In the early aughts, Dr. Paolo Macchiarini was a big deal: He was rumored to be Barack Obama and the Pope’s surgeon. His advancements in his field were revolutionary. And outside of his career achievements, he was seemingly the perfect man — according to his former fiancée, investigative producer Benita Alexander. But why did Macchiarini’s patients keep dying?
From Emmy-nominated director Ben Steele (Hunted: The War Against Gays in Russia), the docuseries Bad Surgeon: Love Under the Knife traces Macchiarini’s path to notoriety, and the victims he left in his wake.
Check it out at the top of this article.
Patient Yulia Tuulik and Dr. Paolo Macchiarini
Italian doctor Paolo Macchiarini, a celebrated thoracic surgeon who became famous for a groundbreaking transplant operation involving plastic windpipes infused with stem cells, became known as a pioneer of regenerative medicine. He was treated like a celebrity and lived lavishly — but a pattern was emerging: His patients kept dying after their transplant surgeries. Macchiarini suggested this was just the nature of such an experimental surgery, but as the deaths stacked up — nearly all of his transplant patients died — skeptics began to investigate him. They uncovered evidence of misconduct, fraud, and manipulation. When journalists brought evidence to the prestigious Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, where Macchiarini worked, the institute negated the allegations and defended him. Eventually, the allegations landed him in Swedish appeals court, where he was charged with aggravated assault and bodily harm against his former patients.
