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, in a 2013 photo, implanted synthetic windpipes into multiple patients; all but one died following complications with the implants. They didnt even seek the approval of Stockholms ethical review board, which is based at Karolinska. In April 2017, the university terminated his project. 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. Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in: You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Ohio Most protagonists on medical dramas are modern-day heroes. The court said the penalty was a suspended sentence, but did not specify how long the sentence would be if imposed. Their devastating documentary, which aired in January 2016, led KI officials to reopen the investigation. Macchiarinis fame had won him well-placed backers. Benita told CrimeFeed that Paolo always paid for everything and was "extremely generous." 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. 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.. Only four months after Macchiarini operated on Claudia Castillo, his results provisional but very positive were published online by the Lancet. Seven of the eight patients Paolo inserted tracheas into have died. They planned to marry in the Catholic Church in Italy. Ms. Seins trachea before, left, and her new transplanted trachea. In their view, he was grossly misrepresenting his results and the health of his patients. 2023 Warner Bros. 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. 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. It relieved a little bit of burden from him.. Sorry we couldn't set a reminder for you this time. The idea is that scientific progress is driven by the genius of a few. Macchiarini gave his regenerating windpipes to 17 or more patients worldwide. 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. Thereafter it was all over the news. I can breathe, she was amazed to discover. Death season three hopes telling her story will protect A version of this story appeared in Science, Vol 376, Issue 6600. Every patient had another, nonlethal option, Pierre Delaere, a trachea expert at KU Leuven and an early critic of Macchiarini, said in an email to Science. Its kind of a marginal substitute, and many patients need further interventions to maintain their airways.. Delaeres damning criticisms appeared in major medical journals, including the Lancet, but werent taken seriously by Karolinskas leadership. This argument didnt wash with those who later investigated the case. 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. Subscribe to News from Science for full access to breaking news and analysis on research and science policy. Florida 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. 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.. 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. Dr. Genden said Dr. Macchiarinis rise and fall profoundly affected his own path. In early 2014, four Karolinska doctors defied the reigning culture of silence by complaining about Macchiarini. 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? Photographs document Ms. Seins trachea transformation: Her old windpipe looks raw and red, her new one smooth as porcelain. (The patient who survived had the implant removed.). Brave CF Because immunosuppressant drugs are required to prevent rejection of the transplant, cancer patients would be eligible only if free of cancer for five years, Dr. Genden said. 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. Change). We have estimated Paolo Macchiarini's net worth , money, salary, income, and assets. His net worth has been growing significantly in 2021-2022. Every year, it gives science a show-business makeover, picking out from the mass of medical researchers those individuals deserving of superstardom. I didnt want the fairy tale to end., Alexander also hired a private investigator, a former Pennsylvania State Police detective named Frank Murphy. 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. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. No one wanted to collaborate with me. Help News from Science publish trustworthy, high-impact stories about research and the people who shape it. Change), You are commenting using your Twitter account. They reopened the case in 2020, this time charging Macchiarini on lesser counts of aggravated assault and severe bodily harm. This thing came to life, Dr. Genden marveled, and we were like, Holy smokes, weve done it.. They should be. Plus: NYC sixth-grader struck and killed by stray bullet; New Hampshire police search for person of interest in double homicide; Fyre Festival fraudster released early from prison; and manhunt continues for escaped Texas prisoner. Acquittal is therefore difficult to defend., But Gerdin says the verdict is not unexpected. Unfortunately, though, she reportedly succumbed to her underlying disease in January of 2012. California He was one of the best con men I have ever come across. I could feel it in my lungs.. A panel of judges unanimously ruled that the interventions were not in accordance with science and proven experience, according to a statement released today. 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. Macchiarini had often boasted to Alexander of his famous friends. KI commissioned surgeon Bengt Gerdin, a professor emeritus at Uppsala University, to investigate the issue. 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. That meant the donor trachea was accompanied by a blood supply that Dr. Genden connected to Ms. Seins blood vessels. Thats something that was new to us, so we need to analyze that, Lundstrm-Kron says. And fooled almost everyone. Also, in such a highly competitive environment, people are keen to show allegiance to their superiors and wary of criticising them. The grant ended in spring 2017. He could see no real evidence that the windpipe scaffolds were becoming living, functioning airways in which case, they were destined to fail. It is thus likely she has since passed away. Macchiarinis argument that KI fully supported and encouraged the surgeries likely swayed the judges as well, he says. 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 understood how difficult her life had become. 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. Colorado In other countries, more of Macchiarinis patients died after receiving one of his artificial windpipes. 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. Read More: Where is Benita Alexander Now? Gretchen Vogel is a contributing correspondent for Science magazine based in Berlin, Germany. We have, for example, a growing list of scientific celebrities who have committed major stem cell fraud. North Carolina It would be a star-studded event. In September 2020, Swedish prosecutors announced charges against him for aggravated assault in connection to three surgeries that he had performed at the. The official report into the matter dubbed this the bandwagon effect. There Was Nothing Anybody Could Do for These Patients. Now There Is. New York Philippines Get more great content like this delivered right to you! Even the jewelry he had given her was I wasnt lying exactly, just A genius is a revolutionary by definition, a risk-taker and a law-breaker. It showed department heads and colleagues that they should give Macchiarini special treatment.He could do pretty much as he pleased. Paolo Macchiarini Macchiarini, they claimed, wasnt really doing clinical research. Born in 1984, Zhadyra Iglikova suffered from tracheostomy following a car accident. 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. Called Experimenten (The Experiments), it argued convincingly that Macchiarinis artificial windpipes were not the life-saving wonders wed all been led to believe. Which left a big, burning question in the air: if Macchiarini was a pathological liar in matters of love, what about his medical research? Paolo grew close to Alexander's daughter [Investigation Discovery], He was incredibly charming, worldly smart, sophisticated, and seemed very gentle," Benita told CrimeFeed. He additionally claimed that former patients also included Bill and Hillary Clinton, and thenPresident Obama. In his case, his stem cells were seeded into the airway just hours before it was implanted into him, making it work perfectly fine. The answer came only a couple of weeks later, when Swedish television began broadcasting a three-part expos of Macchiarini and his work. 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. 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.CreditSarah Blesener for The New York Times. That drama began about a decade ago when Dr. Paolo Macchiarini, working at Swedens famed Karolinska Institute, garnered headlines and accolades for replacing damaged tracheas with plastic tubes seeded with patients stem cells that he cultivated in devices called bioreactors. Paolo Macchiarini - Wikipedia However, Swedish TV reporters also decided to take a close look at Macchiarinis work. The felony conviction means Macchiarini would have a hard time finding employment again in Sweden, Gerdin says. Likewise the whole idea of a wedding: Macchiarini was still married to his wife of 30 years. Previously considered a pioneer for using both biological and synthetic scaffolds 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 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. Disgraced Italian surgeon convicted of criminal harm to stem cell Benita Alexander and Paolo Macchiarini in Venice, Italy [Investigation Discovery]. Michigan Paolo Macchiarini was amazingly accomplished, stunningly successful, and fabulously rich. But in October 2017, the attorney general's office announced that a crime could not be proven, because the patients might have died anyway. Investigations by the hospital and the Karolinska Institute revealed that issues with Dr. Macchiarinis work had been covered up. 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. How did the GameStop stock spike on Wall Street happen? Discovery, Inc. or its subsidiaries and affiliates. Emanuela Pecchia (Paolo Macchiarani's Wife), Bio, Age & More 2023 Guardian News & Media Limited or its affiliated companies. She says she feels she has been given a chance of being alive one more time.. Her ex-husband John was dying of cancer. Paolo Macchiarini biography: 13 things about Italian thoracic Benita Alexander wearing a wig as she tracked down Paolo in Barcelona [Investigation Discovery]. He was born in Basel, Switzerland to Italian parents. 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. The couple had traveled extensively, but there were a 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. Benita Alexander thought that she was living a real-life fairy tale when she met her fianc, Paolo Macchiarini. Paolo was a world-renowned surgeon who spoke six languages, mingled with the global elite, and resembled George Clooney. Any woman would swoon for such a catch! What Is Benita Alexander Doing Now? She Was Conned 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. He was one of the best con-men I have ever come across, he added. Los Angeles 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. The story portrayed Macchiarini, who was already married at the time, as a serial fabulist who exaggerated or lied about degrees, academic appointments, and 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. The only question was how long it would take weeks, months or a few years. "Maybe it happened because I am a journalist, and once I sort of woke up and put my journalist hat back on, I could expose him," she said. The next morning, with the donor and Ms. Sein in adjacent rooms, a team of over 50 medical personnel assembled. Source: ABC Article continues below advertisement His relationship with Benita, Donald Trump By June 2013, when Paolo took Benita to Venice, Italy, for a romantic weekend, she knew she was falling madly in love. With Macchiarinis exploits endorsed by management and breathlessly reported in the media, it was all too easy to jump on that bandwagon. Emanuela Pecchia [Paolo Macchiarini Wife] Biography, 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.
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