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. 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. Acquittal is therefore difficult to defend., But Gerdin says the verdict is not unexpected. All three patients later died. 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. He convinced the Karolinska Institute that this could make them famous, and they just let him do it. Philippines But even if his days had been numbered, this didnt necessarily justify what Macchiarini put him through. 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. In addition to his partner of over 30 years, he also had a special next woman. An independent investigator agreed. Born in 1977, this Colombian living in Spain woman suffered from tuberculosis-damaged airways. These included Harriet Wallberg, who was the vice-chancellor of the Karolinska Institute in 2010, when Macchiarini was recruited. 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. There was another woman from the Czech Republic with mucoepidermoid carcinoma who received such a transplant. Besides which, compassionate concerns dont override the basic principles of patient safety and informed consent. 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. And it needs a blood supply to connect to the patients vascular system. 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. Talking about her spouse 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. The grant ended in spring 2017. They reopened the case in 2020, this time charging Macchiarini on lesser counts of aggravated assault and severe bodily harm. Was he conning his patients, his colleagues and the scientific community? Thailand Paolo proposed to her on Christmas Day in 2013. Even so, it wasnt until 2016 that the Karolinska Institute declined to renew his contract. Georgia KI officials let him do this. New York She pushed through his appointment despite the fact that he had some very negative references and dubious claims on his rsum. But that day is always postponed. The answer came only a couple of weeks later, when Swedish television began broadcasting a three-part expos of Macchiarini and his work. She remained conscious and awake throughout most of them, but unable to breathe. ONE Championship Even the jewelry he had given her was fake. An alarmingly wide gap has grown between what we expect from stem cells and what they deliver. But for now, lets focus solely on his medical patients, shall we? Gretchen Vogel is a contributing correspondent for Science magazine based in Berlin, Germany. Support for Macchiarini remained strong, even as his patients began to die. Prosecutors dropped the case a few months later, however, saying they didnt have sufficient evidence to prove manslaughter. But of 20 patients, including children, most ultimately died, and scientists said Dr. Macchiarini misrepresented data and exaggerated his techniques effectiveness. Those few patients who are still alive including Castillo have survived in spite of the artificial windpipes they received. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/06/health/trachea-transplant-genden.html. COVID-19 The court had to apply the intentional indifference standard for the assault charges, he says, which is difficult to prove. What's next for abortion rights in America? Alexander started a problem with the specialist at this time. February 28, 2022 Emanuela Pecchia is famously known as the wife of popular Swiss-born Italian thoracic surgeon, Paolo Macchiarini. A White House source confirmed that Bill Clinton had never met Paolo. 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. All rights reserved. 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. He was handsome, suave, and a charmer. (The big exception is blood stem cell transplantation, which has been saving the lives of people with leukemia and other cancers of the blood for decades.). Although all three patients eventually died, Dr. Macchiarini was not directly accused of killing them. She remained in intensive care for more than three years at Karolinska University Hospital and underwent more than 200 surgical procedures. Dr. Genden said some scientists told him Youre out of your mind because trying a transplant would risk his reputation. 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. One was a 2-year-old girl named Hannah Warren, on whom hed operated in Peoria, IL, in 2013, according to Vanity Fair. She soon went into full-on investigative journalist mode, and learned that Paolo had, yup lied about everything. Thereafter it was all over the news. 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. Paolo was a world-renowned surgeon who spoke six languages, mingled with the global elite, and resembled George Clooney. Guided by several mentors, he delved into research and animal experiments, developing a transplant approach. 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. Michigan 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. Another was a Russian mother named Julia Tuulik, per BBC News. I didnt want Paolo to not be the man I believed him to be, she told Vanity Fair. Paolo stated in an interview with a TV station in Iceland that he has always acted in the patients' best interest, and believes that his procedures should be seen as successful. 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. Filipino MMA fighters A panel of judges unanimously ruled that the interventions were not in accordance with science and proven experience, according to a statement released today. She received another implant at the University College Hospital in London in 2011, after which she was able to be discharged. Other witnesses contradicted that, arguing that with Andemariams slow-growing cancer, minor surgeries and other treatments could have kept him alive. Emanuela Pecchia has been married to Paolo Macchiarini for over 30 years. 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. 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. WebIn reality, Paolo had not worked with the Pope, and he was still married to his wife of 30 years. I thought, If they do a transplant for everything, they should do a transplant for trachea, she recalled. The Karolinska Institute declined to comment for this article, noting only that Dr. Macchiarinis sentence may be appealed. In 2018, KI finally released the findings of its second investigation, which confirmed he had committed misconduct. They should be. 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. (LogOut/ 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. Paolo Macchiarinis most notable patient is Claudia Castillo. Your tax-deductible contribution plays a critical role in sustaining this effort. Though Macchiarini was in the public eye, he was able to sidestep the usual rules and regulations. I had a brave face, but I was scared, Ms. Sein said. The couple set a date: July 11, 2015. A 19-year-old Iowa college student allegedly defrauded over 400 donors after raising more than $37,000 by faking a triple cancer diagnosis. At first, they just connected as friends. Seven of the eight patients Paolo inserted tracheas into have died. He has been convicted of research-related crimes in Italy and Sweden. 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 Selena ran from the room, Yolanda Saldivar shot her in the back. On Jan. 12, Dr. Genden got a call: An appropriate donor had died. Andrea Bocelli was to sing at the ceremony. Ground-breaking work on synthetic organ transplants made Paolo Macchiarini one of the most famous doctors in the world. The Karolinska Institute was seduced by Macchiarini, said Dr. Gerdin. He officially cleared Macchiarini of scientific misconduct, allowing merely that hed sometimes acted without due care. Meanwhile, Macchiarinis career soared. 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. Reports of their success always seemed like hot air to him. On May 13, Alexander left her job. Most protagonists on medical dramas are modern-day heroes. But because Macchiarini is apparently living in Spain, its unlikely to have much effect. Benita first met Paolo at the bar at Bostons Mandarin Oriental hotel in February 2013, when she was helping coordinate an interview for an NBC special on regenerative medicine. The fact that he could keep all the details straight and compartmentalize these different lives and lies is really amazing.. Donald Trump 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. Other trachea replacement attempts include transplanting part of a donors frozen, preserved aorta, the bodys main artery, and fabricating tracheas from patients own chest muscles and rib cartilage. Dr. Genden said Dr. Macchiarinis rise and fall profoundly affected his own path. In such dire circumstances, new treatments can be tried as a last resort. 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. Over the years, this possibility has generated great excitement and a huge amount of research. When Macchiarini accused one of them, Karl-Henrik Grinnemo, of stealing his work in a grant application, Hamsten found him guilty. As per Nevada In September 2020, Swedish prosecutors announced charges against him for aggravated assault in connection to three surgeries that he had performed at the. 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. The felony conviction means Macchiarini would have a hard time finding employment again in Sweden, Gerdin says. Death Season 2, Mandy Moore Joins Dr. 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. 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.. According to hospital staff, she had roughly 40 near-death experiences during this time, the judgment said. None have been forced to hold full and independent inquiries. 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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. There are people who go to jail for 5 years for not paying their taxes. Even the jewelry he had given her was As it was built from Claudias own cells, she didnt need to be on any risky immunosuppressant drugs. Her transformation follows a groundbreaking experimental procedure she underwent in January: the first time, medical experts believe, a donor trachea has been successfully directly transplanted into another person. The media began calling him "Dr. Frankenstein" and said that he committed "the world's biggest medical fraud.". Help News from Science publish trustworthy, high-impact stories about research and the people who shape it. There was another reason to be daunted too: historical assumptions that tracheas werent transplantable. 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 place of clinical data, there are gushing testimonials. A good example is the NBC documentary A Leap of Faith. 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. The surgeons defense attorney, Bjrn Hurtig, said his client was considering an appeal. But Benita stood by her man and, she said, tried to help him through a tough time. Macchiarini had often boasted to Alexander of his famous friends. Border crisis: Whats happening at the US-Mexico border? Her colleague had sent an article that said the pope would not be in Rome, or even Italy, on the day of their wedding. Not only that, they later covered it up.. 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? 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.. They allowed Macchiarini to continue his work as a visiting professor with a research lab. February 28, 2022 Emanuela Pecchia is famously known as the wife of popular Swiss-born Italian thoracic surgeon, Paolo Macchiarini. At the trial, Macchiarini and his lawyer argued that the patients, with no other options, had been treated under compassionate care standards. Does the heat of stem cell research the high levels of funding, prestige and media coverage it enjoys somehow encourage fraud? 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. Change), You are commenting using your Twitter account. How climate change and forest management make wildfires harder to contain, Disparity in police response: Black Lives Matter protests and Capitol riot. However, the serious complications that Castillo suffered were, for a long time, kept very quiet. In his case, his stem cells were seeded into the airway just hours before it was implanted into him, making it work perfectly fine. 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 idea is that scientific progress is driven by the genius of a few. However, Swedish TV reporters also decided to take a close look at Macchiarinis work. From that moment on, she made a proposal to Paolo Macchiarini, and Dateline planned to publish the story. Dont yet have access? So far he has not been prosecuted in any of those countries. COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) Swedish prosecutors on Wednesday appealed a sentence given to an Italian surgeon who was put on trial for causing bodily harm during experimental stem-cell windpipe transplants on three patients who died. The pope, the palace, the world leaders, the famous tenor they were all fantasies. 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.. If we've learned anything from the COVID-19 pandemic, it's that we cannot wait for a crisis to respond. 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.. 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? With his methods still under fire in the West, he continues to work in Russia. 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. The plastic trachea that Yesim Cetir received disfigured her and made her last three years in life basically like torture, Bosse Lindquist, the documentarian behind the Swedish TV series The Experiment, told the Times. Records show that even with his implant failing, Andemariam was able to complete his Ph.D. before his demise in January 2013. (LogOut/ They also cited a loophole known as compassionate use. 2023 Guardian News & Media Limited or its affiliated companies. 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.. Benita Alexander and Paolo Macchiarini [Investigation Discovery]. Therefore, on June 12, 2008, at Hospital Clinic Barcelona, she received a cadaver trachea graft implanted as a bronchus transplant. Disgraced Italian surgeon convicted of criminal harm to stem cell patient. Tennessee 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. 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. 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. On Friday Mr. Hurtig declined to comment on Paolos private affairs.. Gerdins report, released in May 2015, concluded Macchiarini was guilty of misconduct, but university administrators rejected that conclusion 3 months later, arguing Macchinarini and his co-authors had satisfactorily countered the issues Gerdin raised. Dr. Paolo Macchiarini became a star by creating a bioartificial windpipe. He additionally claimed that former patients also included Bill and Hillary Clinton, and thenPresident Obama. 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. How did the GameStop stock spike on Wall Street happen? But the judges decided that, because the initial prognoses for Andemariam and Lyles were so grim without surgery, Macchiarini could not be held criminally responsible in those cases. It would be a star-studded event. This went on for three years until, just recently, Grinnemo was cleared of all wrongdoing. But it did not work, and a court in Sweden has found him criminally liable for the harm According to the magazine, in 2012 he was charged in Italy with attempted aggravated fraud related to alleged efforts to persuade very ill patients to undergo radical surgery at facilities where he had privileges. She told CrimeFeed that, looking back, it seemed odd to her she had not met many of Paolo's close friends in Barcelona. Only four months after Macchiarini operated on Claudia Castillo, his results provisional but very positive were published online by the Lancet. We were doing good research, but it didnt matter I thought I was going to lose my lab, my staff everything.. The couple had traveled a lot, but there were some things But in October 2017, the attorney general's office announced that a crime could not be proven, because the patients might have died anyway. According to Macchiarini and his colleagues, her artificial organ was well on the way to looking and functioning liked a natural one. Last year, however, the dream soured, exposing an ugly reality. Stem-cell scientist Dr. Paolo Macchiarini was accused of wrongdoing during operations on three people between 2011 and 2014. That meant the donor trachea was accompanied by a blood supply that Dr. Genden connected to Ms. Seins blood vessels. She became close to Paolo as she opened her heart to him about how hard it was for her daughter, then nine years old, to lose her father. Jakarta The mild sentence comes as a disappointment to Macchiarinis critics. Why are people hesitant to trust a COVID-19 vaccine? Only three are still alive as of September 2020. The Italian surgeon and his Italian wife Emanuela Pecchia have one son and one daughter. Now his reputation lies in tatters. Abu Dhabi 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. 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. Ive never in my experience witnessed a fraud like this, with this level of international flair, Murphy told Vanity Fair. The couple has been married for 30 years now. As it turned out, Macchiarinis patients werent all at deaths door at the time he treated them. The Karolinska University Hospital suspended Dr. Macchiarinis contract as a surgeon in 2013, but the affiliated Karolinska Institute kept him on until 2016 even as the scandal over his work spread, according to a timeline on the institutes website. That drama began about a decade ago when Dr. Paolo Macchiarini, working at Swedens famed Karolinska Institute, garnered headlines and accolades for replacing Please make a tax-deductible gift today. Alexander admits that, at the time, she was in a vulnerable place. Few people at Karolinska, especially among those in power, knew enough about it to appreciate Delaeres claims. There he reinvented his technique. I Googled trachea transplant and Dr. Genden popped up. The official report into the matter dubbed this the bandwagon effect. It is fitting that Macchiarinis career unravelled at the Karolinska Institute. Here are 13 more things about him: Categories: biographical data, crimes, Europe, fitness & health, Italy, Lifestyle, LISTS, Russia, Social Issues, Sweden, Tagged as: Basel, Benita Alexander, Emanuela Pecchia, Paolo Macchiarini. 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. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. All but one died following severe complications with the implants. It relieved a little bit of burden from him.. But as the big day approached, Alexander saw these plans unravel, and finally realised that her lover had lied about almost everything. Any woman would swoon for such a catch! KI commissioned surgeon Bengt Gerdin, a professor emeritus at Uppsala University, to investigate the issue. Macchiarini was turning the dream of regenerative medicine into a reality. We now know that wasnt true. For Ms. Sein, the procedure was a long-sought dream. They exchange their vows in Italy. 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. The operations were hailed at the time as a breakthrough in regenerative medicine, although some observers remained skeptical. All rights reserved. After several weeks in recovery, she is home. We would have been planning my funeral, she said, but now were planning a birthday party.. Massachusetts You can see this in the speed with which his breakthroughs were accepted. 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. 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. She visits Mount Sinai weekly for blood work. About 11 centimeters (4 inches) long, one side curves like a halfpipe, composed of cartilage rings and ligaments. Although the difference in his birthplace, he is known to be an Italian by his nationality. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. Experts say this case is about what the definition of a resident is under Spanish law. 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. For other cases, though, doctors say the approach seems promising. Japan One of these is the hype surrounding stem cells.