happy Halloween the tragedy of Jeff Glidewell and a black cat

Jeff Glidewell, the final patient of Christopher "Dr. Death" Duntsch, said he saw three black cats the morning of his surgery. "I thought this must be a sign or something," Glidewell recalls.

Jeff Glidewell, the final patient of Christopher "Dr. Death" Duntsch, said he saw three black cats the morning of his surgery.

Glidewell’s back problems had begun almost a decade earlier, in 2004, when he broke his back in two places in a motorcycle accident. After a year of rehab, he tried to go back to his job working on air conditioning systems but lasted only months before the pain stopped him. He left his first meeting with Duntsch elated and filled with hope.

“I was actually so happy with the way it went that I called my wife and my mother and said, ‘I think I found somebody on my insurance that’s gonna fix my neck,’” he said.

The day of the surgery began ominously. That morning, “We pulled out of the driveway, and soon as we started going forward down the street, a black cat ran across the front of the car,” Glidewell said. “I said, ‘Oh, Lord, this is not good.’ We turned the corner, and when we got on the first county road, and another one. Turning into the hospital, another one.”

Three black cats on the way to the hospital. “I said, ‘We need to just turn around and go home.’”

Once at the hospital, Glidewell and his wife waited. And waited. Three hours late, they said, Duntsch finally arrived in a cab. “He had on jeans that were frayed at the bottom,” Glidewell said. “He didn’t look like he was ready for a surgery.”