The podcast platform Wondery has dropped a new trailer for Season Two of its medical malpractice series, Dr. Death, which will tell the story of an oncologist who knowingly doled out chemotherapy to patients who didn’t even have cancer. The show premieres on October 27th.
The series is centered around Dr. Farid Fata, a Michigan doctor with a pristine resumé who spent nearly a decade misleading more than 500 patients, putting them on intense chemotherapy regiments and then recouping millions in fraudulent charges to Medicare and private insurance companies. The new trailer finds Dr. Death host Laura Beil setting up this harrowing tale, before letting some of Dr. Fata’s patients, or their family members, share their stories: “The doctor that I trusted my life with will forever my change my view of the word ‘doctor,’ who takes an oath to do no harm,” says one woman.
On top of all the harm he inflicted, Beil tells Rolling Stone that Dr. Fata’s case “exposed the dangers of a system in which doctors are paid based on how much they do.” She also noted the similarities between Dr. Fata and the subject of Dr. Death Season One, Dr. Christopher Duntsch, a neurosurgeon who was employed at numerous hospitals despite a track record of botched procedures that harmed numerous patients.
“Like Christopher Duntsch, the Fata case underscores how difficult it can be for patients to know much about their doctors before entrusting their lives to them,” Beil says. “On paper, Dr. Fata looked great.”
Unlike the first season, Beil had some additional help in crafting Season Two of Dr. Death, which was written by journalist Heather Schroering. “This is the first time I’ve told a story that I didn’t write and report, but I have complete confidence in her work,” Beil says.