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. Italian surgeon gets his sentence appealed in Sweden case Earliest evidence of horseback riding found in eastern cowboys, Funding woes force 500 Women Scientists to scale back operations, Lawmakers offer contrasting views on how to compete with China in science, U.K. scientists hope to regain access to EU grants after Northern Ireland deal, Astronomers stumble in diplomatic push to protect the night sky, Satellites spoiling more and more Hubble images, Pablo Neruda was poisoned to death, a new forensic report suggests, Europes well-preserved bog bodies surrender their secrets, Teens leukemia goes into remission after experimental gene-editing therapy, Disgraced stem cell surgeon convicted of criminal harm, Disgraced surgeon is still publishing on stem cell therapies, Six papers by disgraced surgeon should be retracted, report concludes, Former star surgeon's disgrace rocks Swedish science. Dr. Paolo Macchiarini at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm in 2013. Some answers have emerged from the official inquiries into the Karolinska Institute and the Karolinska University hospital. From that moment on, she made a proposal to Paolo Macchiarini, and Dateline planned to publish the story. Benita Alexander and Paolo Macchiarini [Investigation Discovery]. The pope, the palace, the world leaders, the famous tenor they were all fantasies. Nevada 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. We will send you a maximum of two emails in, We will be in touch to remind you to contribute. According to Pierre Delaere, a professor of respiratory surgery at KU Leuven, Belgium, Macchiarinis experiments were bound to end badly. He hopes the immunosuppressant drugs, which can create health risks, can be reduced or even stopped if the entire graft becomes filled with Sonias cells.. Ground-breaking work on synthetic organ transplants made Paolo Macchiarini one of the most famous doctors in the world. She remained in intensive care for more than three years at Karolinska University Hospital and underwent more than 200 surgical procedures. Border crisis: Whats happening at the US-Mexico border? One was a 2-year-old girl named Hannah Warren, on whom hed operated in Peoria, IL, in 2013, according to Vanity Fair. The Italian surgeon and his Italian wife Emanuela Pecchia have one son and one daughter. They reopened the case in 2020, this time charging Macchiarini on lesser counts of aggravated assault and severe bodily harm. Disgraced surgeon Paolo Macchiarini, who faked research relating to dangerous and largely discredited tracheal transplants, has been handed a 16 month prison sentence in Italy for forging documents and abuse of office. Sonia Sein, outside her Bronx home, had irreparable damage to her trachea. In 2016, Vanity Fair published an expose on Paolo that uncovered even more damning evidence. For other cases, though, doctors say the approach seems promising. It is also unclear whether the verdict Thursday will have an impact in other jurisdictions where Dr. Macchiarini conducted windpipe operations. Dr. Macchiarini received a conditional, or suspended, sentence, and was acquitted of assault charges related to two other patients who had also received the artificial organs from him at the Swedish facility. A panel of judges unanimously ruled that the interventions were not in accordance with science and proven experience, according to a statement released today. The tube was necessary because her trachea the airway leading to the lungs had become damaged after she spent weeks on a ventilator for a severe asthma attack in 2014. Now his reputation lies in tatters. 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. Paolo Macchiarini: Surgeon convicted for fatal Swedish - BBC 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). He was handsome, suave, and a charmer. Gretchen Vogel is a contributing correspondent for Science magazine based in Berlin, Germany. He was born in Basel, Switzerland to Italian parents. 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. The vice-chancellor, Anders Hamsten, resigned. Please make a tax-deductible gift today. For Ms. Sein, the procedure was a long-sought dream. Benita Alexander wearing a wig as she tracked down Paolo in Barcelona [Investigation Discovery]. Meanwhile, Macchiarinis career soared. Apparently, her graft detached soon after, causing an infection, and because of difficulties in breathing, she had to be admitted into emergency a total of 13 times. Guided by several mentors, he delved into research and animal experiments, developing a transplant approach. The trachea has been characterized as a simple tube, but its very complex, Dr. Delaere said. KI commissioned surgeon Bengt Gerdin, a professor emeritus at Uppsala University, to investigate the issue. Although the difference in his birthplace, he is known to be an Italian by his nationality. 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. Every year, it gives science a show-business makeover, picking out from the mass of medical researchers those individuals deserving of superstardom. But hes lost his reputation, and thats more important.. At the trial, Macchiarini and his lawyer argued that the patients, with no other options, had been treated under compassionate care standards. And after hiring a private investigator, Ms Alexander found that Dr Macchiarini, pictured, was a man of more modest means living in Barcelona and that he was still married to his wife of 30 years Ms Alexander told Vanity Fair: 'I just didn't want to put two and two together. A High-Flying Italian Surgeons Fall From Grace, https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/17/world/europe/macchiarini-windpipe-surgeon-deaths.html. Paolo then came across Andemariam Teklesenbet Beyene, a man from Eritrea who was training to be a doctor when he got diagnosed with cancer. The theory was simple: let the body do most of the work. If the sins of Karolinska have been committed elsewhere, it is partly because medical research facilities share a common milieu, which harbours common dangers. There is South Koreas Hwang Woo-suk who, in 2004, falsely claimed to have created the first human embryonic stem cells by means of cloning. She told CrimeFeed that, looking back, it seemed odd to her she had not met many of Paolo's close friends in Barcelona. Learn how your comment data is processed. But colleagues suspected that Macchiarini was manipulating his results. The apparent success of Ms. Seins operation is also notable because the trachea field has been rocked for years by a sensational scandal. What's next for abortion rights in America? The idea is that scientific progress is driven by the genius of a few. Any replacement trachea must be rigid or itll collapse like a straw in a McDonalds milkshake, Dr. Genden said. This guy mutilated people., Between 2011 and 2014, Macchiarini implanted artificial windpipes in at least eight patients in Sweden, the United States, and Russia. But according to reports, Paolo cheated on his Emanuela Pecchia. 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 miracle transplants would be dead. Macchiarinis deceit was so outlandish, Vanity Fair sought the opinion of the Harvard professor Ronald Schouten, an expert on psychopaths, who gave this diagnosis-at-a-distance: Macchiarini is the extreme form of a con man. As it turned out, Macchiarinis patients werent all at deaths door at the time he treated them. 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. His operation was on June 9, 2011, at the Karolinska University Hospital, where he received the upgraded plastic trachea made at University College London. 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. By the time the program aired, in mid-2014, the couple were planning their marriage. 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. Its like when you get on a rocket ship., At times, he felt in a dreamlike state, he said. 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. 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. If as a doctor you do stupid things, then you can be charged. But the not-guilty verdicts on the other two cases highlight how the law can leave vulnerable people unprotected, he says, for example when they are facing life-and-death decisions and holding less information than their doctor. He should be given death penalty! 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. Selena died in a hospital due to a loss of blood and cardiac arrest, two weeks before her 24th birthday. The scandal meant theres an amazing amount of scrutiny, he said. He did this by chemically stripping away the cells of a windpipe taken from a deceased donor; he then seeded the bare scaffold with stem cells taken from Castillos own bone marrow. 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. So in 2010, Paolo operated on her at the National Research Center of Surgery in Moscow. 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. While many in Sweden expressed disappointment at what they saw as the leniency of the sentence, given that prosecutors had asked for five years in prison, the verdict nonetheless represented the culmination of a stunning fall from grace for a once high-flying surgeon. 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. She had subsequently undergone six major surgeries and more than 10 smaller procedures, but with all conventional approaches to address her condition exhausted, she made plans to have the tube removed and receive only palliative care. (LogOut/ Chinese balloon photos Benita Alexander on attending Paolo Macchiarinis criminal trial in Sweden Alexander said she attended Macchiarini's trial for closure, seven years after she was unknowingly caught in a fraudulent romance with him, and for justice for his patients and for their families. July 21, 2022 Examined 9:54 Whats next for Russia? 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. The Karolinska Institute, alleging scientific misconduct, dismissed Dr. Macchiarini, who has long denied wrongdoing. Thats what Macchiarini told his fiancee. As per Macchiarini told people that Barack and Michelle Obama, Bill and Hillary Clinton, Nicolas Sarkozy, and Vladimir Putin would attend the wedding, Andrea Bocelli would perform, and Pope Francis (a patient of his, or so he said) would officiate the ceremony, per Vanity Fair. But as the big day approached, Alexander saw these plans unravel, and finally realised that her lover had lied about almost everything. The different gender was important, allowing Dr. Genden to use chromosomal analysis to detect whether Ms. Seins cells populated the new trachea. He was 63 years old when he was found guilty of causing harm through negligence but not of carrying out an intentional assault and he received a probationary sentence on June 16, 2022. New Jersey Alexander admits that, at the time, she was in a vulnerable place. First Successful Trachea Transplant a Medical Milestone - The I have to expose him.". Also seduced by Macchiarini was former NBC News producer Benita Alexander, who met the surgeon in 2013 when she was working on A Leap of Faith, an NBC special about Macchiarini hosted by Meredith Vieira. But as time went on, she could not resist her connection to the dashing surgeon and she violated the number one rule of journalism: Never get involved with a person you're reporting on. If she talked for over five minutes, she had to stop because I couldnt breathe.. Sadly, she passed away soon after her second implant. Benita Alexander with one of the custom-made gowns intended for her wedding [Investigation Discovery]. The couple has been married for 30 years now. 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. As Grinnemo recalls, it nearly destroyed his career: I didnt receive any new grants. 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. Macchiarini was fired in 2016 amid allegations of fraud and scientific misconduct after many of his transplant recipients died. Another was a Russian mother named Julia Tuulik, per BBC News. But Benita stood by her man and, she said, tried to help him through a tough time. Yet because of the ensuing complications, she had to receive a tracheoplasty in April 2011 and another cadaveric trachea graft in 2018. You can see this in the speed with which his breakthroughs were accepted. 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. Your tax-deductible contribution plays a critical role in sustaining this effort. KI officials let him do this. Filipino MMA fighters Unfortunately, due to complications, she passed away either around Christmas of that year or in the first few months of 2009. In 2017, prosecutors in Sweden charged Macchiarini with manslaughter in connection with the three patients who had received transplants at KI in 2011 and 2012, all of whom had died: Andemariam Teklesenbet Beyene, a graduate student from Eritrea with a slow-growing cancer obstructing his windpipe; Christopher Lyles, a 30-year-old American with tracheal cancer; and Yesim Cetir, a teenager from Turkey whose trachea had been accidentally damaged during a previous surgery. Remembering George Floyd: A year of protest. How we can build a clean and renewable future. Washington All but one died following severe complications with the implants. By June 2013, when Paolo took Benita to Venice, Italy, for a romantic weekend, she knew she was falling madly in love. Over the years, this possibility has generated great excitement and a huge amount of research. Its actually meaningless for him, Gerdin says. Photographs document Ms. Seins trachea transformation: Her old windpipe looks raw and red, her new one smooth as porcelain. Dont yet have access? I could feel it in my lungs.. 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.. So I called and called till I got an appointment., Dr. Genden said Ms. Sein beseeched him for the transplant, saying, You need to do this for me or Im going to end my life.. But of 20 patients, including children, most ultimately died, and scientists said Dr. Macchiarini misrepresented data and exaggerated his techniques effectiveness. She considered backing out. I didnt want the fairy tale to end., Alexander also hired a private investigator, a former Pennsylvania State Police detective named Frank Murphy. From November 2011 to June 2014, Paolo Macchiarini gave transplants to Christopher Lyles, Yulia Tuulik, Alexander Zozulya, Yesim Cetir, Hannah Warren (a 3-year-old), Sadiq Kanaan, and Dmitri Onogda. If there is a moral to this tale, its that we need to be wary of medical messiahs with their promises of salvation. Its a problematic idea with unfortunate side effects. KI fired Macchiarini in March 2016, 2 months after the Swedish documentary came out. (LogOut/ Last year, however, the dream soured, exposing an ugly reality. 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 Dr. Genden also transplanted the cricoid, cartilage cuffing the trachea, supplanting Ms. Seins completely destroyed cricoid. What Is Benita Alexander Doing Now? She Was Conned Why are people hesitant to trust a COVID-19 vaccine? Support for Macchiarini remained strong, even as his patients began to die. I cant do this anymore, Sonia Sein told herself, her family and her doctor. 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. Paolo Macchiarini biography: 13 things about Italian thoracic In this episode, eyewitnesses, officials, and some of Paolos victims thus reveal how they got conned by him, with his former lover television producer Benita Alexander at the front and center. Now they were on the wedding guest list: the Obamas, the Clintons, Vladimir Putin, Nicolas Sarkozy and other world leaders. 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. Stem cell clinics have sprung up like weeds, offering to treat just about any ailment you can name. Though Macchiarini was in the public eye, he was able to sidestep the usual rules and regulations. 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. Paolo Macchiarini is exposed Reality struck Alexander's fantasy romance eight weeks before she was supposed to marry Macchiarini in 2015, when she received an email from a colleague with the subject line saying, "The Pope." They should be. Records show that even with his implant failing, Andemariam was able to complete his Ph.D. before his demise in January 2013. 2023 American Association for the Advancement of Science. 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 It would be a star-studded event. Florida But, he added, Its an indirect technique. It takes time and can replace only the tracheas halfpipe side, so its not a complete tube.. Subscribe to News from Science for full access to breaking news and analysis on research and science policy. Disgraced Italian surgeon convicted of criminal harm to stem cell It must be lined with cilia, hairlike projections like shag carpeting that move and clean the air we breathe in, he said. It sounded unbelievable, but Paolo explained to her that he had treated Pope John Paul II in the past, and had become part of a highly classified group of doctors that treated the global elite. Dr. Paolo Macchiarini became a star by creating a bioartificial windpipe. Why dont the Electoral College and popular vote always match up? A genius is a revolutionary by definition, a risk-taker and a law-breaker. Likewise the whole idea of a wedding: Macchiarini was still married to his wife of 30 years. 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She says she feels she has been given a chance of being alive one more time.. The court said the penalty was a suspended sentence, but did not specify how long the sentence would be if imposed. The donor was a young man (identifying details are being withheld to protect privacy). For their efforts, the whistleblowers were punished. Emanuela Pecchia Everything We Know On Paolo Macchiarini In September 2020, Swedish prosecutors announced charges against him for aggravated assault in connection to three surgeries that he had performed at the. In 2013, the hospital halted future operations with synthetic trachea and opted to not extend Macchiarinis contract. It showed department heads and colleagues that they should give Macchiarini special treatment.He could do pretty much as he pleased. Disgraced tracheal transplant surgeon is handed I had a brave face, but I was scared, Ms. Sein said. Allegations also emerged that the risky procedure was performed on at least one person who was not critically ill at the time. Thats something that was new to us, so we need to analyze that, Lundstrm-Kron says. But, we now know that the success of this operation was a lie, and the complications she suffered because of it were kept under wraps for a really long time. Sorry we couldn't set a reminder for you this time. He officially cleared Macchiarini of scientific misconduct, allowing merely that hed sometimes acted without due care. In January 2016, Macchiarini received an extraordinary double dose of bad press. In other countries, more of Macchiarinis patients died after receiving one of his artificial windpipes. COVID-19 He convinced the Karolinska Institute that this could make them famous, and they just let him do it. She had already spent $10,000 on engraved invitations made for a guest list that included the Obamas, the Clintons, Vladimir Putin, and Elton John. Colorado She soon went into full-on investigative journalist mode, and learned that Paolo had, yup lied about everything. The first successful direct transplant of a trachea is a medical milestone that could help thousands of people with airways damaged by ventilators and other causes. Since this was radically new, Macchiarini and his colleagues should have tested it on animals first. Thats what our experience of medical research leads us to suspect. "If I made a checklist of what I wanted a man to be, he had everything.". The Italian surgeon and his Italian wife Emanuela Pecchia have one son and one daughter. She says it may mean the judges thought he and the patients believed time was short and options were few. This went on for three years until, just recently, Grinnemo was cleared of all wrongdoing. She visits Mount Sinai weekly for blood work. Macchiarini was turning the dream of regenerative medicine into a reality. 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. Indonesia Paolo Macchiarini rode groundbreaking surgeries to global fame, but patients died anyway. The Karolinska University Hospital in Stockholm. I can breathe, she was amazed to discover. They shared a happy relationship. Thereafter it was all over the news. Called Experimenten (The Experiments), it argued convincingly that Macchiarinis artificial windpipes were not the life-saving wonders wed all been led to believe. Talking about her spouse

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