Dr. Death (Season 2): Because there are more bad docs where that came from

The Premise (from Apple Podcasts):

We’re at our most vulnerable when we go to our doctors. We trust the person at the other end of that scalpel. We trust the hospital. We trust the system.

Series or standalone:

Series

Begin listening to:

Top Doc

Format:

Investigative reporting

Host(s):

Laura Beil

Sound/production quality:

Excellent

Rating/age suitability:

Adult

Approximate length of episodes:

40 minutes

Curricular ties:

N/A

Similar recommended pods:

Dr. Death (Season 1); Bad Batch; Sick; Immaculate Deception

Podcast Librarian’s Review:

There are only a few shows for which I will wait impatiently and with great anticipation for the next season to be released. This is one of them. As many of you know, Season 1 is one of my favorite pods of all time. Is it disturbing that Laura Beil has enough material to cover another doc who is harming, not helping, his patients? It sure is. And she hints that she got MANY emails and leads about even more deadly docs. Eek.

This season, Laura takes us to Michigan to investigate Dr. Fata , an oncologist, who essentially told healthy people that they had cancer and proceeded to pump them full of excessive amounts of chemotherapy drugs that would be overkill (no pun intended) for an actual cancer patient, let alone a healthy person without cancer. There were a couple whistleblowers, like a nurse who almost took a job there, and an office manager who felt things were slightly off, but the damage has been done for thousands of patients—who again, did not have cancer. I will say that this season didn’t have quite the shock value as the first season (I guess we got used to the idea of killer docs fairly quickly, huh?), but it was still an interesting story. Even more interesting were the updates to Season 1, including an absolutely heartbreaking interview with Jerry, Dr. Dunsch’s (the doctor profiled in that season) former friend whom he paralyzed with his incompetent surgery. Jerry wasn’t ready to speak during the first season but granted an interview for this one. As always, the series emphasizes that even though it focuses on bad doctors, these are the tiny minority--most doctors are good and capable people. Even so, I can’t wait for Laura Beil to uncover more of these stories.

P.S. I recently found out that a friend of mine almost got operated on by Dr. Dunsch. Luckily, something came up, and my friend was seen by a different doctor instead. Talk about a close call!