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. The next morning, with the donor and Ms. Sein in adjacent rooms, a team of over 50 medical personnel assembled. 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. They didnt. There was nothing anybody could do for these patients, said Dr. Genden, who became captivated by the problem in medical school 30 years ago after a patient with a tracheal tumor died. Nor did they impress the institutes ethics council when Delaere lodged a formal complaint. He performed a synthetic trachea transplant on, In 2013, he met documentary television producer. In other countries, more of Macchiarinis patients died after receiving one of his artificial windpipes. But of 20 patients, including children, most ultimately died, and scientists said Dr. Macchiarini misrepresented data and exaggerated his techniques effectiveness. Benita packed her bags again, and began to search for Paolo in order to face him once more and their final confrontation is captured in He Lied About Everything. The couple had traveled a lot, but there were some things Macchiarini, meanwhile, said he did not accept the findings of the disciplinary board. Macchiarinis fame had won him well-placed backers. "I started thinking that if this man is lying to me at such an egregious level, theres no way hes not doing this in his medical life," she told CrimeFeed. They recently published an article in the New England Journal of Medicine admitting that stem cell research has mostly failed to live up to its therapeutic promise. This set a dangerous example. From that moment on, she made a proposal to Paolo Macchiarini, and Dateline planned to publish the story. Or rather, his celebrity status helped him do so. A Swedish filmmakers investigative documentary raised further questions, as did a Vanity Fair article detailing how the beguiling surgeon became romantically involved with an NBC producer working on a feature about him and apparently conned her into believing he was divorced and would marry her in a ceremony officiated by the pope and attended by the Clintons, Obamas, John Legend and Elton John. He understood how difficult her life had become. KI fired Macchiarini in March 2016, 2 months after the Swedish documentary came out. 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). How did the GameStop stock spike on Wall Street happen? Please try again later. China Benita was loyal to and supported Paolo when his professional life took a dark turn. Dmitris graft had started collapsing six months into his surgery as well, but he managed to get it successfully removed and is now living with a tracheostomy. The vice-chancellor, Anders Hamsten, resigned. 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. 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. In the same year, he earned his medical degree from the, In 1989, he took a course on statistics in clinical research at, In 1994, he obtained a masters degree certificate in organ and tissue transplantation from the, From 2006 to 2009, he was an investigator at the, In June 2008, he performed a trachea transplant on, He performed a synthetic trachea transplant on, In 2012, he was charged in Italy with attempted aggravated fraud. Anyone can read what you share. As for Keziah Shorten, who suffered from trachea cancer, Paolo Macchiarini did a transplant on her on July 13, 2010, which failed the very next year. Benita was also growing increasingly concerned, because she had not yet been introduced to Paolo's children or even seen where she was meant to live with him in Barcelona. She would later discover that the woman in Barcelona had been living with Paolo for years, but that there were several other women in his life as well. Science and AAAS are working tirelessly to provide credible, evidence-based information on the latest scientific research and policy, with extensive free coverage of the pandemic. Unfortunately, though, she reportedly succumbed to her underlying disease in January of 2012. But because Macchiarini is apparently living in Spain, its unlikely to have much effect. 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Paolo Macchiarini was amazingly accomplished, stunningly successful, and fabulously rich. 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. Another was a Russian mother named Julia Tuulik, per BBC News. A version of this story appeared in Science, Vol 376, Issue 6600. Beyenes death two and a half years after the operation, caused by the failure of his artificial airway, was a grueling ordeal. ONE Super Series Stem cell clinics have sprung up like weeds, offering to treat just about any ailment you can name. He says, Ive created this bioreactor and its stem cells and it makes tracheas. And its huge., Dr. Genden said that when he and colleagues questioned Dr. Macchiarini at a conference early on, in his bigger-than-life way he says, This is ridiculous, you dont know what youre talking about, it functions beautifully., Dr. Genden thought his work had become obsolete, so you basically shut down the lab, he said. Dressed in a white lab coat or in surgical scrubs, with his broad, handsome face and easy charm, he certainly looked the part. It did much the same for Macchiarinis windpipe replacements. Surely, he got away with so much because he was considered an exception to the rules with more than a whiff of the Nobel about him. Dr. Paolo Macchiarini became a star by creating a bioartificial windpipe. More than a decade ago, Macchiarini became a superstar in the field of medicine when he implanted the worlds first bioartificial windpipe, a plastic structure that used the patients stem cells to reduce the risk of organ rejection. However, the serious complications that Castillo suffered were, for a long time, kept very quiet. And then there are the surgeons on Dr. Death. At the time, Macchiarini was employed by the prestigious Karolinska Institute in Sweden. He traveled to Illinois to operate on a Korean toddler who was born without a trachea and who was going to be the youngest person to ever receive an artificial one. To some extent, they believed Macchiarini because he told them what they wanted to hear. The court heard testimony in the case between 27 April and 12 May. Unfortunately, the scandal is much bigger than Karolinska, which accounts for only three of the patients who have received Macchiarinis regenerating windpipes. Recently, Ms. Sein, covering the hole with her hand to speak, enthused about having the energy to cook sesame chicken for the first time and how she aims to visit relatives in Puerto Rico. Likewise, they didnt undertake a proper risk assessment of the procedure, nor did Macchiarinis team seek government permits for the plastic windpipes, stem cells, and chemical growth factors they used. 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. He could see no real evidence that the windpipe scaffolds were becoming living, functioning airways in which case, they were destined to fail. By 2011, he was working in Sweden at one of the worlds most prestigious medical universities, the Karolinska Institute, whose professors annually select the winner of the Nobel prize in physiology or medicine. Hes clearly bright and has accomplishments, but he cant contain himself. And in 2014, four Karolinska University Hospital doctors filed two separate reports claiming that Macchiarinis scientific papers described exaggerated the positive results of the operations and incorrectly describe[d] the postoperative status of the patients and the functionality of the implant, the timeline says. "I have to tell people. They exchange their vows in Italy. Border crisis: Whats happening at the US-Mexico border? He was eventually dismissed from Karolinska. The Karolinska University Hospital in Stockholm. Unfortunately, due to complications, she passed away either around Christmas of that year or in the first few months of 2009. Texas 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. When you implant a synthetic trachea you have one certainty, and that is that the patient will die as a result of it, Delaere says in the email. Ms. Sein speaking with Dr. Eric M. Genden Sr., left, who developed the pioneering procedure, and Dr. Sander S. Florman, director of Mount Sinais Transplantation Institute. He was one of the best con-men I have ever come across, he added. Powered by WordPress.com VIP. Pennsylvania 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. Now they were on the wedding guest list: the Obamas, the Clintons, Vladimir Putin, Nicolas Sarkozy and other world leaders. After being dismissed from the institute, he worked at the Kazan Federal University in Kazan, Russia. Benita Alexander thought that she was living a real-life fairy tale when she met her fianc, Paolo Macchiarini. That was a very smart idea to help maintain the fragile blood supply of the airway by leaving the esophagus in place behind it, Dr. Patterson said. And investigations by both institute and the hospital found coverups regarding Macchiarinis work. Not only that, they later covered it up.. 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. WebPaolo Macchiarini (born 22 August 1958): 2 is a Swiss-born Italian thoracic surgeon and former regenerative medicine researcher who became known for research fraud and manipulative behavior. We would have been planning my funeral, she said, but now were planning a birthday party.. The only question was how long it would take weeks, months or a few years. Dr. Genden examines the new trachea by inserting a scope in a hole he left in her neck, which hell eventually close. KI officials let him do this. (LogOut/ Kevin Belingon Born in 1984, Zhadyra Iglikova suffered from tracheostomy following a car accident. Also, in such a highly competitive environment, people are keen to show allegiance to their superiors and wary of criticising them. Previously considered a pioneer for using both biological and synthetic scaffolds The story portrayed Macchiarini, who was already married at the time, as a serial fabulist who exaggerated or lied about degrees, academic appointments, and personal accomplishments. Hwang, Obokata and Macchiarini were all attracted to the hottest regions of stem cell research, where hope for a medical breakthrough was greatest. Nevada I have to expose him.". At the time, Macchiarini was working at Swedens Karolinska Institute, which awards the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine every year. Its kind of a marginal substitute, and many patients need further interventions to maintain their airways.. But, he added, Its an indirect technique. It takes time and can replace only the tracheas halfpipe side, so its not a complete tube.. The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City cast member was sentenced to six and a half years in prison for defrauding the elderly. Las Vegas She spent more than three years in intensive care and endured 200 surgical procedures, theTimes reports. The plastic trachea that Yesim Cetir received disfigured her and made her last three years in life basically like torture, said Bosse Lindquist, a documentarian who broke the story in Sweden about Dr. Macchiarini in a television series, The Experiment.. Other witnesses contradicted that, arguing that with Andemariams slow-growing cancer, minor surgeries and other treatments could have kept him alive. For Ms. Sein, the procedure was a long-sought dream. We were doing good research, but it didnt matter I thought I was going to lose my lab, my staff everything.. Paolo Macchiarini at a press conference in 2008. Its enough to worry officials from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). He took the medical world by storm when he built and transplanted the worlds first bioartificial windpipe two years earlier. The first person to receive one of these was Andemariam Beyene, an Eritrean doctoral student in geology at the University of Iceland. As Selena ran from the room, Yolanda Saldivar shot her in the back. Alexander said that Macchiarini told her he was still married to his wife because they were Catholic but were separated. In court testimony, he defended himself as only trying to help desperately ill patients, and said he had the full support of KI and his colleagues. The mild sentence comes as a disappointment to Macchiarinis critics. A surgeon who just a decade ago was celebrated around the globe as a pioneer in stem cell transplants has been convicted of one count of causing bodily harm, a felony, in a Swedish court. 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. The court said the penalty was a suspended sentence, but did not specify how long the sentence would be if imposed. The other patients were treated at hospitals in Barcelona, Florence, London, Moscow, Krasnodar, Chicago and Peoria. Some of them have been successful, but theyre cumbersome in different ways and theyre not a trachea, Dr. Patterson said. The surgeons defense attorney, Bjrn Hurtig, said his client was considering an appeal. At the trial, Macchiarini and his lawyer argued that the patients, with no other options, had been treated under compassionate care standards. A White House source confirmed that Bill Clinton had never met Paolo. 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. Look out for a message in your inbox in. The law is supposed to protect individuals from all types of assault, especially when they are powerless, said Dr. Bengt Gerdin, an independent investigator who was hired by the Karolinska Institute in 2015 to look into Dr. Macchiarinis work. His recovery put Macchiarini on the front page of the New York Times. 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. They exchange their vows in Italy. Family Seeks JusticeAfter Her Disappearance, Oregon Mother Of Four Who Was To Meet Up With Teen Son Suddenly Vanishes, Husband Of Missing Massachusetts Woman Charged With Her Murder, 8 Things To Know About The Nicholas Barclay Disappearance And Ensuing Deception, I'm Still Searching For My Baby: Georgia Mother Hopes For Answers In Daughters Disappearance, A Woman Disappeared From A Group Hike And Was Never Seen Again. He says prosecutors should have pressed for manslaughter charges because Macchiarini had no evidence that the tracheas he implanted would develop into normally functioning organs. They should be. You can see this in the speed with which his breakthroughs were accepted. There was another reason to be daunted too: historical assumptions that tracheas werent transplantable. We will send you a maximum of two emails in, We will be in touch to remind you to contribute. American Catherine Serou sent her mother a text that read, I hope Im not being abducted., Benita Found Her Dream Man But He Lied About Everything & Left Death In His Wake, Benita Alexander had no way of knowing that, by the end of her love story, her heart would be broken and many of Paolos patients who received the , Shakira Could Face 8 Years In Prison For Tax Fraud In Spain, What To Know About Reality Star Jen Shah's Wire Fraud Case, Tejano Music Queen Selena Was Shot To Death By The President Of Her Fan Club, 29-Year-Old Woman Arrested After Enrolling In New Jersey High School, American College Student In The Netherlands Stalked And Killed By Man She Met On Tinder, Iowa College Student Allegedly Faked Cancer Diagnosis, Scammed Hundreds, Italian Surgeon Accused Of Operating Inappropriately Gets Conditional Sentence, True Crime News Roundup: Elderly Man Missing For Months Found Dead In Trash Can Outside His Home, True Crime News Roundup: Prince Andrew Stripped Of Military Titles After Judge Allows Sex Abuse Case To Proceed, Student Studying Abroad In Russia Found Dead After Sending Her Mother Troubling Text, An Alabama Woman Disappeared After Her Boyfriend Dropped Her Off At Home, Have You Seen Semaj Goodwine? Likewise the secretary-general of the Nobel Committee. Read More: Where is Benita Alexander Now? 2023 Guardian News & Media Limited or its affiliated companies. We have, for example, a growing list of scientific celebrities who have committed major stem cell fraud. A review of public records in Italy found that Paolo was never divorced from Emanuela Pecchia, his wife of nearly 30 years. Macchiarini gave his regenerating windpipes to 17 or more patients worldwide. A High-Flying Italian Surgeons Fall From Grace, https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/17/world/europe/macchiarini-windpipe-surgeon-deaths.html. When the blood vessels were finally connected, the donor trachea began bleeding. One biomedical researcher has documented a total of 20 tracheal regeneration procedures by Macchiarini in Russia, Spain, Britain, and the United States, as well as Sweden. His findings at the time concluded that Dr. Macchiarini had committed scientific misconduct, but this was ultimately ignored by the universitys leadership who chose to clear the Italian surgeon. Thousands of people in the United States alone develop trachea problems each year from burns, birth defects, tumors and extended intubation on ventilators. One of these is the hype surrounding stem cells. While there isnt enough data to actually prove this, we do have some key indicators. Jakarta 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. Andemariam Beyene met up with Macchiarini in Iceland a year after his operation but later died Two more patients were also given transplants at the Karolinska
