However, the serious complications that Castillo suffered were, for a long time, kept very quiet. The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City cast member was sentenced to six and a half years in prison for defrauding the elderly. ONE Championship 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? Dr. Genden said Dr. Macchiarinis rise and fall profoundly affected his own path. Emanuela Pecchia: Everything We Know (LogOut/ We have, for example, a growing list of scientific celebrities who have committed major stem cell fraud. Sonia Sein, outside her Bronx home, had irreparable damage to her trachea. Benita Alexander on attending Paolo Macchiarinis criminal trial in Sweden Alexander said she attended Macchiarini's trial for closure, seven years after she was All three patients later died. 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. After Macchiarini fitted Cetir with one of his artificial windpipes in 2012, her condition worsened. Metro They also cited a loophole known as compassionate use. Castillo was soon back home, chasing after her kids. We have estimated Paolo Macchiarini's net worth , money, salary, income, and assets. She remained in intensive care for more than three years at Karolinska University Hospital and underwent more than 200 surgical procedures. "I have to tell people. Emanuela Pecchia has been married to Paolo Macchiarini for over 30 years. 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. Paolo Macchiarini at a press conference in 2008. But because Macchiarini is apparently living in Spain, its unlikely to have much effect. "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. Massachusetts One of these is the hype surrounding stem cells. 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 His findings at the time concluded that Dr. Macchiarini had committed scientific misconduct, but this was ultimately ignored by the universitys leadership who chose to clear the Italian surgeon. The apparent success of Ms. Seins operation is also notable because the trachea field has been rocked for years by a sensational scandal. 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Help News from Science publish trustworthy, high-impact stories about research and the people who shape it. Born in 1984, Zhadyra Iglikova suffered from tracheostomy following a car accident. Its very exciting, said Dr. G. Alexander Patterson, a professor of surgery at Washington University in St. Louis, who was not involved in the case. 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. Please make a tax-deductible gift today. That was a very smart idea to help maintain the fragile blood supply of the airway by leaving the esophagus in place behind it, Dr. Patterson said. In Macchiarinis case, the hope was that patients could be treated with stem cells taken from their own bone marrow. By this year, Dr. Genden said, her condition had deteriorated so that if we delay further, its not going to work out.. Disgraced Italian surgeon convicted of criminal harm to stem cell patient. And it needs a blood supply to connect to the patients vascular system. Those few patients who are still alive including Castillo have survived in spite of the artificial windpipes they received. 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. 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. 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. The very next day, she got an email from a friend that outlined the Pope's plans to visit South America on Benita and Paolo's wedding day. Thats something that was new to us, so we need to analyze that, Lundstrm-Kron says. Even so, it wasnt until 2016 that the Karolinska Institute declined to renew his contract. The first was a Vanity Fair article about his affair with Benita Alexander, an award-winning producer for NBC News. Although the difference in his birthplace, he is known to be an Italian by his nationality. It is unclear whether Dr. Macchiarini is still practicing medicine, but his lawyer said in May that he had no income. Photographs document Ms. Seins trachea transformation: Her old windpipe looks raw and red, her new one smooth as porcelain. Why dont the Electoral College and popular vote always match up? Unfortunately, due to complications, she passed away either around Christmas of that year or in the first few months of 2009. But it was already too late. Last year, however, the dream soured, exposing an ugly reality. Alexander admits that, at the time, she was in a vulnerable place. Although all three patients eventually died, Dr. Macchiarini was not directly accused of killing them. Scientific pioneer, superstar surgeon, miracle worker thats how Paolo Macchiarini was known for several years. The only question was how long it would take weeks, months or a few years. Any woman would swoon for such a catch! Paolo then came across Andemariam Teklesenbet Beyene, a man from Eritrea who was training to be a doctor when he got diagnosed with cancer. Gerdin says the conviction on one count still shows that health care doesnt stand above the law. But Benita, at the time an award-winning investigative news producer for NBC, had no way of knowing that, by the end of her love story, her heart would be broken and many of Paolo's patients who received the "miracle" transplants would be dead. Over the years, this possibility has generated great excitement and a huge amount of research. Subscribe to News from Science for full access to breaking news and analysis on research and science policy. 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. The Karolinska Institute was seduced by Macchiarini, said Dr. Gerdin. A White House source confirmed that Bill Clinton had never met Paolo. Paolo grew close to Alexander's daughter [Investigation Discovery], He was incredibly charming, worldly smart, sophisticated, and seemed very gentle," Benita told CrimeFeed. It is thus likely she has since passed away. Illinois The Macchiarini scandal claimed many of his powerful friends. Instead of stripping the cells from donor windpipes, Macchiarini had plastic scaffolds made to order. Your tax-deductible contribution plays a critical role in sustaining this effort. The plastic trachea that Yesim Cetir received disfigured her and made her last three years in life basically like torture, Bosse Lindquist, the documentarian behind the Swedish TV series The Experiment, told the Times. Filipino MMA fighters Few people at Karolinska, especially among those in power, knew enough about it to appreciate Delaeres claims. Benita Alexander wearing a wig as she tracked down Paolo in Barcelona [Investigation Discovery]. Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in: You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Emanuela Pecchia is married to Paolo Macchiarini for over 30 years. Paolo Macchiarini Records show that even with his implant failing, Andemariam was able to complete his Ph.D. before his demise in January 2013. North Carolina Dr. Genden said some scientists told him Youre out of your mind because trying a transplant would risk his reputation. 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 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. 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. fall of a celebrity scientist 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. 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. Macchiarinis deceit was so outlandish, Vanity Fair sought the opinion of the Harvard professor Ronald Schouten, an expert on psychopaths, who gave this diagnosis-at-a-distance: Macchiarini is the extreme form of a con man. They should be. For their efforts, the whistleblowers were punished. 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. 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. He hopes the immunosuppressant drugs, which can create health risks, can be reduced or even stopped if the entire graft becomes filled with Sonias cells.. On Jan. 12, Dr. Genden got a call: An appropriate donor had died. Since this was radically new, Macchiarini and his colleagues should have tested it on animals first. For the respect of privacy, his wifes identity is not revealed on the internet. But according to reports, Paolo cheated on his Emanuela Pecchia. In the months and years following their respective surgeries, all of them except Dmitri Onogda have passed away due to post-operative complications. There is South Koreas Hwang Woo-suk who, in 2004, falsely claimed to have created the first human embryonic stem cells by means of cloning. In 2016, Vanity Fair published an expose on Paolo that uncovered even more damning evidence. How climate change and forest management make wildfires harder to contain, Disparity in police response: Black Lives Matter protests and Capitol riot. And the TV shows second season, announced earlier this month, will cover the podcasts third, with Edgar Ramirez playing Paolo Macchiarini, and This Is Us star Mandy Moore playing Benita Alexander, an investigative journalist who falls into a whirlwind romance with the doctor. The felony conviction means Macchiarini would have a hard time finding employment again in Sweden, Gerdin says. Benita Alexander with one of the custom-made gowns intended for her wedding [Investigation Discovery]. Ohio 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. But of 20 patients, including children, most ultimately died, and scientists said Dr. Macchiarini misrepresented data and exaggerated his techniques effectiveness. 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. An alarmingly wide gap has grown between what we expect from stem cells and what they deliver. Chatri Sityodtong Louisiana Woman Disappeared After Giving Somebody A Ride, 5 Things That Still Bother Us About The Unsolved Maura Murray Case, Two Texas Teens Left After Curfew In 1988 And Never Returned, What Happened To Zion Foster? In place of clinical data, there are gushing testimonials. 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. It would be a star-studded event. Still, noting that previous attempts didnt show documented success, he cautioned that longer-term results were needed before the technique should be embraced, adding, Lets see how it works and how you can do it in more patients.. 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. 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. Kentucky Paolo Macchiarini She told CrimeFeed that, looking back, it seemed odd to her she had not met many of Paolo's close friends in Barcelona. However, Swedish TV reporters also decided to take a close look at Macchiarinis work. In fact, the surgeon was still married to his wife of nearly 30 years. Ultimate Fighting Championship COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) Swedish prosecutors on Wednesday appealed a sentence given to an Italian surgeon who was put on trial for causing bodily harm during experimental stem-cell windpipe transplants on three patients who died. To some extent, they believed Macchiarini because he told them what they wanted to hear. I have to expose him.". The verdict is the latest development in Macchiarinis stunning fall from grace. Vanity Fair also later discovered that several of Paolo's other statements were false, including his claims about having been an associate professor at the University of Pisa. 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. 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. As of late March, 6.5 percent of cells in the donor trachea were hers, with the proportion increasing, he said. WebPaolo Macchiarini Net Worth. Every year, it gives science a show-business makeover, picking out from the mass of medical researchers those individuals deserving of superstardom. In 2017, prosecutors in Sweden charged Macchiarini with manslaughter in connection with the three patients who had received transplants at KI in 2011 and 2012, all of whom had died: Andemariam Teklesenbet Beyene, a graduate student from Eritrea with a slow-growing cancer obstructing his windpipe; Christopher Lyles, a 30-year-old American with tracheal cancer; and Yesim Cetir, a teenager from Turkey whose trachea had been accidentally damaged during a previous surgery. The operation, performed at one of the worlds most prestigious medical universities, part of the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, was hailed as revolutionary. An advantage is that immunosuppressants are necessary only for several months, he said. However, behind closed doors, Dr. Macchiarini was hiding a secret the procedures were not working. Emanuela Pecchia (Paolo Macchiarani's Wife), Bio, Age & More 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. Paolo Macchiarini California Likewise the secretary-general of the Nobel Committee. Unfortunately, the scandal is much bigger than Karolinska, which accounts for only three of the patients who have received Macchiarinis regenerating windpipes. Nearly all of those patients have died. The Karolinska Institute declined to comment for this article, noting only that Dr. Macchiarinis sentence may be appealed. Its actually meaningless for him, Gerdin says. Tennessee 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. By 2011, he was working in Sweden at one of the worlds most prestigious medical universities, the Karolinska Institute, whose professors annually select the winner of the Nobel prize in physiology or medicine. No one is more powerless than a patient with a disease, said Dr. Gerdin. The theory was simple: let the body do most of the work. She says she feels she has been given a chance of being alive one more time.. So in 2010, Paolo operated on her at the National Research Center of Surgery in Moscow. None other than Pope Francis would officiate, and his papal palace in Castel Gandolfo would serve as the venue. None have been forced to hold full and independent inquiries. The case is pending. She visits Mount Sinai weekly for blood work. Benita said that, if she can take any lessons away from what happened to her, she hopes that her experience will help others. 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. They also questioned whether Macchiarini had obtained proper ethical permission for the surgeries and challenged a paper describing animal experiments with the technique. 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.