Dr. Paolo Macchiarini made a name for himself all over the world with his stem cell-assisted tracheal transplants. But there was a problem: His patients kept dying.
A surgeon with unique abilities who broke new ground in the world of science and performed miracles... Even his photograph with his gray hair, big smile, white coat, and handsome face inspires confidence. More precisely, it gave confidence. Until it turns out that he is a fraudster who has managed to deceive everyone...
The world first met this surgeon named Paolo Macchiarini in 2008. Macchiarini became famous by transplanting an artificial trachea to a young mother named Claudia Castillo living in Barcelona. He constructed the trachea by combining the skeleton of a deceased donor's trachea with stem cells obtained from Castillo's own bone marrow.
Paolo Macchiarini (born 22 August 1958) is a thoracic surgeon and former regenerative medicine researcher who became known for research fraud and manipulative behavior. He has been convicted of research-related crimes in Italy and Sweden.
Macchiarini and Beyene
Castillo recovered in a short time returned home and began to continue his daily life where he left off. Macchiarini and his colleagues emphasized in their statements that the artificial trachea will look almost natural and will perform the functions of a real trachea. Moreover, since Castillo's own cells were used, there would be no need to use immunosuppressant drugs, which is a risk factor in transplant surgeries.
This was Macchiarini's first major success. The world press was talking about this groundbreaking development and everyone was applauding. Macchiarini both saved his patient's life and rewrote the rules of the game. It would take some more time for the rest of the world to become aware of the serious complications Castillo was experiencing.
On the other hand, Macchiarini's career was getting brighter day by day. As of 2011, Macchiarini began working at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden.
Karolinska Institute is considered one of the most prestigious scientific institutions in the world. Every year, professors at Karolinska select the study worthy of the Nobel Prize in Medicine.
PLASTIC SKELETONS STARTED TO BE USED
Macchiarini recreated the technique he developed at Karolinska. Now, instead of donors' tracheas, plastic skeletons produced to order were used. One of the first people to receive these plastic tracheas was Eritrean Andemariam Beyene, a PhD student at the geology department at the University of Iceland. Beyene's recovery process was impressive enough to make front-page news of the New York Times.
Macchiarini appeared to have realized his dream of rebuilding damaged organs. For example, in the documentary A Leap of Faith broadcast on NBC, Meredith Vieira said: "Imagine a world where any injured or diseased organ or limb could be replaced with a new artificial version produced in the laboratory just for you." This wonderful world was so close, thanks to Macchiarini.
However, in 2016, these dreams suddenly fell apart, and ugly realities emerged.
It was understood that Macchiarini transplanted self-renewing tracheas to at least 17 patients around the world, and a significant number of these patients, including Beyene, died. A few people, including Castillo, managed to survive not because of artificial tracheas, but despite the complications caused by those tracheas.
Those who followed the publications about Macchiarini with appreciation were shocked by two news that hit the headlines in January 2016. The first news was a Vanity Fair article about Macchiarini's relationship with Benita Alexander, an award-winning producer for NBC News. Alexander met Macchiarini during the production of the documentary "A Leap of Faith" and soon fell in love with the subject of his news, violating one of the most important rules of journalistic ethics.
When the program aired in mid-2014, the couple was making wedding preparations. It would be an organization worthy of the title "wedding of the year". Macchiarini's famous friends, whom he often boasts about, were on the wedding guest list: Obama, Clinton, Vladimir Putin, Nicholas Sarkozy, and many other world leaders would attend. Famous tenor Andrea Bocelli was to sing arias at the ceremony. The wedding was to be performed by Pope Francis, and Castel Gandolfo, the papal palace in the Vatican, was chosen as the venue for the wedding. Or rather, that's what Macchiarini said to his fiancée.
As the wedding day approached, Alexander began to realize that these plans were not reality. Ultimately, he realized that nothing his fiancée said was true. From the Pope to Castel Gadolfo, from Bocelli to world leaders, everything was Macchiarini's fantasies.
Moreover, it was not even possible to have a wedding between Macchiarini and Alexander because Macchiarini had been married to the same woman for 30 years.
The revelation of the lies in his love life also caused Macchiarini's career to be questioned.
The standing ovation doctor turned out to be an unprecedented fraudster! That scandal came to the fore again years later with a documentary released on Netflix.
Netflix made a three-part documentary with lengths ranging between 48 and 58 minutes. The documentary titled Bad Surgeon: Love Under the Knife, published in 2023, tells the story of the famous surgeon Dr., who is considered the pioneer of regenerative medicine. It centered on Paolo Macchiarini's scientific abuses.