paolo macchiarini wife of 30 years

In 2019, an Italian court said he had forged documents and abused his position, charges unrelated to his trachea work. The Karolinska Institute declined to comment for this article, noting only that Dr. Macchiarinis sentence may be appealed. Benita Alexander with one of the custom-made gowns intended for her wedding [Investigation Discovery]. Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in: You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. A good example is the NBC documentary A Leap of Faith. He was one of the best con-men I have ever come across, he added. They exchange their vows in Italy. They didnt. We have, for example, a growing list of scientific celebrities who have committed major stem cell fraud. I had a brave face, but I was scared, Ms. Sein said. Colorado Sonia Sein, outside her Bronx home, had irreparable damage to her trachea. The other side is flat and mobile to move air to the lungs. According to Macchiarini and his colleagues, her artificial organ was well on the way to looking and functioning liked a natural one. But for now, lets focus solely on his medical patients, shall we? Paolo Macchiarinis most notable patient is Claudia Castillo. Born in 1977, this Colombian living in Spain woman suffered from tuberculosis-damaged airways. Almost immediately after she was fitted with a synthetic trachea in August 2012, Ms. Cetirs condition began to rapidly deteriorate, according to the courts written judgment. The first was a Vanity Fair article about his affair with Benita Alexander, an award-winning producer for NBC News. Was he conning his patients, his colleagues and the scientific community? 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 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. 2023 American Association for the Advancement of Science. 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. Therefore, on June 12, 2008, at Hospital Clinic Barcelona, she received a cadaver trachea graft implanted as a bronchus transplant. Chinese balloon photos Benita Alexander on attending Paolo Macchiarinis criminal trial in Sweden Alexander said she attended Macchiarini's trial for closure, seven years after she was unknowingly caught in a fraudulent romance with him, and for justice for his patients and for their families. July 21, 2022 Examined 9:54 Whats next for Russia? He has been convicted of research-related crimes in Italy and Sweden. 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. In 2018, KI finally released the findings of its second investigation, which confirmed he had committed misconduct. (LogOut/ They should be. So, as per the last reports, he is alive and well today. About 11 centimeters (4 inches) long, one side curves like a halfpipe, composed of cartilage rings and ligaments. Alexander admits that, at the time, she was in a vulnerable place. I could feel it in my lungs.. Born in 1977, this Colombian living in Spain woman suffered from tuberculosis-damaged airways. ONE Super Series Karolinskas leadership expected big things from their superstar, things that would bring prestige and funding to the institute. The nine-centimeter transplant replaced all but two centimeters of her trachea. Macchiarini shot to prominence back in 2008, when he created a new airway for Claudia Castillo, a young woman from Barcelona. An advantage is that immunosuppressants are necessary only for several months, he said. A few years ago, Japans Haruko Obokata pulled a similar con when she announced to the world a new and simple and fake method of turning ordinary body cells into stem cells. Largely confined to her Bronx apartment, she needed home health aides and had to quit her career as a social worker for pregnant women. In late 2014, four doctors in Sweden accused him of fraud, saying that he'd falsified data in six of the papers he had published. Some answers have emerged from the official inquiries into the Karolinska Institute and the Karolinska University hospital. He was handsome, suave, and a charmer. KI officials let him do this. 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. 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. The couple set a date: July 11, 2015. Thousands of people in the United States alone develop trachea problems each year from burns, birth defects, tumors and extended intubation on ventilators. When Macchiarini accused one of them, Karl-Henrik Grinnemo, of stealing his work in a grant application, Hamsten found him guilty. This was Macchiarinis first big success. In 2016, Vanity Fair published an expose on Paolo that uncovered even more damning evidence. The couple has been married for 30 years now. It sounded unbelievable, but Paolo explained to her that he had treated Pope John Paul II in the past, and had become part of a highly classified group of doctors that treated the global elite. Since this was radically new, Macchiarini and his colleagues should have tested it on animals first. Theres a void in his personality that he seems to want to fill by conning more and more people.. 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. Nearly all of those patients have died. Get more great content like this delivered right to you! The Macchiarini scandal claimed many of his powerful friends. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/06/health/trachea-transplant-genden.html. North Carolina 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 popular press also has a lot to answer for. Unfortunately, due to complications, she passed away either around Christmas of that year or in the first few months of 2009. Their devastating documentary, which aired in January 2016, led KI officials to reopen the investigation. Talking about her spouse Paolo, he became infamous for research fraud and manipulative behavior. So, how much is Paolo Macchiarini worth at the age of 64 years old? 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. New York City 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. His net worth has been growing significantly in 2021-2022. Instead, they found him guilty of negligence and the lesser charge of causing bodily harm. Probationwtf.he killed people knowing damn well that his trachea was bs! It is fitting that Macchiarinis career unravelled at the Karolinska Institute. Another was a Russian mother named Julia Tuulik, per BBC News. Macchiarini was fired in 2016 amid allegations of fraud and scientific misconduct after many of his transplant recipients died. Last year, however, the dream soured, exposing an ugly reality. 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. Stem cell clinics have sprung up like weeds, offering to treat just about any ailment you can name. She remained in intensive care for more than three years at Karolinska University Hospital and underwent more than 200 surgical procedures. Tennessee Ground-breaking work on synthetic organ transplants made Paolo Macchiarini one of the most famous doctors in the world. In his case, his stem cells were seeded into the airway just hours before it was implanted into him, making it work perfectly fine. They reopened the case in 2020, this time charging Macchiarini on lesser counts of aggravated assault and severe bodily harm. But, he added, Its an indirect technique. It takes time and can replace only the tracheas halfpipe side, so its not a complete tube.. In their view, he was grossly misrepresenting his results and the health of his patients. And fooled almost everyone. This was the start of a whirlwind romance that included five-star hotels, travel to far-flung locations, and extravagant shopping sprees. The Italian surgeon and his Italian wife Emanuela Pecchia have one son and one daughter. By the time the program aired, in mid-2014, the couple were planning their marriage. By this year, Dr. Genden said, her condition had deteriorated so that if we delay further, its not going to work out.. Guided by several mentors, he delved into research and animal experiments, developing a transplant approach. The apparent success of Ms. Seins operation is also notable because the trachea field has been rocked for years by a sensational scandal. Macchiarini gave his regenerating windpipes to 17 or more patients worldwide. Indonesia If we've learned anything from the COVID-19 pandemic, it's that we cannot wait for a crisis to respond. The trachea has been characterized as a simple tube, but its very complex, Dr. Delaere said. (LogOut/ The court heard testimony in the case between 27 April and 12 May. But on Thursday, the surgeon, Dr. Paolo Macchiarini, was found criminally liable by a Swedish court for causing felony bodily injury to a patient he had fitted with one of the windpipes at a medical university in Sweden. He convinced the Karolinska Institute that this could make them famous, and they just let him do it. Journals retracted several of his studies. 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. 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. February 28, 2022 Emanuela Pecchia is famously known as the wife of popular Swiss-born Italian thoracic surgeon, Paolo Macchiarini. 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. But because Macchiarini is apparently living in Spain, its unlikely to have much effect. Over the years, this possibility has generated great excitement and a huge amount of research. Countless news stories declared it a medical breakthrough. Read More: Where is Benita Alexander Now? 2nd Impeachment Trial: What this could mean for Trump, Presidential transition of power: Examined, How Donald Trump spent his last days as president, How Joe Biden's inauguration will be different from previous years, Trump challenges the vote and takes legal action, 2020s DNC and RNC are different than any before, Power Trip: Those Who Seek Power and Those Who Chase Them, Leave No Trace: A Hidden History of the Boy Scouts, Keeper of the Ashes: The Oklahoma Girl Scout Murders, The Orphans of COVID: America's Hidden Toll, X / o n e r a t e d - The Murder of Malcolm X and 55 Years to Justice, Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information. The official report into the matter dubbed this the bandwagon effect. Why dont the Electoral College and popular vote always match up? She pushed through his appointment despite the fact that he had some very negative references and dubious claims on his rsum. Reports of their success always seemed like hot air to him. 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. Other witnesses contradicted that, arguing that with Andemariams slow-growing cancer, minor surgeries and other treatments could have kept him alive. 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. A White House source confirmed that Bill Clinton had never met Paolo. He should be given death penalty! 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. How did the GameStop stock spike on Wall Street happen? They and their loved ones fall victim to false hope. She says she feels she has been given a chance of being alive one more time.. We will send you a maximum of two emails in, We will be in touch to remind you to contribute. Emanuela Pecchia is married to Paolo Macchiarini for over 30 years. Source: ABC Article continues below advertisement His relationship with Benita, All rights reserved. In the first couple of years at Karolinska, he put plastic airways into three patients. These included Harriet Wallberg, who was the vice-chancellor of the Karolinska Institute in 2010, when Macchiarini was recruited. 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. Some of them have been successful, but theyre cumbersome in different ways and theyre not a trachea, Dr. Patterson said. Benita was also growing concerned about the cost of the wedding. I cant do this anymore, Sonia Sein told herself, her family and her doctor. According to the judgment in Macchiarinis case, hospital staff said that Cetir had around 40 near-death experiences and was conscious but unable to breathe for many of them. The law is supposed to protect individuals from all types of assault, especially when they are powerless, said Dr. Bengt Gerdin, an independent investigator who was hired by the Karolinska Institute in 2015 to look into Dr. Macchiarinis work. COVID-19 The procedure involved replacing a damaged trachea with a plastic replica that had been soaked in the patients stem cells. In place of clinical data, there are gushing testimonials. I have to expose him.". Its like when you get on a rocket ship., At times, he felt in a dreamlike state, he said. 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 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. 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. Thats something that was new to us, so we need to analyze that, Lundstrm-Kron says. He officially cleared Macchiarini of scientific misconduct, allowing merely that hed sometimes acted without due care. 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.. In 2015, the Karolinska Institute hired an independent investigator named Dr. Bengt Gerdin to look into the Macchiarini situation, per the Times. Dr. Paolo Macchiarini became a star by creating a bioartificial windpipe. Ms. Seins trachea before, left, and her new transplanted trachea. A genius is a revolutionary by definition, a risk-taker and a law-breaker. 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. Talking about her spouse Andrea Bocelli was to sing at the ceremony. But it did not work, and a court in Sweden has found him criminally liable for the harm 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 2010, the Italian surgeon was recruited by KIhome of the committee that awards the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Benita traveled to Paolo's Barcelona home with two friends and a video camera. Macchiarini told people that Barack and Michelle Obama, Bill and Hillary Clinton, Nicolas Sarkozy, and Vladimir Putin would attend the wedding, Andrea Bocelli would perform, and Pope Francis (a patient of his, or so he said) would officiate the ceremony, per Vanity Fair. She has since had the synthetic trachea removed. Anyone can read what you share. 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. Meanwhile, Macchiarinis career soared. He additionally claimed that former patients also included Bill and Hillary Clinton, and thenPresident Obama. 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! Massachusetts Dr. Genden said Dr. Macchiarinis rise and fall profoundly affected his own path. No, he was just caring for his patients who were, one and all, facing certain death with no other treatment options available and no time to waste. The answer came only a couple of weeks later, when Swedish television began broadcasting a three-part expos of Macchiarini and his work. 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. Sonia Sein, outside her Bronx home, had irreparable damage to her trachea. At night, when she connected her tracheal tube to a ventilator, the alarm kept going off to let people know that I stopped breathing, said Ms. Sein, who hated causing her family concern. But colleagues suspected that Macchiarini was manipulating his results. 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. WebIn reality, Paolo had not worked with the Pope, and he was still married to his wife of 30 years. For six years, she had endured a tube inserted in her windpipe, or trachea, to keep her alive, but her discomfort and distress were becoming more and more unbearable. In the case of Cetir, he should have known the risk of complications was higher than the expected benefit, the judges ruled. While there isnt enough data to actually prove this, we do have some key indicators. It is thus likely she has since passed away. He took the medical world by storm when he built and transplanted the worlds first bioartificial windpipe two years earlier. 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. Macchiarini, who denied the charges against him, wasnt directly accused of killing any of the three patients. I thought, If they do a transplant for everything, they should do a transplant for trachea, she recalled. 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. Team Lakay She remained conscious and awake throughout most of them, but unable to breathe. Around the same time, an article in Vanity Fair described how Macchiarini had misled a girlfriendan NBC news producer working on a flattering documentary about his surgeriesinto thinking they would be married in a ceremony attended by the Clintons and Obamas and officiated by the pope. 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. Not only that, they later covered it up.. Keep up with your favorite shows delivered to your inbox! Yet because of the ensuing complications, she had to receive a tracheoplasty in April 2011 and another cadaveric trachea graft in 2018. This went on for three years until, just recently, Grinnemo was cleared of all wrongdoing. Most protagonists on medical dramas are modern-day heroes. There was nothing anybody could do for these patients, said Dr. Genden, who became captivated by the problem in medical school 30 years ago after a patient with a tracheal tumor died. Almost overnight, he became a superstar. 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. Its love of human interest stories makes it sympathetic to unproven therapies. US Capitol Allegations also emerged that the risky procedure was performed on at least one person who was not critically ill at the time. "I started thinking that if this man is lying to me at such an egregious level, theres no way hes not doing this in his medical life," she told CrimeFeed. According to Pierre Delaere, a professor of respiratory surgery at KU Leuven, Belgium, Macchiarinis experiments were bound to end badly. Florida 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. 2023 Cinemaholic Inc. All rights reserved. So in 2010, Paolo operated on her at the National Research Center of Surgery in Moscow. I didnt want the fairy tale to end., Alexander also hired a private investigator, a former Pennsylvania State Police detective named Frank Murphy. There was another reason to be daunted too: historical assumptions that tracheas werent transplantable. And difficult to jump off. In early 2014, four Karolinska doctors defied the reigning culture of silence by complaining about Macchiarini. 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. Why are people hesitant to trust a COVID-19 vaccine? KI commissioned surgeon Bengt Gerdin, a professor emeritus at Uppsala University, to investigate the issue. He was 63 years old when he was found guilty of causing harm through negligence but not of carrying out an intentional assault and he received a probationary sentence on June 16, 2022. Sadly, she passed away soon after her second implant. Change), You are commenting using your Twitter account. The operation, performed at one of the worlds most prestigious medical universities, part of the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, was hailed as revolutionary. All rights reserved. The Italian surgeon and his Italian wife Emanuela Pecchia have one son and one daughter. Macchiarini is known for his research fraud and manipulative behavior. What comes next after Texas school shooting? None have been forced to hold full and independent inquiries. Her ex-husband John was dying of cancer. And it needs a blood supply to connect to the patients vascular system. Here are 13 more things about him: He married Pecchia in 1986. Thats what Macchiarini told his fiancee. Gerdin determined that Macchiarini committed scientific misconduct, but leadership at the Karolinska Institute ignored the findings and cleared Macchiarini. 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. 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. She met Macchiarini while producing A Leap of Faith and was soon breaking one of the cardinal rules of journalism: dont fall in love with the subject of your story. Every year, it gives science a show-business makeover, picking out from the mass of medical researchers those individuals deserving of superstardom. However, behind closed doors, Dr. Macchiarini was hiding a secret the procedures were not working. Its fascinating to rewatch as a lesson on how not to report on medical science. The media began calling him "Dr. Frankenstein" and said that he committed "the world's biggest medical fraud.". 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Scientific pioneer, superstar surgeon, miracle worker thats how Paolo Macchiarini was known for several years. At the trial, Macchiarini and his lawyer argued that the patients, with no other options, had been treated under compassionate care standards. Anyone can read what you share. He could see no real evidence that the windpipe scaffolds were becoming living, functioning airways in which case, they were destined to fail. And investigations by both institute and the hospital found coverups regarding Macchiarinis work. Japan Ciaran Lynch, born in 2000 in Ireland without a functional trachea, received a transplant on March 15, 2010, at Great Ormond Street Hospital in London. 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. Instead of stripping the cells from donor windpipes, Macchiarini had plastic scaffolds made to order. Look out for a message in your inbox in. By June 2013, when Paolo took Benita to Venice, Italy, for a romantic weekend, she knew she was falling madly in love. Experts say this case is about what the definition of a resident is under Spanish law. Unfortunately, though, she reportedly succumbed to her underlying disease in January of 2012. Subscribe to News from Science for full access to breaking news and analysis on research and science policy. A 19-year-old Iowa college student allegedly defrauded over 400 donors after raising more than $37,000 by faking a triple cancer diagnosis. Brazil He did this by chemically stripping away the cells of a windpipe taken from a deceased donor; he then seeded the bare scaffold with stem cells taken from Castillos own bone marrow. According to The New York Times, Macchiarini is an Italian surgeon who was found criminally liable this June for causing felony bodily injury to a Turkish woman named Yesim Cetir, a patient who had received one of his 3D-printed windpipes and later died. Ultimate Fighting Championship Death Season 2, Mandy Moore Joins Dr. 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. Benita was also growing increasingly concerned, because she had not yet been introduced to Paolo's children or even seen where she was meant to live with him in Barcelona. Her friends described him as "Mr. Big" from Sex and the City. "I have to tell people. The couple had traveled extensively, but there were a 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. One of these is the hype surrounding stem cells. 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. Hwang, Obokata and Macchiarini were all attracted to the hottest regions of stem cell research, where hope for a medical breakthrough was greatest. The theory was simple: let the body do most of the work. Those few patients who are still alive including Castillo have survived in spite of the artificial windpipes they received. 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. New Jersey 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.

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