David Kuntz MD is credited by hundreds of patients for ground-breaking research and surgery that has kept them alive and mobile. But Kuntz’s advocacy on behalf of injured people denied medical treatment has brought this much honored physician not new honors but the loss of his medical license, his home and his savings.

In his long career, Kuntz established satellite helicopter clinics in isolated North West Coastal interior communities for which he flew and serviced his own helicopters; he survived one severe crash on an isolated river where he waited two days for rescue. He pioneered the first orthopedic/ neurosurgical service in remote Northwest British Columbia. He invented an artificial disk to replace damaged disks in the necks and backs of patients, and pioneered the field of neuropaedic surgery. Kuntz says that surgery is designed “to restore the spine to The Manufacturer’s original specifications.”

Not limiting himself to the relief of human suffering, Kuntz founded the North Wind Research Foundation to rescue, heal and breed injured wildlife.

At times Kuntz has received accolades from his colleagues: he was recognized in 1990 by the American Academy of Neurologic Orthopedic surgeons for his work in artificial disc replacement, a technique now endorsed and adopted by surgeons around the world. Clinical trials have now begun on using the discs in the cervical spine.

But Kuntz began treating workers who had been denied medical care by Canada’s Workmen’s Compensation Board (WCB), not charging them for his services. He filed reports that supported the claims of such workers and found himself caught up in legal battles that challenged his treatments and his integrity. In the ensuing legal tangles, Kuntz was banned from medical practice.

Kuntz continues to be supported by former patients who formed a Judicial Review Group. Their investigation points to “rampant judicial conflicts of interest involving 29 judges whose decisions violated Canadian law.” They allege that there has been an orchestrated campaign to silence their doctor.

"I felt I had a duty to keep trying to help these workers prematurely abandoned by the WCB while legitimate problems remained untreated. They had nowhere else to turn," says David Kuntz. Although attempts to reinstate him as a physician have failed, his patients are now lobbying members of Parliament to invoke a section of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms that allows them to overrule judges who have violated the Charter.