I didnt want the fairy tale to end., Alexander also hired a private investigator, a former Pennsylvania State Police detective named Frank Murphy. The Vatican confirmed that he had never been the Pope's doctor. Prosecutors dropped the case a few months later, however, saying they didnt have sufficient evidence to prove manslaughter. They exchange their vows in Italy. If the sins of Karolinska have been committed elsewhere, it is partly because medical research facilities share a common milieu, which harbours common dangers. It did much the same for Macchiarinis windpipe replacements. However, behind closed doors, Dr. Macchiarini was hiding a secret the procedures were not working. There was another reason to be daunted too: historical assumptions that tracheas werent transplantable. Benita was also growing concerned about the cost of the wedding. Then, in October of 2009, another woman, who had been operated on by Paolo twice before, received her airway transplant. The Karolinska Institute was seduced by Macchiarini, Gerdin told the newspaper. February 28, 2022 Emanuela Pecchia is famously known as the wife of popular Swiss-born Italian thoracic surgeon, Paolo Macchiarini. Benita traveled to Paolo's Barcelona home with two friends and a video camera. How climate change and forest management make wildfires harder to contain, Disparity in police response: Black Lives Matter protests and Capitol riot. After realizing other treatment methods wouldnt help, he concluded that Ms. Sein had a logical, thoughtful grasp of transplantations risks and of her health condition. KI officials let him do this. But because Macchiarini is apparently living in Spain, its unlikely to have much effect. Paolo proposed to her on Christmas Day in 2013. The couple set a date: July 11, 2015. Macchiarini has consistently claimed he is innocent. They shared a happy relationship. He was handsome, suave, and a charmer. It showed department heads and colleagues that they should give Macchiarini special treatment.He could do pretty much as he pleased. 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. Ms. Seins trachea before, left, and her new transplanted trachea. Paolo Macchiarini at a press conference in 2008. The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City cast member was sentenced to six and a half years in prison for defrauding the elderly. According to hospital staff, she had roughly 40 near-death experiences during this time, the judgment said. The answer came only a couple of weeks later, when Swedish television began broadcasting a three-part expos of Macchiarini and his work. She considered backing out. 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. Anyone can read what you share. But it was already too late. A White House source confirmed that Bill Clinton had never met Paolo. 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. The fact that he could keep all the details straight and compartmentalize these different lives and lies is really amazing.. By June 2013, when Paolo took Benita to Venice, Italy, for a romantic weekend, she knew she was falling madly in love. Macchiarini was also charged with but acquitted of assault charges related to the deaths of two more of his artificial windpipe patients, an Eritrean man named Andemariam Beyene and an American man named Christopher Lyles, according to BBC News. After Macchiarini fitted Cetir with one of his artificial windpipes in 2012, her condition worsened. Benita told CrimeFeed that Paolo always paid for everything and was "extremely generous." Since this was radically new, Macchiarini and his colleagues should have tested it on animals first. Dr. Genden said Dr. Macchiarinis rise and fall profoundly affected his own path. Here are 13 more things about him: He married Pecchia in 1986. Benita decided to get in touch with private investigator Frank Murphy. Ground-breaking work on synthetic organ transplants made Paolo Macchiarini one of the most famous doctors in the world. Remembering George Floyd: A year of protest. A review of public records in Italy found that Paolo was never divorced from Emanuela Pecchia, his wife of nearly 30 years. Massachusetts I cant do this anymore, Sonia Sein told herself, her family and her doctor. Thereafter it was all over the news. How did the GameStop stock spike on Wall Street happen? Texas In 2016, Vanity Fair published an expose on Paolo that uncovered even more damning evidence. 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! 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. In early 2014, four Karolinska doctors defied the reigning culture of silence by complaining about Macchiarini. With Macchiarinis exploits endorsed by management and breathlessly reported in the media, it was all too easy to jump on that bandwagon. Besides which, compassionate concerns dont override the basic principles of patient safety and informed consent. (LogOut/ By the time the program aired, in mid-2014, the couple were planning their marriage. So, as per the last reports, he is alive and well today. Macchiarinis argument that KI fully supported and encouraged the surgeries likely swayed the judges as well, he says. 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. When the blood vessels were finally connected, the donor trachea began bleeding. Sonia Sein, outside her Bronx home, had irreparable damage to her trachea. She soon went into full-on investigative journalist mode, and learned that Paolo had, yup lied about everything. 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. Thats what our experience of medical research leads us to suspect. All rights reserved. WebPaolo Macchiarini Net Worth. He is still licensed to practice medicine in Europe. 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. As it was built from Claudias own cells, she didnt need to be on any risky immunosuppressant drugs. Dressed in a white lab coat or in surgical scrubs, with his broad, handsome face and easy charm, he certainly looked the part. She told CrimeFeed that, looking back, it seemed odd to her she had not met many of Paolo's close friends in Barcelona. In Macchiarinis case, the hope was that patients could be treated with stem cells taken from their own bone marrow. 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. The operations were hailed at the time as a breakthrough in regenerative medicine, although some observers remained skeptical. The other patients were treated at hospitals in Barcelona, Florence, London, Moscow, Krasnodar, Chicago and Peoria. Macchiarini was fired in 2016 amid allegations of fraud and scientific misconduct after many of his transplant recipients died. Benita Alexander and Paolo Macchiarini [Investigation Discovery]. 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We would have been planning my funeral, she said, but now were planning a birthday party.. The operation, performed at one of the worlds most prestigious medical universities, part of the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, was hailed as revolutionary. None of these institutions have faced the same kind of public scrutiny. 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. 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. The university board was dismissed and even Harriet Wallberg, whod moved on to become the chancellor for all Swedish universities, lost her job. Dr. Paolo Macchiarini became a star by creating a bioartificial windpipe. Change), You are commenting using your Twitter account. Brazilian MMA fighters Japan Stem cell brain implants could 'slow ageing and extend life', study shows, offering to treat just about any ailment you can name, Pregnant women's stem cells could treat osteoporosis, say scientists. Therefore, on June 12, 2008, at Hospital Clinic Barcelona, she received a cadaver trachea graft implanted as a bronchus transplant. New Jersey In other countries, more of Macchiarinis patients died after receiving one of his artificial windpipes. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. She has since had the synthetic trachea removed. Dmitris graft had started collapsing six months into his surgery as well, but he managed to get it successfully removed and is now living with a tracheostomy. She pushed through his appointment despite the fact that he had some very negative references and dubious claims on his rsum. 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. 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. But Benita stood by her man and, she said, tried to help him through a tough time. He should be given death penalty! Las Vegas Paolo Macchiarini is a thoracic surgeon. Your tax-deductible contribution plays a critical role in sustaining this effort. 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. All but one died following severe complications with the implants. A surgeon who just a decade ago was celebrated around the globe as a pioneer in stem cell transplants has been convicted of one count of causing bodily harm, a felony, in a Swedish court. Kevin Belingon Dr. Paolo Macchiarini at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm in 2013. As of late March, 6.5 percent of cells in the donor trachea were hers, with the proportion increasing, he said. This organ was prepared without the knowledge of authorities in a veterinary lab at the University of Bristol, but no one questioned it because of its initial success. But as the big day approached, Alexander saw these plans unravel, and finally realised that her lover had lied about almost everything. But of 20 patients, including children, most ultimately died, and scientists said Dr. Macchiarini misrepresented data and exaggerated his techniques effectiveness. 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 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. 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. 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. Allegations also emerged that the risky procedure was performed on at least one person who was not critically ill at the time. Eduard Folayang However, the serious complications that Castillo suffered were, for a long time, kept very quiet. 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. Stem cell research is a hot field of science and, according to statistics, also a rather scandal-prone one. 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 could see no real evidence that the windpipe scaffolds were becoming living, functioning airways in which case, they were destined to fail. (LogOut/ "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. In his case, his stem cells were seeded into the airway just hours before it was implanted into him, making it work perfectly fine. Paolo was a world-renowned surgeon who spoke six languages, mingled with the global elite, and resembled George Clooney. 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. 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. Bangkok 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. Experts say this case is about what the definition of a resident is under Spanish law. In the first couple of years at Karolinska, he put plastic airways into three patients. Even the jewelry he had given her was fake. The different gender was important, allowing Dr. Genden to use chromosomal analysis to detect whether Ms. Seins cells populated the new trachea. 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. 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. What's next for abortion rights in America? Gerdin determined that Macchiarini committed scientific misconduct, but leadership at the Karolinska Institute ignored the findings and cleared Macchiarini. 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. 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. The transplants, performed on patients from the United States and other countries, were heralded as inaugurating a regenerative medicine revolution. A year later, he began to implant synthetic windpipes seeded with stem cells isolated from the patients own bone marrow, claiming the cells would grow and integrate with the patients tissue. Coming from different countries including Eritrea, Spain, Russian, Iceland, Britain and the United States, 20 patients were operated on by Macchiarini, who provide them with an artificial windpipe. Ive never in my experience witnessed a fraud like this, with this level of international flair, Murphy told Vanity Fair. 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. 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. 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. Los Angeles So far he has not been prosecuted in any of those countries. As per Next month, she will turn 57.