A White House source confirmed that Bill Clinton had never met Paolo. They also cited a loophole known as compassionate use. The official report into the matter dubbed this the bandwagon effect. Even so, it wasnt until 2016 that the Karolinska Institute declined to renew his contract. 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. 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. You cant justify doing experimental surgery and immunosuppression when you see something else that looks perfect, so you realize, wow, were out of business., As Dr. Macchiarinis work drew criticism, Dr. Genden revived his idea, but was uncertain about trying it. The Macchiarini scandal claimed many of his powerful friends. In the months and years following their respective surgeries, all of them except Dmitri Onogda have passed away due to post-operative complications. Other witnesses contradicted that, arguing that with Andemariams slow-growing cancer, minor surgeries and other treatments could have kept him alive. Dr. Delaere developed another innovative method, performed on nine patients so far: implanting a section of donor trachea in a patients forearm for weeks until it develops blood vessels and can replace part of the patients trachea. 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. They didnt. Beyenes death two and a half years after the operation, caused by the failure of his artificial airway, was a grueling ordeal. But the vice-chancellor of Karolinska Institute, Anders Hamsten, wasnt bound by this judgement. This guy mutilated people., Between 2011 and 2014, Macchiarini implanted artificial windpipes in at least eight patients in Sweden, the United States, and Russia. ONE Championship All rights reserved. However, he eventually found out about his previous associations. All but one died following severe complications with the implants. I had a brave face, but I was scared, Ms. Sein said. Some answers have emerged from the official inquiries into the Karolinska Institute and the Karolinska University hospital. On May 13, Alexander left her job. The scandal meant theres an amazing amount of scrutiny, he said. Although the difference in his birthplace, he is known to be an Italian by his nationality. Benita Alexander and Paolo Macchiarini [Investigation Discovery]. When Macchiarini accused one of them, Karl-Henrik Grinnemo, of stealing his work in a grant application, Hamsten found him guilty. Paolo then came across Andemariam Teklesenbet Beyene, a man from Eritrea who was training to be a doctor when he got diagnosed with cancer. That's when, Benita said, it hit her: She had given up a good job and spent $50,000 on a "bogus fantasy wedding" to a man who already had at least two families. 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. If there is a moral to this tale, its that we need to be wary of medical messiahs with their promises of salvation. She has since had the synthetic trachea removed. Stem cell clinics have sprung up like weeds, offering to treat just about any ailment you can name. 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. 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. The procedure involved replacing a damaged trachea with a plastic replica that had been soaked in the patients stem cells. His operation was on June 9, 2011, at the Karolinska University Hospital, where he received the upgraded plastic trachea made at University College London. No, he was just caring for his patients who were, one and all, facing certain death with no other treatment options available and no time to waste. Indonesia He has been convicted of research-related crimes in Italy and Sweden. The operation, performed at one of the worlds most prestigious medical universities, part of the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, was hailed as revolutionary. Most, including Andemariam Beyene, are now dead. Donald Trump Largely confined to her Bronx apartment, she needed home health aides and had to quit her career as a social worker for pregnant women. 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. Benita was also growing concerned about the cost of the wedding. The transplants, performed on patients from the United States and other countries, were heralded as inaugurating a regenerative medicine revolution. Tennessee Minnesota As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. But in October 2017, the attorney general's office announced that a crime could not be proven, because the patients might have died anyway. The first was a Vanity Fair article about his affair with Benita Alexander, an award-winning producer for NBC News. As he said in Experimenten: If I had the option of a synthetic trachea or a firing squad, Id choose the last option because it would be the least painful form of execution.. Thats what Macchiarini told his fiancee. In the case of Cetir, he should have known the risk of complications was higher than the expected benefit, the judges ruled. About 11 centimeters (4 inches) long, one side curves like a halfpipe, composed of cartilage rings and ligaments. 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. Its kind of a marginal substitute, and many patients need further interventions to maintain their airways.. 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. 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. Emanuela Pecchia has been married to Paolo Macchiarini for over 30 years. My wife was the one who said, If you truly believe that people are dying from this and that you could maybe make a difference, you cant just fold up and go home, he said. Macchiarini shot to prominence back in 2008, when he created a new airway for Claudia Castillo, a young woman from Barcelona. 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? 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. Guided by a high-powered microscope, he used surgical thread half the diameter of a human hair. But according to reports, Paolo cheated on his Emanuela Pecchia. So did Karolinskas dean of research. Macchiarinis argument that KI fully supported and encouraged the surgeries likely swayed the judges as well, he says. Illinois In 2010, the Italian surgeon was recruited by KIhome of the committee that awards the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. California The operations were hailed at the time as a breakthrough in regenerative medicine, although some observers remained skeptical. 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. Miss Universe 2021 Benita Alexander and Paolo Macchiarini in Venice, Italy [Investigation Discovery]. Selena died in a hospital due to a loss of blood and cardiac arrest, two weeks before her 24th birthday. As Selena ran from the room, Yolanda Saldivar shot her in the back. 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. When the blood vessels were finally connected, the donor trachea began bleeding. 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. Her friends described him as "Mr. Big" from Sex and the City. He is from Italy. This was Macchiarinis first big success. A panel of judges unanimously ruled that the interventions were not in accordance with science and proven experience, according to a statement released today. It won Dr. Macchiarini international news coverage and cemented his place as a celebrity scientist. Brave CF They should be. 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. 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. According to hospital staff, she had roughly 40 near-death experiences during this time, the judgment said. All rights reserved. I cant do this anymore, Sonia Sein told herself, her family and her doctor. 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. Probationwtf.he killed people knowing damn well that his trachea was bs! 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. New York As the home of the Nobel prize in physiology or medicine, one of its ambitions is to create scientific celebrities. Delaere was one of the earliest and harshest critics of Macchiarinis engineered airways. While there isnt enough data to actually prove this, we do have some key indicators. He additionally claimed that former patients also included Bill and Hillary Clinton, and thenPresident Obama. As of late March, 6.5 percent of cells in the donor trachea were hers, with the proportion increasing, he said. Paolo proposed to her on Christmas Day in 2013. 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. US Capitol The first person to receive one of these was Andemariam Beyene, an Eritrean doctoral student in geology at the University of Iceland. The court said the penalty was a suspended sentence, but did not specify how long the sentence would be if imposed. 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. 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. WebIn reality, Paolo had not worked with the Pope, and he was still married to his wife of 30 years. But colleagues suspected that Macchiarini was manipulating his results. 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. The couple has been married for 30 years now. You can see this in the speed with which his breakthroughs were accepted. In the first couple of years at Karolinska, he put plastic airways into three patients. The donor was a young man (identifying details are being withheld to protect privacy). All rights reserved. Dr. Genden also transplanted the cricoid, cartilage cuffing the trachea, supplanting Ms. Seins completely destroyed cricoid. Border crisis: Whats happening at the US-Mexico border? In 2019, an Italian court said he had forged documents and abused his position, charges unrelated to his trachea work. Its fascinating to rewatch as a lesson on how not to report on medical science. 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. Support for Macchiarini remained strong, even as his patients began to die. Photographs document Ms. Seins trachea transformation: Her old windpipe looks raw and red, her new one smooth as porcelain. His recovery put Macchiarini on the front page of the New York Times. Death Season 2, Mandy Moore Joins Dr. Benita was loyal to and supported Paolo when his professional life took a dark turn. 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. It relieved a little bit of burden from him.. 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. 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. 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. 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.. Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in: You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. I Googled trachea transplant and Dr. Genden popped up. Not just that, Paolo was also entangled in several other controversies. Anyone can read what you share. Paolo Macchiarinis most notable patient is Claudia Castillo. But for now, lets focus solely on his medical patients, shall we? Paolo Macchiarinis most notable patient is Claudia Castillo. Born in 1977, this Colombian living in Spain woman suffered from tuberculosis-damaged airways.