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These included Harriet Wallberg, who was the vice-chancellor of the Karolinska Institute in 2010, when Macchiarini was recruited. But in October 2017, the attorney general's office announced that a crime could not be proven, because the patients might have died anyway. This set a dangerous example. A 29-year old woman from New Brunswick, New Jersey, posed as a high school student and attended classes for four days before she was caught and arrested. By using a patients own cells, Dr. Macchiarini sought to rectify an age-old problem with transplants involving donated organs, which the body sometimes rejects as foreign tissue. The popular press also has a lot to answer for. Nor did they impress the institutes ethics council when Delaere lodged a formal complaint. I can breathe, she was amazed to discover. Sorry we couldn't set a reminder for you this time. His operation was on June 9, 2011, at the Karolinska University Hospital, where he received the upgraded plastic trachea made at University College London. As it was built from Claudias own cells, she didnt need to be on any risky immunosuppressant drugs. Still, noting that previous attempts didnt show documented success, he cautioned that longer-term results were needed before the technique should be embraced, adding, Lets see how it works and how you can do it in more patients.. I dont want to live like this, she concluded. KI commissioned surgeon Bengt Gerdin, a professor emeritus at Uppsala University, to investigate the issue. This thing came to life, Dr. Genden marveled, and we were like, Holy smokes, weve done it.. As Selena ran from the room, Yolanda Saldivar shot her in the back. He was eventually dismissed from Karolinska. Therefore, of all the medically ill individuals Paolo has ever provided a biological or synthetic implant to, at least 8 of them allegedly died due to his misconduct in research, failure to provide proper post-operative care, and/or his disregard for ethical practices. We would have been planning my funeral, she said, but now were planning a birthday party.. KI fired Macchiarini in March 2016, 2 months after the Swedish documentary came out. Cardiothoracic surgeon Matthias Corbascio, one of Macchiarinis former colleagues at KI who first raised questions about the work, describes it as terrible and insane. The court basically gave him a slap on the wrist, says Corbascio, who is now at the University of Copenhagen. The court had to apply the intentional indifference standard for the assault charges, he says, which is difficult to prove. Team Lakay Beyenes death two and a half years after the operation, caused by the failure of his artificial airway, was a grueling ordeal. Its a problematic idea with unfortunate side effects. Its very significant, said Dr. Pierre Delaere, a professor of head and neck surgery at University Hospital Gasthuisberg in Belgium, a trachea specialist not involved in the case. Virginia Karolinska Institute announced in February 2016 that it would not renew his research contract, which was due to expire in November 2016, then terminated the contract in December 2016. The vice-chancellor, Anders Hamsten, resigned. Her ex-husband John was dying of cancer. Learn how your comment data is processed. But of 20 patients, including children, most ultimately died, and scientists said Dr. Macchiarini misrepresented data and exaggerated his techniques effectiveness. Other witnesses contradicted that, arguing that with Andemariams slow-growing cancer, minor surgeries and other treatments could have kept him alive. The fact that he could keep all the details straight and compartmentalize these different lives and lies is really amazing.. None of these institutions have faced the same kind of public scrutiny. The very next day, she got an email from a friend that outlined the Pope's plans to visit South America on Benita and Paolo's wedding day. As of the time of that judgment, Macchiarini had not been prosecuted in other countries where he implanted his artificial windpipes, and it was unclear whether he was still practicing medicine, the Times adds. The court ruling Thursday was in a case involving a Turkish woman named Yesim Cetir, who was the longest surviving of his patients at Karolinska. They exchange their vows in Italy. He was handsome, suave, and a charmer. In the first couple of years at Karolinska, he put plastic airways into three patients. Paolo dropped another bomb when he told Benita that, despite the fact that both of them had been divorced, Pope Francis would officiate at their wedding. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. But it did not work, and a court in Sweden has found him criminally liable for the harm inflicted on a patient. He performed a synthetic trachea transplant on, In 2013, he met documentary television producer. For Ms. Sein, the procedure was a long-sought dream. Journals retracted several of his studies. A life-saver and a game-changer. In June 2016, the public prosecutor's office began investigating Paolo on suspicion of manslaughter and grievous bodily harm based on the material leading to the deaths of the three patients operated on in Sweden. The Karolinska Institute declined to comment for this article, noting only that Dr. Macchiarinis sentence may be appealed. Brave CF Texas The Karolinska Institute, alleging scientific misconduct, dismissed Dr. Macchiarini, who has long denied wrongdoing. Articles in this area are retracted 2.4 times more often than the average for biomedicine, and over half of these retractions are due to fraud. And the TV shows second season, announced earlier this month, will cover the podcasts third, with Edgar Ramirez playing Paolo Macchiarini, and This Is Us star Mandy Moore playing Benita Alexander, an investigative journalist who falls into a whirlwind romance with the doctor. She pushed through his appointment despite the fact that he had some very negative references and dubious claims on his rsum. In 2019, an Italian court said he had forged documents and abused his position, charges unrelated to his trachea work. California New York In Sweden, both the defense and the prosecution can appeal rulings, and senior prosecutor Karin Lundstrm-Kron says she and her colleagues will decide in the coming weeks. On Jan. 12, Dr. Genden got a call: An appropriate donor had died. The maximum prison sentence for causing bodily harm is 4 years. Heres this handsome Italian surgeon at the finest institution in the world, the Karolinska, and hes everything Im not: Hes got a beautiful head of hair, he drives a motorcycle, hes got an accent, hes incredibly charismatic and dynamic, Dr. Genden said. In 2011, Dr. Macchiarini, a renowned leader in the field of regenerative medicine, took the medical world by storm when he built and implanted the worlds first bioartificial windpipe. Benita traveled to Paolo's Barcelona home with two friends and a video camera. Records show that even with his implant failing, Andemariam was able to complete his Ph.D. before his demise in January 2013. Benita decided to get in touch with private investigator Frank Murphy. After several weeks in recovery, she is home. She received a new trachea in January and is believed to be the first patient in the world to undergo a successful direct transplant of a donor trachea. How climate change and forest management make wildfires harder to contain, Disparity in police response: Black Lives Matter protests and Capitol riot. The first season of both the Peacock series and the Wondery podcast of the same name told the story of Christopher Duntsch, a former neurosurgeon now serving a life sentence for botched surgeries that left more than 30 patients maimed or dead. As it turned out, Macchiarinis patients werent all at deaths door at the time he treated them. This guy mutilated people., Between 2011 and 2014, Macchiarini implanted artificial windpipes in at least eight patients in Sweden, the United States, and Russia. They didnt. Benita Alexander thought that she was living a real-life fairy tale when she met her fianc, Paolo Macchiarini. And it needs a blood supply to connect to the patients vascular system. But after Alexander learned that Pope Francis was scheduled to visit South America at the time of their wedding, she confronted Macchiarini about his claims. They will especially examine the judges decision that Macchiarini couldnt be held responsible for what happened to Andemariam and Lyles because he acted in distress, according to the courts statement. It is unclear whether Dr. Macchiarini is still practicing medicine, but his lawyer said in May that he had no income. Ive never in my experience witnessed a fraud like this, with this level of international flair, Murphy told Vanity Fair. Eduard Folayang Hundreds of Americans are estimated to die each year because techniques like stents, surgery or lasers cannot heal their damaged tracheas, and they suffocate when airways narrow dangerously or collapse. Stem-cell scientist Dr. Paolo Macchiarini was accused of wrongdoing during operations on three people between 2011 and 2014. (LogOut/ Only four months after Macchiarini operated on Claudia Castillo, his results provisional but very positive were published online by the Lancet. Benita was also growing concerned about the cost of the wedding. Massachusetts Benita said that, if she can take any lessons away from what happened to her, she hopes that her experience will help others. And then there are the surgeons on Dr. Death. Now his reputation lies in tatters. Your tax-deductible contribution plays a critical role in sustaining this effort. Philippines Benita was loyal to and supported Paolo when his professional life took a dark turn. What comes next after Texas school shooting? The next morning, with the donor and Ms. Sein in adjacent rooms, a team of over 50 medical personnel assembled. All rights reserved. He convinced the Karolinska Institute that this could make them famous, and they just let him do it. Scientific pioneer, superstar surgeon, miracle worker thats how Paolo Macchiarini was known for several years. But some of Alexander's friends began to become suspicious. The charismatic Italian surgeon who designed it foresaw a future where hearts and lungs could be made from plastic, and organ donations became a thing of the past. How did the GameStop stock spike on Wall Street happen? According to the Times, Macchiarini seen below in a 2017 interview on Swedens TV4 Nyheterna performed 20 tracheal regeneration procedures across Europe and in the United States but hid the fact that the transplants were failing. Swedish television broadcast a three-part expos of Paolo's work called Experimenten, which argued that the artificial windpipes did more harm than good and were actually rotting away inside his patients' bodies. But for now, lets focus solely on his medical patients, shall we? Louisiana Woman Disappeared After Giving Somebody A Ride, 5 Things That Still Bother Us About The Unsolved Maura Murray Case, Two Texas Teens Left After Curfew In 1988 And Never Returned, What Happened To Zion Foster? No one wanted to collaborate with me. Georgia Teen Vanished In South Carolina, Search Continues For North Carolina Girl, 11, Whose Parents Didnt Report Her Missing For Weeks, Where Is Ella Goodie? Plus: A Chicago mother is arrested in connection to the murder of her 6-year-old son; the convicted killer Robert Durst dies at age 78; Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes sentencing date is set; and an LGBTQ+ rights movement hero is found dead in a Florida landfill. Countless news stories declared it a medical breakthrough. Alexander eventually fell in love with the surgeon, and in 2014, he proposed to her, and they started planning a lavish wedding for the following year. Her global quest to find out the truth about the man who left her personal and professional life in shambles is documented in He Lied About Everything on Investigation Discovery. 2023 Guardian News & Media Limited or its affiliated companies. I had a brave face, but I was scared, Ms. Sein said. Death Season 2, Mandy Moore Joins Dr. But owing to her cancer returning and the formation of a fistula, she too passed away. Any woman would swoon for such a catch! Indonesia The different gender was important, allowing Dr. Genden to use chromosomal analysis to detect whether Ms. Seins cells populated the new trachea. Surgeon Paolo Macchiarini was hailed for turning the dream of regenerative medicine into a reality until he was exposed as a con artist and false prophet. Chatri Sityodtong She spent more than three years in intensive care and endured 200 surgical procedures, theTimes reports. The procedure involved replacing a damaged trachea with a plastic replica that had been soaked in the patients stem cells. Four of Macchiarinis colleagues at KI, including Corbascio, filed official complaints in 2014 charging that several papers describing the surgeries deliberately left out serious complications in the patients. Because mucus would clog her tube, she was constantly suctioning, constantly worried about her airway, and it becomes overwhelming, Dr. Genden said, like being held down in a swimming pool. He was one of the best con-men I have ever come across, he added. A version of this story appeared in Science, Vol 376, Issue 6600. In their view, Macchiarini was certainly engaged in clinical research. It relieved a little bit of burden from him.. According to a witness report, Paolo operated on a 45-50-year-old woman of Middle Eastern origin in a private clinic in Barcelona in the fall of 2008. There are also plenty of desperate patients who believe because theyve been told countless times that stem cells are the cure, and who cannot wait any longer for mainstream medicine. One was a 2-year-old girl named Hannah Warren, on whom hed operated in Peoria, IL, in 2013, according to Vanity Fair. The 18-hour procedure, conceived and led by Dr. Eric M. Genden Sr., chairman of otolaryngology-head and neck surgery at Mount Sinai Health System in New York, is a milestone because unlike kidneys, hearts and lungs the trachea has defied decades of transplantation attempts. Two investigations, one by the Karolinska Institute and one by Karolinska University Hospital, both found that problems with Dr. Macchiarinis work had been covered up. It won Dr. Macchiarini international news coverage and cemented his place as a celebrity scientist. The operations were hailed at the time as a breakthrough in regenerative medicine, although some observers remained skeptical. Paolo, a visiting researcher at the prestigious Karolinska Institutet in Sweden, had shot to fame as the only doctor in the world who was able to use biological and synthetic scaffolds bathed in the patients' own stem cells for trachea transplants. At the trial, Macchiarini and his lawyer argued that the patients, with no other options, had been treated under compassionate care standards. Photographs document Ms. Seins trachea transformation: Her old windpipe looks raw and red, her new one smooth as porcelain. In fact, the surgeon was still married to his wife of nearly 30 years. Dr. Gerdin said Dr. Macchiarini was allowed to continue his procedures for so long because the Karolinska Institute and its hospital allowed him to do so. There Was Nothing Anybody Could Do for These Patients. Now There Is. While there isnt enough data to actually prove this, we do have some key indicators. None have been forced to hold full and independent inquiries. What's next for abortion rights in America? In early 2014, four Karolinska doctors defied the reigning culture of silence by complaining about Macchiarini. In late 2014, four doctors in Sweden accused him of fraud, saying that he'd falsified data in six of the papers he had published. The first person to receive one of these was Andemariam Beyene, an Eritrean doctoral student in geology at the University of Iceland. Seven of the eight patients Paolo inserted tracheas into have died. Any replacement trachea must be rigid or itll collapse like a straw in a McDonalds milkshake, Dr. Genden said. The district court in Solna today found Paolo Macchiarini not guilty on other charges, including aggravated assault, relating to three patients he treated while working for the famed Karolinska Institute (KI). Allegations also emerged that the risky procedure was performed on at least one person who was not critically ill at the time. Stem cell clinics have sprung up like weeds, offering to treat just about any ailment you can name. February 28, 2022 Emanuela Pecchia is famously known as the wife of popular Swiss-born Italian thoracic surgeon, Paolo Macchiarini. 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In April 2017, the university terminated his project. Were going to show up and say, As a student, I had this idea on the back of a napkin and now were ready to go and if it fails, the patient dies and it becomes yet another example of some surgeon who thought he could solve a problem and hes created, instead, just the opposite.. In 2016, Claudia returned to the Hospital Clinic to have her left lung removed, and as per the last reports, she is now alive and doing relatively well. An independent investigator agreed. And Murphy found that Macchiarinis claims about the wedding were almost all untrue and that the surgeon was married and had been for nearly 30 years. Paolo grew close to Alexander's daughter [Investigation Discovery], He was incredibly charming, worldly smart, sophisticated, and seemed very gentle," Benita told CrimeFeed. But they found prosecutors didnt prove Macchiarini was indifferent to the injuries or suffering that the surgeries might cause, the standard required for aggravated assault. He said yeah, so I said Lets go for it., After extracting the donors organs, you go next door and you open up Sonia and you remove the diseased trachea, and there is no going back, Dr. Genden said. New Jersey Since this was radically new, Macchiarini and his colleagues should have tested it on animals first. But colleagues suspected that Macchiarini was manipulating his results. According to The New York Times, Macchiarini is an Italian surgeon who was found criminally liable this June for causing felony bodily injury to a Turkish woman named Yesim Cetir, a patient who had received one of his 3D-printed windpipes and later died. Alexander said that Macchiarini told her he was still married to his wife because they were Catholic but were separated. Nearly all of those patients have died. However, its imperative to mention that the doctor has only been criminally found guilty of causing bodily harm to a single patient he operated on in Sweden back in 2011 two other charges of assault were dismissed. But the vice-chancellor of Karolinska Institute, Anders Hamsten, wasnt bound by this judgement. If the sins of Karolinska have been committed elsewhere, it is partly because medical research facilities share a common milieu, which harbours common dangers. Macchiarini is known for his research fraud and manipulative behavior. She says she feels she has been given a chance of being alive one more time.. US Capitol Faced with this public relations disaster, the Karolinska Institute immediately promised to investigate the allegations but then, within days, suddenly announced that Macchiarinis contract would not be extended. Alexander admits that, at the time, she was in a vulnerable place. However, he eventually found out about his previous associations. The donor was a young man (identifying details are being withheld to protect privacy). As studies have shown, the media often casts a positive light on stem cell tourism, suggesting that the treatments are effective and the risks low. But that, and the fact that he had multiple cell phones for different countries, she chalked up to his demanding job and constant international travel. Wasnt something of this idea behind the special treatment Karolinska gave Macchiarini? But Benita, at the time an award-winning investigative news producer for NBC, had no way of knowing that, by the end of her love story, her heart would be broken and many of Paolo's patients who received the "miracle" transplants would be dead. Most, including Andemariam Beyene, are now dead. ABCs true-crime documentary series The Con premieres with the story of Paolo Macchiarini, who was once considered a pioneer in the field of regenerative medicine but allegedly turned out to be just a fraud. In place of clinical data, there are gushing testimonials. Prior to this, he was regarded as a pioneer in the field of regenerative medicine using both biological and synthetic scaffolds seeded with patients own stem cells as trachea transplants. Born in 1984, Zhadyra Iglikova suffered from tracheostomy following a car accident. Turn on desktop notifications for breaking stories about interest? Its very exciting, said Dr. G. Alexander Patterson, a professor of surgery at Washington University in St. Louis, who was not involved in the case.