Read More: Where is Benita Alexander Now? If there is a moral to this tale, its that we need to be wary of medical messiahs with their promises of salvation. 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. Instead of stripping the cells from donor windpipes, Macchiarini had plastic scaffolds made to order. He opened and cleaned out the donors esophagus, laying it against Ms. Seins esophagus. We were doing good research, but it didnt matter I thought I was going to lose my lab, my staff everything.. By June 2013, when Paolo took Benita to Venice, Italy, for a romantic weekend, she knew she was falling madly in love. 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. Andemariam Beyene, for instance, had recurrent cancer of the windpipe but, aside from a cough, was still in good health. Born in 1984, Zhadyra Iglikova suffered from tracheostomy following a car accident. The Karolinska Institute was seduced by Macchiarini, Gerdin told the newspaper. 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. Dont yet have access? After being dismissed from the institute, he worked at the Kazan Federal University in Kazan, Russia. Most, including Andemariam Beyene, are now dead. Paolo Macchiarinis income source is mostly from being a successful . As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. (LogOut/ Colleagues accused him of manipulating his results, even warning of the harm caused by these so-called regenerative windpipes. (The patient who survived had the implant removed.). However, its imperative to mention that the doctor has only been criminally found guilty of causing bodily harm to a single patient he operated on in Sweden back in 2011 two other charges of assault were dismissed. 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. 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. Those few patients who are still alive including Castillo have survived in spite of the artificial windpipes they received. Every year, it gives science a show-business makeover, picking out from the mass of medical researchers those individuals deserving of superstardom. Although the difference in his birthplace, he is known to be an Italian by his nationality. Prosecutors asked for a five-year prison sentence for Macchiarinis liability in Cetirs bodily injury, but a Swedish court instead gave him a suspended sentence this June, deciding that he hadnt intended to cause the patients harm, according to BBC News. Macchiarini was fired in 2016 amid allegations of fraud and scientific misconduct after many of his transplant recipients died. Because mucus would clog her tube, she was constantly suctioning, constantly worried about her airway, and it becomes overwhelming, Dr. Genden said, like being held down in a swimming pool. For Ms. Sein, the procedure was a long-sought dream. Countless news stories declared it a medical breakthrough. She received another implant at the University College Hospital in London in 2011, after which she was able to be discharged. The maximum prison sentence for causing bodily harm is 4 years. He convinced the Karolinska Institute that this could make them famous, and they just let him do it. Photographs document Ms. Seins trachea transformation: Her old windpipe looks raw and red, her new one smooth as porcelain. At the time, Macchiarini was working at Swedens Karolinska Institute, which awards the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine every year. If the sins of Karolinska have been committed elsewhere, it is partly because medical research facilities share a common milieu, which harbours common dangers. Prosecutors dropped the case a few months later, however, saying they didnt have sufficient evidence to prove manslaughter. 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 operations were hailed at the time as a breakthrough in regenerative medicine, although some observers remained skeptical. She considered backing out. But it did not work, and a court in Sweden has found him criminally liable for the harm The court said the penalty was a suspended sentence, but did not specify how long the sentence would be if imposed. But because Macchiarini is apparently living in Spain, its unlikely to have much effect. 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. Delaere was one of the earliest and harshest critics of Macchiarinis engineered airways. 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. With his methods still under fire in the West, he continues to work in Russia. 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. By the time the program aired, in mid-2014, the couple were planning their marriage. In early 2014, four Karolinska doctors defied the reigning culture of silence by complaining about Macchiarini. Change), You are commenting using your Facebook account. Brazilian MMA fighters 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. Then, in October of 2009, another woman, who had been operated on by Paolo twice before, received her airway transplant. 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. Benita traveled to Paolo's Barcelona home with two friends and a video camera. She was wearing a blonde wig, and her nervous laughter is audible on the video they shot. Turn on desktop notifications for breaking stories about interest? And investigations by both institute and the hospital found coverups regarding Macchiarinis work. "I have to tell people. Alexander started a problem with the specialist at this time. In 2019, an Italian court said he had forged documents and abused his position, charges unrelated to his trachea work. The felony conviction means Macchiarini would have a hard time finding employment again in Sweden, Gerdin says. They reopened the case in 2020, this time charging Macchiarini on lesser counts of aggravated assault and severe bodily harm. She received another WebIn reality, Paolo had not worked with the Pope, and he was still married to his wife of 30 years. 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? 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. I dont want to live like this, she concluded. The procedure involved replacing a damaged trachea with a plastic replica that had been soaked in the patients stem cells. However, behind closed doors, Dr. Macchiarini was hiding a secret the procedures were not working. As Grinnemo recalls, it nearly destroyed his career: I didnt receive any new grants. Team Lakay Why are people hesitant to trust a COVID-19 vaccine? He convinced the Karolinska Institute that this could make them famous, and they just let him do it. Its enough to worry officials from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Now his reputation lies in tatters. We have, for example, a growing list of scientific celebrities who have committed major stem cell fraud. Here are 13 more things about him: He married Pecchia in 1986. He was handsome, suave, and a charmer. KI officials let him do this. 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. 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. Likewise the whole idea of a wedding: Macchiarini was still married to his wife of 30 years. But colleagues suspected that Macchiarini was manipulating his results. So, as per the last reports, he is alive and well today. And it needs a blood supply to connect to the patients vascular system. In their view, he was grossly misrepresenting his results and the health of his patients. Its actually meaningless for him, Gerdin says. 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. A life-saver and a game-changer. Benita Alexander thought that she was living a real-life fairy tale when she met her fianc, Paolo Macchiarini. Delaeres damning criticisms appeared in major medical journals, including the Lancet, but werent taken seriously by Karolinskas leadership. 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. Benita Alexander Before their wedding, the 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. How we can build a clean and renewable future. 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.. 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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. We now know that wasnt true. Emanuela Pecchia has been married to Paolo Macchiarini for over 30 years. 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. 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 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. Border crisis: Whats happening at the US-Mexico border? Dr. Paolo Macchiarini became a star by creating a bioartificial windpipe. What comes next after Texas school shooting? The next morning, with the donor and Ms. Sein in adjacent rooms, a team of over 50 medical personnel assembled. Macchiarinis argument that KI fully supported and encouraged the surgeries likely swayed the judges as well, he says. They allowed Macchiarini to continue his work as a visiting professor with a research lab. How did the GameStop stock spike on Wall Street happen? In their view, Macchiarini was certainly engaged in clinical research. Thereafter it was all over the news. Emanuela Pecchia is married to Paolo Macchiarini for over 30 years. 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. The coronavirus pandemic will most likely create more cases because many Covid-19 patients have needed weeks on ventilators. His operation was on June 9, 2011, at the Karolinska University Hospital, where he received the upgraded plastic trachea made at University College London. Even the jewelry he had given her was His lawyer did not respond to emails from Science today. The answer came only a couple of weeks later, when Swedish television began broadcasting a three-part expos of Macchiarini and his work. Not only that, they later covered it up.. Thailand Paolo Macchiarini, in a 2013 photo, implanted synthetic windpipes into multiple patients; all but one died following complications with the implants. 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. Colorado The verdict is the latest development in Macchiarinis stunning fall from grace. Macchiarinis fall was swift, but troubling questions remain about why he was allowed to continue his experiments for so long. They recently published an article in the New England Journal of Medicine admitting that stem cell research has mostly failed to live up to its therapeutic promise. Get more great content like this delivered right to you! Remembering George Floyd: A year of protest. On Jan. 12, Dr. Genden got a call: An appropriate donor had died. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. 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. No one is more powerless than a patient with a disease, said Dr. Gerdin. 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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." The pope, the palace, the world leaders, the famous tenor they were all fantasies. So did Karolinskas dean of research. 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. Since this was radically new, Macchiarini and his colleagues should have tested it on animals first. In 2018, KI finally released the findings of its second investigation, which confirmed he had committed misconduct. Called Experimenten (The Experiments), it argued convincingly that Macchiarinis artificial windpipes were not the life-saving wonders wed all been led to believe. February 28, 2022 Emanuela Pecchia is famously known as the wife of popular Swiss-born Italian thoracic surgeon, Paolo Macchiarini. Talking about her spouse Paolo, he became infamous for research fraud and manipulative behavior. 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. Today, Ms. Sein, 56, dances and plays tag with her grandchildren and plans to resume working, possibly as an acupuncturist. As it turned out, Macchiarinis patients werent all at deaths door at the time he treated them. China As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. A version of this story appeared in Science, Vol 376, Issue 6600. Dr. Paolo Macchiarini at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm in 2013. Powered by WordPress.com VIP. One of these is the hype surrounding stem cells. Dr. Genden said some scientists told him Youre out of your mind because trying a transplant would risk his reputation. Paolo Macchiarini at a press conference in 2008. Only four months after Macchiarini operated on Claudia Castillo, his results provisional but very positive were published online by the Lancet. Change), You are commenting using your Twitter account. The fact that he could keep all the details straight and compartmentalize these different lives and lies is really amazing.. Journals retracted several of his studies. 2023 American Association for the Advancement of Science. Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in: You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. As of late March, 6.5 percent of cells in the donor trachea were hers, with the proportion increasing, he said. Los Angeles 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. But, we now know that the success of this operation was a lie, and the complications she suffered because of it were kept under wraps for a really long time. Discovery, Inc. or its subsidiaries and affiliates. Benita was loyal to and supported Paolo when his professional life took a dark turn. Or rather, his celebrity status helped him do so. 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. 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. Benita told CrimeFeed that Paolo always paid for everything and was "extremely generous." Selena died in a hospital due to a loss of blood and cardiac arrest, two weeks before her 24th birthday. Macchiarini was turning the dream of regenerative medicine into a reality. Macchiarinis lawyer declined to comment to Swedish media today about whether his client would appeal. So in 2010, Paolo operated on her at the National Research Center of Surgery in Moscow. From that moment on, she made a proposal to Paolo Macchiarini, and Dateline planned to publish the story. The Karolinska University Hospital in Stockholm. 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. ONE Super Series Award-winning documentary-maker Benita Alexander was swept off her feet by renowned Italian doctor Paolo Macchiarini in 2013 while she was working on a story about his pioneering medical work. It is also unclear whether the verdict Thursday will have an impact in other jurisdictions where Dr. Macchiarini conducted windpipe operations. 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. Macchiarini, they claimed, wasnt really doing clinical research. 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. Benita Alexander and Paolo Macchiarini [Investigation Discovery]. If the Pope was planning to marry two divorcees, surely it would be huge global news? That meant the donor trachea was accompanied by a blood supply that Dr. Genden connected to Ms. Seins blood vessels. All rights reserved. All rights reserved. They exchange their vows in Italy. 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. New Jersey The plastic trachea that Yesim Cetir received disfigured her and made her last three years in life basically like torture, said Bosse Lindquist, a documentarian who broke the story in Sweden about Dr. Macchiarini in a television series, The Experiment.. But, he added, Its an indirect technique. It takes time and can replace only the tracheas halfpipe side, so its not a complete tube.. Paolo then came across Andemariam Teklesenbet Beyene, a man from Eritrea who was training to be a doctor when he got diagnosed with cancer. Yet because of the ensuing complications, she had to receive a tracheoplasty in April 2011 and another cadaveric trachea graft in 2018. 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. The apparent success of Ms. Seins operation is also notable because the trachea field has been rocked for years by a sensational scandal. He understood how difficult her life had become. Paolo Macchiarini was amazingly accomplished, stunningly successful, and fabulously rich. 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.. Some of them have been successful, but theyre cumbersome in different ways and theyre not a trachea, Dr. Patterson said. Illinois 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.