him to when he's arrested and claiming "I came here on my own" when the cops had to pick him up and then the detective has to spell it out for Duntsch he's under arrest and can't just leave for Denver. Oh and both Duntsch's father and his public defender are stunned silent that Duntsch is seriously talking about getting his medical license back as soon as the trial is done.
53	* ImagineSpot: In "An Occurrence at Randall Kirby's", Henderson imagines how he might confront Duntsch and knock him out before deciding on a more prudent course of action.
54	* ImplausibleDeniability: Episode 7 opens with Duntsch trying to blame everyone else for his mistakes to the point he claims the ''anesthesiolgist'' was responsible for a patient who died of ''blood loss''.
55	* InherentInTheSystem: Downplayed. Duntsch was doubtlessly enabled by Texas's medical-legal system[[note]]malpractice law in Texas has been neutered by low caps on tort payouts, to the point that civil attorneys won't bother taking cases[[/note]], by hospitals that tried to avoid scandal by letting him resign, and by a residency that let him focus on research while neglecting proper surgical training. However, as Henderson points out, Duntsch's surgeries were so catastrophic that he should have recognized his own inadequacy and stopped operating.
56	* TheIntern: Much of the show focuses on Duntsch's training years.
57	* LoopholeAbuse: A recurring theme is how big institutions bent the rules to protect their reputations, at the public's expense. Every hospital that Duntsch works at lets him resign instead of firing or suspending him[[note]]firing would have opened the door to a wrongful termination lawsuit, and suspension would have forced a National Practitioner Databank report, bringing the hospital bad publicity[[/note]].
58	* MadDoctor: The show ''is'' called "Dr. Death," after all.
59	* MeaningfulEcho: "Maybe this is a good thing." First Betts says it to Duntsch in regards to his losing his football scholarship, then many years later, Duntsch's father says it to him in regards to him losing his medical license. Both football and medicine are things Duntsch has devoted years of his life to and tried again and again to be accomplished at with no success, but while being forced out of the first one isn't too significant, losing his license will inevitably save lives.
60	* MeatGrinderSurgery: Duntsch's surgeries are gruesome, his strategies and choices of equipment are bizarre, and every onlooker in his operating rooms is horrified watching him work.
61	** He mistakes part of a patient's ''neck muscle'' for a tumor, cuts the muscle out for a biopsy, aborts the surgery without having even attempted the cervical repair that he'd promised the patient, and then sews the patient back up... with a sponge still inside. The patient develops a life-threatening infection. Kirby, who is called in to salvage things, likens the surgery to an "attempted murder."
62	** He embeds surgical hardware, that was supposed to go into bone, in ''muscle''. Henderson and Kirby point out that this mistake is just as unbelievable in a human body as it would be in a T-bone steak.
63	** Instead of cutting a disc with a scalpel, he tries to yank it out with a surgical pliers. Kirby compares this to cutting up a pizza with a pliers instead of a pizza slicer.
64	** Another disc surgery sees him amputating a nerve root, leaving the patient's left leg paralyzed.
65	** When Henderson performs a revision surgery on one of Duntsch's patients, he notes (with disbelief) the mess Duntsch made, including the dura mater (protective sheath around the spinal cord) dissected, offering no protection to the nerves. Ligaments cut and just hanging loose, bone fragments piercing nerves and otherwise messily smashed into the spinal canal "like putty".
66	* MedicineShow: Duntsch creates a slick infomercial for himself, complete with a testimonial from one of his less-disastrous patients.
67	* MenCantKeepHouse: After Wendy leaves Duntsch, his once-luxurious suburban home becomes a pigsty, reflecting his mental decline. When she later stops by to pick up their son, she's disgusted by the squalor.
68	* MyGodYouAreSerious: A common reaction to the realization that yes, Duntsch is dead serious about some of his surgical choices. Also Kim's reaction when she realizes not only is he still treating patients after crippling Jerry but he honestly doesn't see why he shouldn't.
69	* ObstructiveBureaucrat: Many. The Texas Medical Board refuses to act after hearing Kirby's and Henderson's testimony, and hospital executives who hired Duntsch try to cover their mistake with legal red tape.
70	* PrideBeforeAFall: Duntsch's entire arc.
71	* PsychopathicManchild: Duntsch reacts with petulant anger whenever someone questions his skills and continues to insist that he's a world-class surgeon even as his patients suffer from painful and sometimes fatal side effects, throwing the blame at everyone from the nurses and anesthesiologists to the patients themselves. He also tends to harass nurses, [=PAs=], and fellow physicians like a grade school bully and shows an extreme sense of entitlement in his relationships with others.
72	* RaceLift: Mostly notably Josh, but also a number of Duntsch's patients. The names are changed and the races are reshuffled.
73	** One of the most memorable moments during Duntsch's trial is when one patient, a black man who is a recovering addict, remarks that he could tell that Duntsch was "high as a kite" in the clinic. These exact words were said during the real trial, but the real patient in question, Barry Morguloff, is white.
74	* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: Many are delivered, mostly to Chris by virtually everyone in his life. But he isn't the only one to get these.
75	** Dr. Kirby, [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold true to form]], delivers one every time he meets a person or an institution that in some way enabled Duntsch's madness.
76	** Josh chews Dr. Henderson out at a fancy dinner for giving into the medical bureaucracy and abandoning the Duntsch case once things got difficult. [[spoiler:It's just Henderson's imagination, but it persuades Henderson to stop working with the Texas Medical Board and get law enforcement involved]].
77	* RedOniBlueOni: Randall Kirby is hot-blooded and wants to use an emotional argument in his push to stop Duntsch. Robert Henderson is much more sedate and takes a more measured approach to the situation by collecting evidence and testimony so that a case can be built.
78	* ShoutOut: "An Occurrence at Randall Kirby's" features a title sequence inspired by the one used by ''Series/{{Dallas}}''.
79	* ScrewTheRulesIHaveConnections: Dr. Skadden, who trains neurosurgeons at the University of Tennessee, takes such a liking to Duntsch that he lets him skip crucial parts of surgical training to focus on his research, and looks the other way when Duntsch's drug and alcohol problems start getting noticed.
80	* ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney: Duntsch believes this to a delusional degree; even when is reputation is shot and the law is closing in, he thinks that if he can get his medical license back, he'll be able to make enough money to get out of trouble.
81	* SnobsVsSlobs: Dr. Skadden attempts to invoke this by publicly comparing credentials with Drs. Kirby and Henderson, having just boasted about having [[IvyLeagueForEveryone gone to Harvard]]. Kirby proves to be a bad target as he's a graduate of Rice and Baylor, two of the best schools in the country, but Henderson provides a slight opening by being a graduate of the University of Nebraska. However, Henderson is unaffected by the snobbery[[note]]In real life, Henderson is regarded as one of the best spine specialists in Texas with a stellar professional reputation[[/note]].
82	-->'''Dr. Skadden:''' Go Cornhuskers!
83	* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome: Dr. Kirby's contempt for rules and regulations doesn't accomplish anything other than driving a wedge between himself and Dr. Henderson.
84	* TakeThat: There are some jabs against how the Texas state government and lobbyists watered down malpractice laws to the point that lawyers won't even take civil cases because payout caps are so low. Former Governor Rick Perry is also called out for being in the sway of big business and not knowing much about government.
85	* TeethClenchedTeamwork: Kirby's eccentricity makes for entertaining TV, but it frustrates Henderson and Shughart a lot.
86	* TranquilFury: Dr. Henderson's testimony at Duntsch's trial is scalding, but Baldwin delivers each word in a calm, graceful manner.
87	* VillainWithGoodPublicity: Duntsch keeps getting hired and attracting patients because of his charm.
88	* WardrobeFlawOfCharacterization:
89	** Duntsch is shown to be wearing scrubs with a large hole at the rear and Josh Baker says he's seen Duntsch wearing them on multiple occasions, indicating that Duntsch doesn't have the fastidious attention to detail and hygiene expected of a surgeon.
90	** Jerry wears a pocket square in his shirt pocket, showing that he's unfamiliar with business dress.
91	** Kirby almost always dresses more casually than one normally would in a given situation, showing his disdain for rules and procedures.
92	** Kim dresses for her job interview with Duntsch as if it were a first date at a dive bar, showing her [[GoldDigger gold-digging]] tendencies.
93	* WrongLineOfWork: Invoked as a former classmate says Duntsch was truly gifted in med school but his strength was as a researcher and was totally unsuited for surgical work. She openly says if Duntsch stuck to research, "he'd be living in a mansion in Germantown right now."
94	[[/folder]]
95
96	[[folder: Season 2]]
97	* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler: Paolo gets off with a slap on the wrist to continue practicing medicine and likely threaten other patients. However, his reputation is in tatters and he will face lawsuits. Meanwhile, Benita, Gamelli, Svensson and Lasbrey are able to find new jobs and move on with their lives, knowing they did the right thing by exposing Paolo's true nature.]]
98	* BlatantLies:
99	** Paolo not only claimed to have been a longtime friend of Pope Francis but operated on the likes of Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and numerous other famous people. When representatives for these people deny his claims, Paolo merely says that [[ConvenientlyUnverifiableCoverStory he has to keep these operations secret because of the high profile people involved]].
100	** Having already started realizing Paolo is full of crap, Benita is thrown that her gay designer friend totally believes Paolo's tale that ''the Pope'' is going to give the designer and his husband holy communion to attend the ceremony.
101	** Paolo had also claimed the wedding would be attended by the likes of the Obamas and the Putins, that Andrea Bocelli would sing the wedding song and Enoteca Pinchiorri would cater it.
102	** Earlier, Paolo wowed Benita by playing a lovely concerto on a piano. During a brief power failure, the piano suddenly starts playing the same tune by itself, with Benita realizing Paolo was never playing it in the first place.
103	* BodyHorror: The results of Macchiarini's surgeries with the plastic windpipes result invariably in horrible complications. They universally include necrosis of the flesh inside of their airways that made it difficult for any of them to breathe.
104	* ConMan: Supposed top surgeon Paolo turns out to be this. All his research is based on fraudulent data and he's been running a score of scams on the side while bragging of non-existent connections to the rich and powerful.
105	* CryLaughing: Benita has this when she heads to Italy for the address of Paolo's home, where she was ready to send all her belongings, only to find it's an empty lot.
106	* DidYouActuallyBelieve:
107	** A reporter chastises Benita on how she could truly think the Pope was going to officiate the wedding for two divorced non-Catholics packed with major celebrities. Benita defends it on how Paolo could convince you of just about anything.
108	** At their tribunal hearing, Gamelli says their only mistake was limiting their report to the patients Paolo treated in Sweden rather than all the others abroad. Seeing the confused looks of the presiding doctors, Gamelli dryly asks "you thought there were only three?"
109	** After Benita publishes her story on Paolo, she can only laugh off some of the comments of "how dumb was she" as she has to admit they have a point.
110	* DidntThinkThisThrough: Invoked by Benita in what Paolo thought was going to happen when 300 people showed up in Italy for a celebrity-filled wedding that didn't exist while she had all her worldly possessions sent to an address that was an empty lot. "What was the plan?" It's indicated this shows how Paolo is so focused on the immediate outcomes that he never has any long-term goals besides his next big payday.
111	* FailedASpotCheck: Benita is kicking herself on how she got engaged to Paolo before really checking on him only to find his long trail of lies...such as the tiny detail he was married for almost thirty years before they met. There was also his claims of having been a thoracic surgeon at the University of Alabama only to find the university didn't ''have'' a thoracic department and being a "personal physician" for the Pope when the Vatican had never heard of him and that the Pope already had plenty of doctors.
112	* {{Gaslighting}}: As befitting a sociopath con man, Paolo has this in spades. He manages to convince a patient that he saved her life by ''removing her lung'' which was completely unneeded.
113	* IncurableCoughOfDeath: As soon as one of Paolo's "cured" patients has this, they're doomed.
114	* KarmaHoudini: After being given evidence of all of Paolo's lies and crimes, the worst he gets from the Swedish courts? [[spoiler: A suspended sentence for causing bodily harm, allowing him to continue to practice.]][[note]] In June of 2023, after production was completed, the courts increased the sentence to two years and six months imprisonment.[[/note]]
115	* LoopholeAbuse: The doctors think they have Paolo because of how he never got ethical approval for his procedures. Paolo just uses the loophole that his patients were in life-threatening conditions and he had no time to wait for red tape.
116	* MyGodWhatHaveIDone:
117	** A major push for Benita in exposing Paolo is how she helped him become famous.
118	-->'''Benita''': The entire world thinks he's this miracle worker because of me.
119	** Lasbrey gets this when a patient she encouraged to totally trust Paolo and his procedure dies. When the widow snaps, "When you remember this day, will you feel shame?" Lasbrey can only give a tearful nod in reply.
120	* TheNeedsOfTheMany: This is the excuse one doctor gives Gamelli as to why Karolinska is so adamant about protecting Paolo, because if it comes out they've been backing a fraud who killed patients, their reputation will be shattered and funding will dry up. Gamelli is appalled they're willing to cover a killer to help others.
121	-->'''Gamelli''': I can't believe you're taking his side.
122	-->'''Burt''': His side...is our side.
123	* ScrewTheRulesImDoingWhatsRight: Even though it violates a few rules, a doctor gives Svensson evidence on Paolo's fraudulent data, knowing it's far more important to expose him than let confidentiality rules cost other patients their lives.
124	* SimultaneousArcs: The first half of the season is divided between Benita meeting Paolo, falling for his lies only to discover he's a fraud while Svensson and Gamelli uncover Paolo's supposed research is all fraudulent. It then moves to how each side tries to expose the truth.
125	* SpannerInTheWorks: Benita's investigation into Paolo in Italy is almost derailed when Lasbrey convinces Paolo's Russian patient to cancel a planned surgery so Paolo returns home earlier than expected.
126	* SpottingTheThread: Benita's eyes are opened to Paolo's lies when he claims he'd talked his "good friend" Pope Francis into performing their wedding. But Benita discovered from a friend that Francis would be in South America all that summer. She then started calling up the hotels supposedly set for their wedding/honeymoon (which was to be just a few weeks off) to find none of them had any record of any events set up.
127	* VillainWithGoodPublicity: Invoked as Benita's coverage of Paolo had hospitals so convinced he was a "miracle worker" that they blackball the doctors trying to expose him. The worst is the doctors wondering how Paolo got past ethical approval needed for his procedures only to discover he never applied for it and no one bothered to check because they were so sure he was this genius pioneer.
128	* WasItReallyWorthIt: The finale has separate scenes where Svensson, Gamelli and Lasbrey wonder why they should keep fighting when the system is protecting Paolo while Benita likewise asks how she can continue with both parties citing the trope verbatim.
129	* WomanScorned: A reporter warns Benita that any attempt by her to expose Paolo is only going to come off as her jealous about being dumped. Rather than weakening her resolve, Benita is ready to go forward, convincing the man her version is the truth.
130
131	[[/folder]]

Context Series / DrDeath