There are people who go to jail for 5 years for not paying their taxes. According to the Karolinska Institutes timeline of the Macchiarini case, the institute recruited Macchiarini as a visiting professor of regenerative medicine/stem cell biology in 2010, and the associated Karolinska University Hospital gave him a part-time contract as a consultant and surgeon around the same time. 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. The answer came only a couple of weeks later, when Swedish television began broadcasting a three-part expos of Macchiarini and his work. Thailand I can breathe, she was amazed to discover. Euan Ward reported from London, and Christina Anderson from Bastad, Sweden. He officially cleared Macchiarini of scientific misconduct, allowing merely that hed sometimes acted without due care. For other cases, though, doctors say the approach seems promising. Donald Trump LONDON It sounded like real-life science fiction a 3-D printed organ, a groundbreaking artificial windpipe, built in a laboratory and made to order. 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. This is how NBCs Meredith Vieira put it in her documentary about Macchiarini, appropriately called A Leap of Faith: Just imagine a world where any injured or diseased organ or body part you have is simply replaced by a new artificial one, literally manmade in the lab, just for you. This marvelous world was now within reach, thanks to Macchiarini. Called Experimenten (The Experiments), it argued convincingly that Macchiarinis artificial windpipes were not the life-saving wonders wed all been led to believe. 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 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. Florida The verdict is the latest development in Macchiarinis stunning fall from grace. But on Thursday, the surgeon, Dr. Paolo Macchiarini, was found criminally liable by a Swedish court for causing felony bodily injury to a patient he had fitted with one of the windpipes at a medical university in Sweden. 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. All three patients later died. Her ex-husband John was dying of cancer. Only three are still alive as of September 2020. The maximum prison sentence for causing bodily harm is 4 years. In September 2020, Swedish prosecutors announced charges against him for aggravated assault in connection to three surgeries that he had performed at the. It showed department heads and colleagues that they should give Macchiarini special treatment.He could do pretty much as he pleased. Its like when you get on a rocket ship., At times, he felt in a dreamlike state, he said. But according to reports, Paolo cheated on his Emanuela Pecchia. Stem cell research is a hot field of science and, according to statistics, also a rather scandal-prone one. In 2013, the hospital halted future operations with synthetic trachea and opted to not extend Macchiarinis contract. In place of clinical data, there are gushing testimonials. He convinced the Karolinska Institute that this could make them famous, and they just let him do it. (LogOut/ 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. He is still licensed to practice medicine in Europe. So, as per the last reports, he is alive and well today. China 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. 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. 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. We will send you a maximum of two emails in, We will be in touch to remind you to contribute. 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. 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. Change), You are commenting using your Twitter account. Next month, she will turn 57. 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. 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Macchiarini, they claimed, wasnt really doing clinical research. Benita Alexander and Paolo Macchiarini in Venice, Italy [Investigation Discovery]. 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? As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. The story portrayed Macchiarini, who was already married at the time, as a serial fabulist who exaggerated or lied about degrees, academic appointments, and 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). A White House source confirmed that Bill Clinton had never met Paolo. Pennsylvania Team Lakay 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. You can see this in the speed with which his breakthroughs were accepted. Paolo Macchiarini, in a 2013 photo, implanted synthetic windpipes into multiple patients; all but one died following complications with the implants. 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. Investigations by the hospital and the Karolinska Institute revealed that issues with Dr. Macchiarinis work had been covered up. 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. 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. 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. But that day is always postponed. But as the big day approached, Alexander saw these plans unravel, and finally realised that her lover had lied about almost everything. He performed a synthetic trachea transplant on, In 2013, he met documentary television producer. Its kind of a marginal substitute, and many patients need further interventions to maintain their airways.. Allegations also emerged that the risky procedure was performed on at least one person who was not critically ill at the time. A good example is the NBC documentary A Leap of Faith. And fooled almost everyone. 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. In April 2017, the university terminated his project. They didnt even seek the approval of Stockholms ethical review board, which is based at Karolinska. At first, they just connected as friends. Gerdin determined that Macchiarini committed scientific misconduct, but leadership at the Karolinska Institute ignored the findings and cleared Macchiarini. It is also unclear whether the verdict Thursday will have an impact in other jurisdictions where Dr. Macchiarini conducted windpipe operations. 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. The couple had traveled extensively, but there were a They also questioned whether Macchiarini had obtained proper ethical permission for the surgeries and challenged a paper describing animal experiments with the technique. The fact that he could keep all the details straight and compartmentalize these different lives and lies is really amazing.. However, Swedish TV reporters also decided to take a close look at Macchiarinis work. 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. He reportedly lied on his CV and research papers to trick patients, causing almost all those who received his inventive trachea transplants (using their own bone marrow cells for organ functionality) to lose their lives. 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. Almost immediately after she was fitted with a synthetic trachea in August 2012, Ms. Cetirs condition began to rapidly deteriorate, according to the courts written judgment. Stem-cell scientist Dr. Paolo Macchiarini was accused of wrongdoing during operations on three people between 2011 and 2014. Sadly, she passed away soon after her second implant. Nor did they impress the institutes ethics council when Delaere lodged a formal complaint. Besides which, compassionate concerns dont override the basic principles of patient safety and informed consent. California 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. New York 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. On the contrary, they seemed to do more harm than good something that Macchiarini had for years concealed or downplayed in his scientific articles, press releases and interviews. How we can build a clean and renewable future. 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. In the first couple of years at Karolinska, he put plastic airways into three patients. Macchiarini shot to prominence back in 2008, when he created a new airway for Claudia Castillo, a young woman from Barcelona. Washington Sonia Sein, outside her Bronx home, had irreparable damage to her trachea. Selena died in a hospital due to a loss of blood and cardiac arrest, two weeks before her 24th birthday. But the vice-chancellor of Karolinska Institute, Anders Hamsten, wasnt bound by this judgement. But when Dr. Sander S. Florman, director of Mount Sinais Transplantation Institute, and LiveOnNY, a nonprofit organ donation organization, agreed to collaborate, his wife, Audrey, encouraged him. Dressed in a white lab coat or in surgical scrubs, with his broad, handsome face and easy charm, he certainly looked the part. Jakarta Dr. Paolo Macchiarini became a star by creating a bioartificial windpipe. ONE Championship Chief judge Bjoern Skaensberg said the court agreed that Macchiarinis operations were not consistent with science and proven experience, but the court determined that two of the interventions were justifiable.. We have estimated Paolo Macchiarini's net worth , money, salary, income, and assets. Macchiarinis lawyer declined to comment to Swedish media today about whether his client would appeal. Probationwtf.he killed people knowing damn well that his trachea was bs! The secret sauce in his approach, he said, is transplanting not just the donor trachea but also its attached esophagus (food tube), thyroid gland and thyroid arteries. Benita told CrimeFeed that Paolo always paid for everything and was "extremely generous." Macchiarini, who denied the charges against him, wasnt directly accused of killing any of the three patients. 2nd Impeachment Trial: What this could mean for Trump, Presidential transition of power: Examined, How Donald Trump spent his last days as president, How Joe Biden's inauguration will be different from previous years, Trump challenges the vote and takes legal action, 2020s DNC and RNC are different than any before, Power Trip: Those Who Seek Power and Those Who Chase Them, Leave No Trace: A Hidden History of the Boy Scouts, Keeper of the Ashes: The Oklahoma Girl Scout Murders, The Orphans of COVID: America's Hidden Toll, X / o n e r a t e d - The Murder of Malcolm X and 55 Years to Justice, Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information. It is fitting that Macchiarinis career unravelled at the Karolinska Institute. Brave CF The court had to apply the intentional indifference standard for the assault charges, he says, which is difficult to prove. In 2019, an Italian court said he had forged documents and abused his position, charges unrelated to his trachea work. She received another He was born in Basel, Switzerland to Italian parents. A version of this story appeared in Science, Vol 376, Issue 6600. The couple set a date: July 11, 2015. 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. Eduard Folayang The Italian surgeon and his Italian wife Emanuela Pecchia have one son and one daughter. All but one died following severe complications with the implants. It would be a star-studded event. Mieke Oorts alleged killer used a GPS tracking device to stalk her and would drive up and down the road where she lived to intimidate her. In 2017, Paolo worked at a university in Russia, where he was given a federal grant for oesophagus research on primates, and operated on baboons rather than humans. 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. Countless news stories declared it a medical breakthrough. Read More: Where is Benita Alexander Now? It won Dr. Macchiarini international news coverage and cemented his place as a celebrity scientist. It is thus likely she has since passed away. These included Harriet Wallberg, who was the vice-chancellor of the Karolinska Institute in 2010, when Macchiarini was recruited. 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. A life-saver and a game-changer. It did much the same for Macchiarinis windpipe replacements. But for now, lets focus solely on his medical patients, shall we? They allowed Macchiarini to continue his work as a visiting professor with a research lab. Emanuela Pecchia is married to Paolo Macchiarini for over 30 years. His recovery put Macchiarini on the front page of the New York Times. The apparent success of Ms. Seins operation is also notable because the trachea field has been rocked for years by a sensational scandal. This set a dangerous example. Please make a tax-deductible gift today. The next morning, with the donor and Ms. Sein in adjacent rooms, a team of over 50 medical personnel assembled. The procedure involved replacing a damaged trachea with a plastic replica that had been soaked in the patients stem cells. If the sins of Karolinska have been committed elsewhere, it is partly because medical research facilities share a common milieu, which harbours common dangers. But even if his days had been numbered, this didnt necessarily justify what Macchiarini put him through. In 2017, after another hospital said everything possible had been tried, she felt desperate. Singapore The university board was dismissed and even Harriet Wallberg, whod moved on to become the chancellor for all Swedish universities, lost her job. 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." Bangkok Records show that even with his implant failing, Andemariam was able to complete his Ph.D. before his demise in January 2013. However, behind closed doors, Dr. Macchiarini was hiding a secret the procedures were not working. 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. Sorry we couldn't set a reminder for you this time. However, he eventually found out about his previous associations. Claudia Castillo with Dr Paolo Macchiarini. Although all three patients eventually died, Dr. Macchiarini was not directly accused of killing them. Thats what our experience of medical research leads us to suspect. Help News from Science publish trustworthy, high-impact stories about research and the people who shape it. Paolo then came across Andemariam Teklesenbet Beyene, a man from Eritrea who was training to be a doctor when he got diagnosed with cancer. 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.