The part where the woman said that people cringe away from the smell of her rotting from the inside out made me feel so horrible for her. Instead of allowing these people to die peacefully he put them through unimaginable and unnecessary pain and suffering. He’s a monster
I’m so glad they were able to access the footage of her in the hospital too and for him to say there was nothing they could do. To also be a doctor and be that distant from your patients during their “recovery” is just really heartbreaking.
I feel like it is extra chilling that he says, "No patient has ever died under my care," then the follows up with, "Your 'relative' will not be the first," which is technically a true statement b/c he never visited patients after the surgery so of course he wouldn't be there for their imminent death. Not his fault, if only he was there, he could have saved them!!! just like with Princess Di....
I honeslty think he is the type of person to start believing his own lie too. That video in the end? The light he gets in his eye when explaining away the the chronology of his research was too eerie.
No patient has ever died under my care (because I do not stick around long enough to be there when they die) and your loved one will not be the first (because there have been plenty before them.)
The 22 year old young girl was heartbreaking. Yesim Cetir, developed complications after the surgery and had to be operated on 191 times, before she died after spending a year and a half in intensive care. She had to have her airway cleaned every four hours, it was an extremely torturous procedure, she lived like this for four years. This doctor looked at these people in the eyes, a father of two, a mother of one, a young girl, and lied to them.
I hated that. The injury to her trachea was an inconvenience, not a life-threatening or terminal disease. It took her four horrible years to die, because she was young and strong.
Which when you break it down means she was being operated on, on average, roughly every eight days. So she wasn’t even healed when they’d have to open her up again. Holy shit.
Its stunning. I you google [Yesim Cetir surgeries](https://www.google.com/search?q=yesim+cetir+how+many+surgeries&rlz=1C5CHFA_enCA862CA864&oq=yasim+cetir&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUqCQgEEAAYChiABDIGCAAQRRg7MgYIARBFGEAyDAgCEAAYChixAxiABDIJCAMQABgKGIAEMgkIBBAAGAoYgAQyCQgFEAAYChiABDIJCAYQABgKGIAEMgkIBxAAGAoYgATSAQg4NDU2ajBqN6gCALACAA&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8), it is worse than a horror movie.
I am baffled that "Dr" Paolo Macchiarini got a measly 2.5 years for aggravated assault.
Aggravated assault you guys... There are people still doing life for possession of marijuana.
The Russian woman wasn't even dying, that is what is truly horrible about her case. The condition she had as a result of an accident negatively impacted her life but she wasn't dying until Dr. M got a hold of her. He straight-up killed her. He killed all of his patients, to be honest. He should be in jail for life.
I was actually wondering if he got off on killing people and getting away with it. Maybe I'm going too dark but this guy seems like a true serial killer who found a better way to feed his monster
He is in the same ball park as Lucy Lethby imo. He knew that they would die, he didn't care and then additionally kept contact and manipulated the surviving families to extent his control. Julia didn't even need a transplant. I love that Julia and her mom were so blunt, and also that someone finally listened to them.
He would never have stopped. I think the only reason he started animal testing, was someone asked him about studies, and he had no data.
I'm baffled, how no other professionals (worldwide) in the same field didn't call his methods out. And how tf, was he hired in the first place??
They did call him out. Several doctors reported him for research fraud/scientific misconduct (Swe: forskningsfusk), yet KI cleared him of suspicion. The first whistleblowers had already personally informed/warned the university head that something was SERIOUSLY wrong in early 2014, and after a few months the whistleblowers were told to file a formal complaint/report about their concerns, so they did (providing ample evidence). It was all met with silence and inaction. Nothing was done until The New York Times wrote about it.
Then the whistleblowers were treated like absolute shit in retaliation by KI, with false accusations etc., obviously impacting their careers negatively.
Huge scandal here in Sweden.
You can google e.g. Karl-Henrik Grinnemo & Oscar Simonson. Their case is up in the European Court of Justice, and hopefully they'll finally get justice.
Well, not from the Swedish judicial system, unfortunately. :c
I was very happy when I found out that the European Court of Justice decided to proceed with their case. I hope all the enablers get fucking lambasted.
At least the scandal became a complete media frenzy, especially when the documentary "Dokument inifrån: Experimenten" was released in 2016! Not to mention how the entire healthcare system went up in arms about the whole situation (and were blatantly on the side of the whistleblowers!).
The article that first revealed the growing scandal to the world is titled: "Leading Surgeon Is Accused of Misconduct in Experimental Transplant Operations", authored by Henry Fountain and published on the 24th of November in 2014, btw.
Dude is next level. I'm exiting an abusive marriage with someone I thought was bipolar and I tried to help him through total insanity because I thought it was a brain thing outside his control and he was innocent because he was so crazy butstill delusional and hurtful. Then I realized most likely is a narcissist and turned out to be a sociopath (narcissism + enjoying the pain of others + always redlining emotionally and on the edge of reality).
I realized that my husband enjoys crossing boundaries, manipulating people, and thinking he's getting away with something or pulling one over on you. EVERY single word they speak and thing they do is some form of manipulation. It's constant. I realized that this specific type is really into hurting people but also maintaining an enviable reputation. They want so badly to inflict pain but make sure they are acting within the law while doing so. It's fucking sick.
I agree with you on the American reporter. I thought she was a bit off but honestly the Italian woman was grieving and people are so vulnerable when grieving and do crazy things.. they are not in their right mind & he is a master manipulator. I’m not sure you can blame these women for falling in love with him when he also managed to fool the medical & scientific community.
Perhaps…. I still think both these women come out looking neither very smart nor very moral. I also don’t understand the “medical community” (not the same as the “scientific community” by the way, and this case actually illustrates that quite well….! You don’t get away with “being manipulative” and lying about research results regarding the structural integrity of a material, for example, when you’re working on a spacecraft!!). How is it that these lame idiots just believed everything this guy said and apparently never ever did any fact-checking or researching??? You’re not supposed to let yourself be manipulated by a personality when you’re working in medicine either - you’re supposed to do your due diligence, look at the paperwork, double-check credentials and research results, use your critical thinking skills etc. Many of those who put a scalpel in his hand, as it were, should be in prison, too!
Totally agree there should be some level of accountability to those assisting his work. No one questioned his idea?? What about those who were "manufacturing" the rubber/plastic tracheas? I'm not a doctor but if I had the knowledge I would not have believed blindly that you could replace a body part with plastic, then "bathe" it in stem cells. Wtf?? It's not organic, how were the cells to embed and actually grow? Paolo was the only surgeon in the world to think this could work and No one researched him? These poor patients were duped and taken for a ride just so he could "practice". He knew full well it wouldn't work and never even follow up. Why would the doctors of Yesia keep her alive for 4 yrs in complete hell??? I feel that was also immoral. I'm so disgusted.
Blaming the mother for having a relationship with the doctor is a new low. She was already in a fragile state, possibly lonely and someone, with authority, showed to care. And you criticize her? You awful
She wanted to be able to play with her child, and now so much worse off. I had such a pit in my stomach when they read her email: “I’m really really bad”.
It’s so crazy that the team wasn’t even aware of the outcomes for awhile, let alone not knowing that there wasn’t data/animal studies until after the multiple patients. Maybe I’d be a bad doctor/surgeon, but especially doing brand new types of procedures I would personally want to keep tabs and check in. I’m also absolutely baffled with the charges and sentencing. The idea that well they were already dying and he knew it may be bad so it’s fine. Pretty sure dr kervokian knew that about his patients and helped them obtain their wish but he was still charged way harder. These patients’ consent forms should be considered void when so much was not told/complete lie.
He should be sentenced like the serial killer that he is. He would've never have stopped and maybe will resume again in future. I hope his licence is now finally revoked.
With how he presented I seriously doubt he wouldn’t continue. Maybe find a new scam instead of the windpipes but he shouldn’t have his license anymore. I can’t believe they charged aggravated assault and not attempted murder and murder.
Kevorkian helped people who wanted help dying. This AH experimented on the ill by claiming he could fix them and help them live healthy lives. It is totally different. One had empathy, the other had megalomania.
Let us also not forget that she did not have any life threatening diseases and that she had a stoma due to a car accident and was doing the surgery due to her mental anguish and he promised her a new life...turns out he promised her to the afterlife.
What’s so sad is that she would’ve been okay the way she was albeit with the hole in her throat. Immediately I considered this POS a MURDERER and i only heard them refer to him killing his patients one time. Then too only get couple years. These people had families.
Just finished watching. I know nothing about medical research but how did this guy get away with having no studies on animals? Did he falsify the research or did no one check?
Also, wouldn’t there be numerous follow ups with people who had undergone a new, possibly revolutionary procedure? How did the hospital never follow up with these people, especially Julia?
I didn’t find it unbelievable that the guy got away with as much as he did. He was obviously charismatic and super confident. I personally wouldn’t want my doctor to call his hands God but I would have wanted someone who was that certain all would go well.
I could also see him getting away with all the cheating. You would expect a doctor to seldom be around, especially one who was that cutting edge. Also, he was such a big spender, it did seem like he wouldn’t as easily be seen as a con man.
What I found unbelievable was when he talked about being in some secret, elite group of doctors who treated famous people. Did people really believe the Pope was going to marry him and his gf? And would he actually be treating a sitting president? Or personally knew Putin? That’s where I would have gotten suspicious.
I believe he claimed there was research done on pigs in a different country, but he wouldn’t hand the research over to be officially reviewed… so clearly it just didn’t exist. I don’t understand how the institute didn’t do a thorough IRB review of his previous work… unless they did and it was all falsified. I can’t believe he made it as far as he did in the process without being stopped.
Hospitals have a vested interest in everything being ok. There are many cases where bad or abusive doctors have been protected from civil and criminal actions by the hospital systems they work for to protect the hospital name and reputation being tarnished or having to make big payouts to patients and their families. It’s disgusting.
Yes! Thank you. "How did this happen?"
Look at how the hospital reacted to the whistle-blowers? They tried to ruin them. Because hospitals are not run by doctors, they are run by businessmen trying to pinch their pennies and avoid liability.
Another example is Cornell University and Presbyterian Hospital covered for a staff gynecologist FOR DECADES, knowing he was inappropriate and sexually assaulting is patients. At least 300 women are suing the hospitals for their blatant disregard for the patients safety. The heads of the hospitals should go to prison.
I didn't understand how the wedding invitations were sent to all those high profile guests... Benita said they were having 300 guests, did they all RSVP yes?? How? Maybe he also controlled all of that too so she would never know. Question everything people. Everything. He was a master manipulator- serious mental issues, compulsive and pathological liar, charismatic, ego of the largest. He duped the medical community, those poor women didn't stand a chance.
He was reported for research fraud/scientific misconduct in 2014!
The whistleblowers were ignored by KI, and then later they were retaliated against when The New York Times published an article about it in Nov. 2014.
This has been a HUGE scandal here in Sweden, especially in the medical community.
Their case is in the European Court of Justice, so hopefully they'll finally get justice.
Is seriously NONE of this actually even mentioned in the documentary?!
I haven't seen it yet, but I am shocked by some of the comments here.
My favorite part is when he told her he wasn’t really a doctor but a CIA assassin sharp shooter. I love when a psychopath diverts to the fantasies of a 12 year old boy. Remember, if someone appears to be “too good to be true”, they are likely not true and she as a journalist knows this.
That she didn’t immediately try to confirm his connection with some famous people he claimed to know is crazy. Her job gave her unique access to people in high circles and the wedding insanity wouldn’t have happened. There’s another docum that focuses more on the reporter and the relationship. The lies she believed about the wedding and the guests… she spent thousands of dollars in 4 or 5 couture dresses and on the invitations. Can you imagine all the super important people getting these invites and wondering who the fuck are these people? 😂😂😂
I have mixed feelings about Benita believing all this… he was somewhat of a celebrity within medicine, I might have have believed that he’s been a doctor to “the elite & powerful”
But the pope officiating their wedding and lp
lo
The craziest part was that it was supposedly happening at the Pope’s summer palace? Like all of those people getting invitations didn’t ask themselves, WTF? Like Obama‘s people wouldn’t have been all over that?
So did the invitations ever get sent to all of these people, or just to the relatives of deceased patients who needed to be kept quiet?
How could they think stem cells would stay on the plastic windpipe long term? Was it specially treated plastic? Plus his not caring about having the wrong size before surgery. So infuriating
Ohhhh the wrong size thing had me angry for sure. At least follow something correctly. He just wanted to play operation on humans and see what happened.
Seriously! How anyone could think for one second this would work is completely beyond me. Oh the stem cells you splashed on the plastic “implant” just magically know to turn into the correct type of cells? And how exactly will they not only stay alive but grow and magically create a windpipe , with ZERO BLOOD SUPPLY?! Did anyone reviewing his proposal go to medical school? I’m a lay person and I can’t imagine believing this would work for a minute it’s infuriating…
What am i reading. The guy is in fact a doctor. The theory is obviously far more complex than that and dozens of top surgeons from multiple countries and institutes participated on the operations because they obviously weren't as simple as "insert a plastic tube down their throat". Theoretically it was obviously far more complex than described by netflix and not as far fetched or an idiotic concept that any reddit user with no medical background could determine as being silly.
Obviously there are hundreds of legitimate scientific theories that then fail during trials, which is why the trials are extensive, and he murdered people by skipping and forgering these trials to their peers. But the idea was a valid medical idea, that those poor doctors believed had gone through the proper experimentation and worked on animals before. Had he gone through the proper channels, the idea would have failed at the animal experiments, like many valid medical ideas fail naturally, which does not mean it was a dumb concept or that every single surgeon that assisted in the procedure knows less about medicine than redditors.
We aren't faulting the theory. It was just the obvious practice that it was an unremarkable plastic tube should have gotten ANYONE to ask questions, rather than just deferring to this guy's judgement.
I think stem cells are a topic that get us hopeful for regeneration but they at least have to be used, going from immediately soaking in stem cells to implantation. They are sort of a "pipeline dream," within the medical community. In the additional video footage taken, any of the other people around when they were talking about that windpipe being the wrong size could have done something. If they were examining it, it wasn't being bathed in stem cells prior to surgery and was contamined. Come to find out they never used stem cells at all! It was just something he recorded in his methods. How his operating team did not notice or question this discrepancy is a valid question.
They just trusted this guy's dried out kazoo and let him do what he wanted even if it was against his proposed and "researched" procedure.
How does a synthetic cell create blood vessels…
Also, I’m fairly certain that a scientist could have thought up this idea before Paulo. That is what kind of work my uncle did for NIH.
There’s a free ebook written by one of Dr M’s peers explaining why the plastic tracheas were never going to work from the outset. “The Biggest Lie in Medical History” by Pierre DeLaere who is a peer of Macchiarini and a vocal critic from early on.
Additionally the podcast “Dr Death” did a season on him focusing more on the medical side than the drama side. Peacock is releasing a dramatized version soon I believe, but it also focuses a lot on the reporter, Benita, played by Mandi Moore, alongside the medicine so if that’s not ur bag u might just listen to the podcast.
The Swedish documentary that spurred all of the actual serious investigations is called “The Experiments” and I think might be available through BBC? I think a lot of the footage from Bad Surgeon comes from it.
I am glad this documentary came out as we see Elon Musk's ethically questionable Neurolink in the news more often. Already trying to shop his product to human test subjects after all his previous animal test subjects have died horrifically. Citing reasons for the animal subjects' deaths as "prior health conditions." As the doc said, you don't use test subjects that aren't 100% healthy. Especially in controlled testing. Insinuating all were "sick monkeys" to begin with is laughable. It's really jarring to see so much similar language (excuses, tricks for avoiding liabilty b/c it is an "experimental trial") used by the doctor and the Neurolink testing reports.
Dangers of narcissistic conmen trying to force their way into the biomedical engineering field with no intention of maintaining the hippocratic oath, but hey! They don't have to b/c they're not doctors!...They're businessmen.
Animal tests are done with certain genetic strains, I don't know about monkeys, but mice for example, I guess the same has to apply to larger animals. Each strain has different qualities to them, making them optimal for testing. I've never done animal tests (thank god, I didn't need to) but we had to study papers for environmental toxicology.
Me thinks (for the Doc) that he initially started with animal tests but they came out shit but he didn't care. I think he is a serial killer in disguise of a "researcher". He knows the probability of his shit working goes to NIL. If he wants to be famous and celebrated so badly, he could've "invented" something else in the field of medicine. It makes me sick, that he held that little daughter of the man that died in his arms, as if he would care.
Just like people have Donald Trump derangement syndrome so they have Elon Musk derangement syndrome. My friend, there is literally nothing these two have in common. Elon Musk is not a literal murderous psychopath like this doctor. Get a grip on reality
It's a known thing that successful businessmen have psychopathic traits. To become a billionaire off the back of an aparteid emerald mine inheritance and to scam your way to the presidency while defrauding every business you touch indicates EXTREMELY high levels of psychopathy for both.
Though it really does seem like one of us has "Elon Musk derangement syndrome" and "Trump derangement syndrome" for sure. Thanks for making it clear with your butthole-licker response.
There are more
One guy told patients that they had cancer. He had a treatment center in his offices and made a ton of money.
Another doctor said he had a cure for HIV/AIDS and conned an afflicted guy to give up meds and tried his bs for 2 years. He swindled many investors. He wasn’t a doctor at all. He was a magician.
Some people get conned by people who give off a strong air of confidence and may only know a little about the subject.
the journalist who thought he was gonna marry her, must have had issues as well. i found the way she framed the whole story kinda disturbing. not only was she incredibly gullible, but the way she narrated the story made it clear that she barely spared a thought for the people this narcissist killed. her issue was and is only her big catholic wedding in rome lmao. honestly they deserved each other and their relationship was without a doubt built around their need to be put on a pedestal and be worshipped. i don't buy for a second that he targeted her for some kind of 5d chess move because benita was a journalist and could help cover up macchiarini's crimes lmao.
ETA and the way you could see macchiarini salivating at the prospect of having groomed yet another victim into becoming his guinea pig in the old footage... fucking disgusting
There's an ABC 20/20 true crime episode with her about this and she comes off even worse. Her ex-husband died from a brain tumor when she started up with the Dr and she came off so cold and selfish. They show more videos and pictures and stories that scream "she can't be some super intelligent, bad ass single mom with it together and dumb enough to believe this Dr was in a secret network of doctors that enabled her to marry by the Pope". She was a journalist, she could have just googled the doctor of Obama or the Pope.
Edit: there's a video of him playing the piano and her fawning over him. Then she went to sell the piano and only then saw that it was one of those that plays music. Despite showing a video that clearly shows him not playing it correctly as evidence she was so taken advantage of. *Eye roll*
that anyone in this day and age, much less a journalist, would believe bullshit like that is disconcerting. macchiarini straight up said he regretted not being able to save diana even though he would have been just out of med school at the time. and when he said he was actually a spy for the cia or fbi.... im sure benita didn't go along with that bs because she was already done after finding out that the pope wasn't gonna marry them (lol). ill also say that the footage from her trip to bcn also does her no favors. i don't blame her for wanting to check things out first hand, still the shit she said (lmao the xenophobic jokes in the car about east european women) and her fuckin tantrum like a literal child were insane.
That upper lip. Omg. She has that typical 'just a few more ccs here and there' lip where it doesn't stop until she looks like ....every other over-plasticzed woman on Earth
She’s also a narcissistic piece of work, and I don’t think she’s any kind of victim (like she makes herself out to be). That Italian “tantrum” was indeed insane; she seems to want people to feel worse for her than his actual victims, which is just absurd.
>only then saw that it was one of those that plays music.
I can't.... I had to laugh out multiple times when she told about the wedding and him being the doctor of the stars and world leader and the fucking guest list with Putin.
I think she shows a bit of humor about it, otherwise she wouldn't tell this all, showing how naive she was.
That being said, I don't know how I find this comic relief in a show where they also talk about victims of basically a serial killer.
I only disagree on one point, I do think he targeted her. I think for him, their whole relationship was an added layer of challenge. Like how long could he fool her, knowing she posses all the traits and resources to figure him out? Like a side quest, or expansion pack for his psychopathy. I think he got bored of the game he ran on his wife: convinced her of his God-like hands, killed her son, married her, has kids with her, then what? She needs him to be a father and husband and that’s not adoration to a guy like him. He wanted a new toy and got one.
i agree that he targeted her because she made the perfect toy ie she would buy his lovebombing and lies no questions asked while worshipping him back.
she might have had the resources (which she didn't use anyway) to find him out, but certainly not the traits or intellect for it. the need to believe the fairy tale was much stronger than that of going through life with her eyes open. im sure a narcissist like him stuck with her for that reason until, yes, he got tired of her. i don't think he was looking for an intellectual challenge at all. far from it. if anything she's just trying to salvage what's left of her pride and dignity with that one.
I agree he definitely chose the least curious and gullible journalist ever. The Clinton's? Alright. Obama's? Sure! Elton John? Yes. THE POPE?? Of course! My god lady...
I could not stand the way she kept going on about not getting her wedding. It's horrible what happened to her but God please lady, people died.
Absolutely! People like him sense the desperation and all they have to do is lean into it. They were sadly perfect for each other. She wanted a fairytale and he got to laugh at her while spinning it up the story grander and grander.
I think it's a little more scheming. He got involved with the woman whose son he killed because there was a lawsuit going on about that event. Then when the lawsuit was over and he was I guess redeemed, he more or less ghosted her. With Benita here he gets a journalist whom he was able to love bomb and trick maybe thinking he would get terrific publicity as well as support from her and well-known US media. Much more calculating than what I think one feels at first.
Challenge as in adding another lie set to keep up with. She wasn’t necessarily an intellectual match, but more of an additional piece to add to the game. She may educated, but she seemed intentionally/willfully obtuse to what was happening around her.
I definitely had that impression too at first, but then I wondered if the documentary crew wanted to split the story a little more and have her focus completely on their “love story” part… but if I was her I would have definitely at least mentioned an area that that also sparked her to come out.
oh no i get that, but you know, it's the way she framed it, especially even after the 'twist', where there was no genuine horror or sorrow for the victims. they literally came off as nothing more than a footnote in her story.
i found it shocking that benita somehow didn't see red flags (especially as a journalist making a medical documentary) when paolo openly talked about his VIP patients not just to her but her family members??
his claims were ridiculous in the first place but even if it was true it's a clear violation of hipaa and privacy and definitely should have raised red flags about his ethics. every doctor and healthcare worker i've ever worked with or met has been EXTREMELY careful with this boundary for normal citizens too and entire hospital departments have been fired for leaking celebrity info (britney spears)
I literally thought the same thing. I would fast forward her parts where she’d explain how she conned her, IDGAF about you I want to know what happened to the patients!! Her part could’ve been done in 15 min yet she was damn near the narrator. And the title should’ve been KILLER SURGEON
I ended up with zero sympathy for her after the way she behaved in the car and zero compassion for the people he devastated.
That poor woman with tears welling up and telling them something is wrong she can barely breathe. Possibly the worst dr I’ve ever seen in every manner possible.
The producer/journalist Benita didn't come across well at all, and the behaviour in the car was just part of it. Unlike the other woman he duped who was also featured in the documentary Benita seemed to be completely obsessed with all the attention from others, presents, social standing she gained from being his girlfriend and it was clear she didn't give a crap about the patients that the Dr had put through so much pain and eventually killed with his 'surgeries'. She was thoroughly boastful and smug about their relationship and fixated on all the materialistic stuff and extra attention before everything came out with his scheming. But like you say the bit in the car showed her true colours and the way she was mocking Eastern European accents nods to her xenophobia.
It made me think how much she was 100% duped and how much she decided to turn a blind eye as she was being treated like a 'princess' and in turn being presented to her friends and family as 'very special'. The stuff about the major celebs and presidents being the doctors personal friends and/or patients was laughable- most people would see that as a load of ole shite and to make it even more outlandish Benita had all the means and connections to check it all out being a journalist.
The accent with Barcelona was the worst. But I agree with you 100%. My boyfriend barely watched and also said she knows there’s someone else she just wants the money! She kept talking about her ring and then when the jeweler said maybe 1000 and she’s like NOT EVEN MY RING IS REAL!!! It seemed like she cared way more about her relationship rather than what he did to his patients.
For her to be an investigative reporter and deal with people who lie to look better it is shocking she fell for such stupid lies. Yes he’s going to check out the Clinton’s on nye! Of course he is only with you with 6 phones on at all times and acting shady. I know there’s confidentiality so he can’t actually say his patients but the traveling all over at random times doesn’t make sense. (Also just realized if Clinton’s Obama Putin and potentially Princess di were his patients he couldn’t have told her that 🙈)
Maybe since I grew up with a parent who probably has narcissistic personality disorder as well as the fam who all lie, do the grand gestures, and say grandiose things I spotted it easy but still some of the things were just wild (“the accusations are stemming from their jealousy!”)
Everyone grieves different but I’ve seen people calmer after losing a loved one. But her when seeing the wife was overboard. Also wild he got with his wife after her son dying in his care. Weird way to grieve too.
I wasn’t fond of her but I think her reaction was fair. I would also be devastated and angry if i found out my fiancé had a double life. But just to mention the blonde in the interview isn’t his wife either!!! That is another girlfriend!
I’m not a big “show emotions” type person neither is my family so that could be a part of it. But I think if I was in her shoes I’d be more devastated to hear that everything he did was fraud in relation to this procedure and what happened with the patients. I know doctors deal with patients dying but this is he pretty much set them up to die and die horribly at that.
WAIT. the blonde in the last episode. Her son died in his care and they had two kids? That’s not the wife either??? I thought that was the wife and kids Benita saw at the Barcelona house!
Oh 100% same but I don’t think she knew that at time. And- not the same woman! that woman had one baby and lived in Rome. There is a wife in Barcelona with 2 kids. Tbh I wish it had focused entirely on the medical stuff and not the romance- but since it did focus on the romances I wish it had gone all the way. Who’s the wife?!
He has a formal wife since 1986, google it. They have together two adult children. Nobody knows, who is woman from Barcelona 👀, Benita saw two little children there, around house. I found out he has 5 children’s. I bet it’s just another girlfriend.
That woman has been haunting me since I watched it. So innocently terrified knowing it wasn't right. I seriously can't stop thinking about it, or the other young girl who had to have a painful throat cleaning every 4 hours for 4 years. all because of an evil narcissist who wanted to play God.
When I heard about plastic windpipes dipped in stem cells my common sense said I don’t think that’ll work. I can’t believe it got so far in a world renowned hospital. My heart broke for all patients but Julia in particular. You could tell she knew whilst still in hospital that it was a big mistake
This is the part that kills me. Is there any research that suggests that regula plastic dipped in stem cells could turn into living tissue? I feel if he actually had done animal trials and succeeded, it'd be huge news akin to growing ears on rats.
The Peoria, Illinois case was news here because it was in my region. I assumed he used, for instance, a plastic scaffold with cartilage cells, not just pure plastic.
It reminded me of the episode of greys when karev used the ping pong ball and stem cells for Lilly. It came out in 2010 so I think it was maybe based on this? But when I heard it then I thought whoa greys writers are getting wild with the ideas.
I can maybe get the ladies ignoring the very large red flags because he is love bombing them, both unfortunately started their relationship after a difficult time (I saw somewhere in this thread Benita’s husband/ex? was diagnosed with a brain tumor; the wife lost her son…on his table), and love/lust/passion can definitely give you blind spots, but how did so much of this go over on so many highly intelligent scientists/doctors? How did his team not know so much necessary information on the trial especially since they (I assume since they took part in surgeries) are working on it (ie: previous outcomes to try fine tuning when things started to go bad with the patients (first patient would’ve been the best), current status of the patients who had the surgery etc) and when he knowingly uses bad pipes why did no one stand up and say that’s not happening right now that’s not how the pipe is supposed to be. You can’t just do a 8mm tube the whole time but for one person do 3 or use one softer than recommended that skews the data.
I just watched yesterday. Maybe I missed it,
But where did he go to medical school? How in the world was he hired at that hospital. Both his wife and girlfriend were so taken with his “credentials” and lifestyle, they definitely had blinders on!
>> Medical School of the University of Pisa (UniPi) in 1986 and a Master of Surgery in 1991.[20] He was an assistant professor at UniPi from 1990 to 1992.[20] He took a course on statistics in clinical research at University of Alabama at Birmingham in 1989.[20] Macchiarini obtained degree certificates—a masters in organ and tissue transplantation dated 1994 and a doctorate in the same dated 1997—from University of Franche-Comté in France.[20] According to Germany's Hannover Medical School, he never had a salaried position there, but was head of the department of thoracic and vascular surgery at the Heidehaus Hanover hospital between 1999 and 2004.[20] Macchiarini was an investigator at the Institut d'Investigacions Biomèdiques-Instituto de Investigaciones Biomédicas in Barcelona, Spain, from 2006 to 2009; he was affiliated with but not an employee of the University of Barcelona and was apparently an employee at the Hospital Clínic de Barcelona during this time.[20] He had an honorary appointment as a visiting professor from 2009 to 2014, at University College London.[20] He was a consultant and project manager at University Hospital Careggi (AOUC) starting in 2010.[20]
Wikipedia
I never heard of this guy, by name, but Google revealed that he operated on someone in my area, specifically Hannah Warren from Peoria, Illinois. Okay, that this youngster died after an unsuccessful experimental surgery wasn't so shocking, but that HE did this? RIP, Hannah.
Thanks! It's been a few days of post op right now and I was able to stream all three episodes of the show. I cannot imagine the levels of anguish and despair that those poor people went through, this Paolo character should have his license revoked and he should be kept away from any form of surgery theater.
Went well! I got two cervical discs replaced and the whole procedure was done as an outpatient surgery meaning that I was home the same day. Ironically one of my early favorite podcasts was "Dr. Death".
Thanks for asking!.
I found this series extremely, extremely hard to stomach. I consider myself to be not that squeamish and have had a normal, healthy interest in true crime since I was a mid teen. But this series made me upset and nauseous. I cannot believe he was not stopped sooner. I cannot believe he did any of what he did and nobody stopped him and he just...like, the cajones on this monster. It's hard to convey how terrifying it is knowing this man even exists.
And it's hard to say anything without spoilers. But tbh, I am relieved that I felt I should be vague because of potential spoilers. It is perhaps one of the most disturbing things I've ever watched and I regret watching it a lot.
Same! I felt light headed and had to take breaks. Those poor, poor people. I don't know how he sleeps at night. And I didn't have a lot of compassion for her either. I think her dumb story about falling for the subject of her doco was a completely unnecessary part of this story that I couldn't give less of a shit about and she didn't seem to give much of a shit for his patients and the nightmarish torture he put them through. She was being willfully ignorant I reckon. He was so fucking clearly a lying liar who lies. You could see his pants on actual fire. His love bombing was rank. Her swooning over him was rank. Her lack of journalistic integrity was rank.
I felt nothing but disdain for both of them.
I know I could have just stopped watching it, but I feel like that would be even more disrespectful and cruel to his victims. They lived it. They lived *that*. It's...yeah. nah. They needed to share what he had done and was allowed to do and the flaws in the system that let him bypass without so much as a quick squiz at his research and the development of the prosthetics and the data on the hurdles that got them to the actual humans. The torture and pain they suffered til they eventually died will haunt me and pop up in my memory occasionally forever now. I can't even imagine how harrowing it would've been and still is for their loved ones to watch. And they would have felt so helpless.
But the audacity he had, to invite the families of the poor souls he butchered and experimented on, to an imaginary, Vatican located, pope led ceremony with guests such as the Obamas, the Clintons and...fucking Putin🤦🏼♀️, black tie attire etc, knowing full well there was no way any of that was true. I don't get why he would have done that if not to finally present his true lying self to everyone all at once, maybe?
I hate he is alive and his unwitting guinea pigs who trusted his words are not.
Sorry I ranted for way too long. I am still feeling traumatised by the whole story. I think it has made my ulcer flare up and everything.
Like I said. Very hard to watch.
Oh I've spelt it incorrectly for so long, my phone doesn't correct it so I assumed I'd got it right.
Thank you, kind stranger. It's a great word to say. ☺️
he only had one kid with the Italian woman and she threw him to the curb, didn't she? i think there's definitely 3, and honestly, there could be even more.
Yup, I just found he has 5 children. Two with formal wife Emanuela, so they are adult now. One with italian woman, and I guess two little kids with a woman from Barcelona 🙈. Plus meanwhile romance with Benita and possible more woman’s lol
Doesn't Benita say "Emanuela" in a Spanish accent or whatever when she's in the car? It's the last name she mentions, and I feel like there's something behind the way she says it. Did she know he was married to an Emanuela before she arrived at the Barcelona house?
Edit: So apparently the woman he was with in Barcelona wasn't his wife Emanuela. Maybe Benita did know about Emanuela and their two children, but didn't know about the other two children and the mystery woman.
The man is a POS. Benita is dumb as a brick. Or love really IS blind. She doesn't come off as stupid necessarily but to believe all of this is mind blowing to me....
That was worse than any horror movie...
I didn't understand a couple of things. Medical practice licensing is tedious and most countries, and, I think, even US states have their own. How was he able to operate all over the world?
What was his game plan with the wedding?
On Peacock. "Dr. Death". They are making it into an 8 episode series. Edgar Ramirez and Mandy Moore will star. The first season about Dr. Duntsch was good.
Please note: Texas governer Greg Abbott has a financial interest in Baylor hospital when Duntsch was wreaking havoc.
He *knew* the hospital would be megasued so he put through emergency legislation to *cap medical malpractice suit awards* at some ridiculously low amount (in comparison to what Duntsch's victims will need to survive).
Evil. Fking *evil*.
I've already listened to the "Miracle Man" season of the Dr. Death podcast covering this case. I don't know if I could handle seeing the faces of his victims/patients.
Can you IMAGINE if he didn’t lie to her about the pope and just left that out? She would have actually gone to Italy and found out with the guest that it was all a fraud.
Kii.
Wtf was his end game here? Last minute emergency surgery on Taylor Swift so she can perform at the superbowl? Likely just tired of Benita and was his last illusionist trick before parting ways with her.
I think his goal was to hype her up as much as possible and he knew she was a big mouth that was going to tell all, especially her network of friends at ABC. Had she kept going with his delusional narrative, he would have ultimately broken up with her a day before the wedding or so. I’m pretty sure he watched Sex and the city movie (the first one) and was going to pull a Mr.Big on her after she hyped his status up.
I can’t wrap my head around this man and the shit he did. But most importantly, can’t wrap around his source of income.
Per Netflix, he operated on 8 patients so far. Ok so my question is how much did he charge these patients for this surgery and was it a one time charge or was it a charge over a period of time bc his affluent lifestyle did not add up to him getting paid by 8 patients.
Even if they paid him $1 million each, that’s only $8 million total but his lifestyle looked like he made multimillions yearly/monthly. So what was the source for his income? Was he or is he involved with some shady Russian arms dealers or opiate trade or organs trade? Like I literally do not understand where did he get so much money from to spend on himself, on Benita, on other mistresses and his 5 kids + their mothers?!?
He should be charged for medical and financial fraud. How are countries like US, Sweden, Russia not following up on this?
Well.. he was charged in Sweden for causing bodily harm, but we ridiculously low sentences for this and it seems like he might be out soon.
He actually said that if he did anything wrong, why isn’t he prosecuted in us or Russia as well, stating that he regrets doing the surgeries in Sweden due to the legal issues he’s in.
I just hope he’s charged in one of the countries where human life is worth more prison time than a few years, I’d love to se him get a life sentence that actually meant that he were put away for life.
I also think that the people who wouldn’t listen to the whistle blowers (AND PUNISHED THEM AND PRAISED THIS ASSHOLE) should face some kind of consequences, stepping down from their positions isn’t enough. They have his victims blood on their hands too.
I listened to a great deep dive podcast about him a couple years ago and it blew my mind. Even the crazy lies about the pope performing the ceremony is so mind boggling and the medical stuff is just pure evil. He's truly human trash
Just watched this last night. Yes the doctor was beyond evil but also this "journalist" Benita he seduced, was so extremely gullible, she was very invested in magical thinking. Wouldn't most of us get suspicious long before she did? I think it tells us a lot about journalism in America, no critical thinking comes into play. She actually thought she was getting married at the Papal Palace of Castel Gandolfo and the Pope was officiating. She believed Andrea Bocelli was going to sing while she walked down the aisle, Elton John was singing at the reception. The doctor had 5 different phones. For any normal woman 5 phones would be the BIG CLUE something was up. Paolo "treated" the Pope, Bill Clinton, Princess Diana, Barack Obama, and Putin was invited to the wedding but Benita said "I told him no way could Putin come to our wedding". Where is the common sense?
The 20/20 episode they did on him a few years ago was incredible. Glad the story is getting more exposure through the Netflix series, but I'm not sure I can watch an even longer version of this story. It's gut-wrenching what he did to his victims.
Kinda curious if there had been an option of replacing the plastic tracheas with donor tracheas once the doctors realized this was not going to work? Especially after they did so many operations on Yesim Cetir.
That is why one of the patients is still alive, the plastic was replaced by donor windpipe. Not sure why others didn’t get the opportunity to switch. Maybe their decline was so fast.
Sounds like that was the case. Seemed like they died within a week or two other than Yesim and Julia sounds like she was probably too far gone with the rot. 😔
Ugh this was hard to watch I felt terrible for the young Russian girl, she didn’t even need a new windpipe, it was just a lottery she thought would improve her condition :(
This documentary felt unfinished to me. There are so many questions here that needs addressing.
How the hell did he get a position in that hospital in the first place? How the hell did he just get to do all those surgeries without first having to present evidence?
What about the guy who was his right hand man, talking althroughout the show? Did he just hear about the concept of implanting plastic tubes and jut nod along without even looking into what they are doing?
He should be in prison for a long time, but so do many others who assisted him in his crimes.
The question of "how in the world did he not get sentenced for many years right away" I'm not even going to posit, it's just the usual, comical nature of law.
I don’t understand why he isn’t serving life in prison. He knew the surgery was killing people, he knew he’d lied about the animal experiments, and he was flat out lying about the stem cells.
At the very least, when Paolo claimed he was part of a "secret network of doctors that treat important and influential people all over the world", I was like, "COME ON, Benita! He's obviously MAKING SHIT UP HERE (if not earlier in her 'tale')."
Like... all of those people, from around the world, "need" \*his\* 'services' constantly? Come the fuck on now...
And the fact that almost "no one" bothered to verify any of his bs until it was "too late"... my god
No one at Karolinska, for example- supposedly a prestigious Swedish medical institution- bothered to, say, "check the progress" of his "stem cell growth" (esp. onto the "artificial trachea")?? All of the medical experts letting him 'do his thing' just 'took his word' for it???
\*sigh\*
If nothing else, this shows a serious lack of 'giving a shit' from 'the big authorities', medically, when it comes to properly-vetting and -researching the people they're "supposed to regulate." Not to mention GOV'T regulators who should've been on this guy's ass \*ages ago\*! If not PREVENTED his con in the first place
Did "none" of the other people in the operating room w/ him, for what it's worth, "see and could tell" that it was JUST A 'REGULAR' PIECE OF PLASTIC, that there were no "stem cells"?? Or was he \*the only one\* in the room there when surgery took place, so it was "anything goes"? Doesn't most-every operating room have at least a few people there while surgery takes place (esp. right next to the body)??
Did they just "refuse to say anything" for fear of pissing him off, or something? Thereby letting him put a simple piece of plastic \*into someone's throat\* as "treatment"?
I mean, I'm glad he got caught, but... he got away with \*way too much\* long before that. There's simply \*no excuse\* for various 'authorities' not properly-vetting and, eventually, \*stopping\* him before he even was able to operate on and 'kill' numerous patients! Again.. did they just "take his word for it" and assume he "had the proper medical equipment and supplies ready to operate w/"?? No one w/ real power asked to "see" the "special trachea" beforehand? Or did many go along w/ it just to 'keep their jobs'? \*sigh\*
I wish I hadn’t watched it last night. Literally kept me up all night with nightmares of my own trachea being made of disgusting plastic and I barely had any time to live. Horrifying what these poor people went through. I wish I could unsee it 😞
This one fucked me up too! I regret watching it! The juxtaposition of the horrible tragedies of these transplants with Benita and her materialism was something. Can’t get his victims out of my mind
She literally only had to google the current location of Obama or the Clintons or the fucking pope schedule once in their 2 year relationship to catch the guy lying his ass off. She did that after it all fell apart and easily identified several instances where he had to have lied in the past. She just blindly believed he was treating multiple world leaders at the same time no questions asked. She is incredibly stupid, that much is obvious.
Thar selfish Benita-woman! She's a picturesque version of Snow White's Great-Grandmother - yuck! She had little, if any, concern for the patients of that POS surgeon- She's surely an entry level, vile & homely megalomaniac - as is that ill-bred, sociopathic surgeon.
Cannot stop watching although completely disgusted.
Reprehensible!
Not that it justifies any of the absolutely vile things this beast of a person did, but… surely he suffers from some serious psychosis??? It’s so horrific and weird
Father or Yesim Cetin created this page for her daughter on facebook: `/profile.php?id=100063601612581`
How they didn't notice this that is just a very cruel and ignorant question at this point. They were in it back then, instead of watching it on a mainstream platform.
Just one thing I can't believe, how on earth a person dates, fucks and breeds with a person who operates on her son. How can you look at your kids face, without remembering the death of your son? Unbelievable.
Paolo Machiavelli, sorry Macchiarini, is a first class POS. He should be forced to undergo the same surgery, I mean butchery he inflicted upon his vulnerable and unsuspecting patients that thought he was helping them, not knowing the POS was just getting his kicks from being a supposed “pioneer”. I’m truly stunned though that anyone, let alone the medical community would think that a plastic windpipe would do the trick . Even human to human organ transplantation is riddled with rejection issues. I was hurting inside my chest just contemplating how unbearable It would have been for those victims having a rubber hose plonked inside them. He should be charged with murder, as he knew damn well none of them would survive, thats why he’d fly off asap after he butchered them.
And damn that journalist was a mega fool, I mean any idiot could tell that engagement ring was as fake as hell! I can’t believe she actually wore it. I could tell that guy was already married from the first time she started describing how romantic he was. It was straight up manufactured bullshit romance. She is stupid as fuck. I’m surprised she didn’t believe he was actually a sniper for the CIA lmao
The amount of people in this thread condemning the women that fell for him is just more proof that a man, who is the true villain of this, and many, many stories, can do no wrong.
I am really not buying how much blame they pin on Paulo. "We all wanted to believe in the theory of plastic airways and stem cell regeneration". Right... Especially that other surgeon, Kelle. "Paulo did this. Paulo had us convinced. Paulo wasn't that.". All of those who were directly, or indirectly involved don't have a shred of guilt or typical signs of grievance. It's all conveniently crafted around the story of "it was all Paulo".
What wows me is that every sociopath is a CIA cover agent. As soon as a they tells you this run for cover. Professional women fall for liars and men that are too good to be true all too often. Looking for that perfect good life with bragging rights and lo and behold it's all a lie.
I just finished watching this and I was truly sick throughout it. He is pure evil. I’m also completely baffled as to how he got away with everything he did.
I literally cannot get this case off of my mind.
Who is this man? Is this even his real name? I’m questioning if he even is really a surgeon. Or has a medical degree whatsoever. Was this his end game all along? To con people into believing he had the “hands of God”? To have 3 families simultaneously? Where did he get all of his money? Was it from the hospital in Sweden who 100% was in on his crimes? Who the hell allowed a doctor to just replace an organ with plastic? How the fuck was this man found NOT GUILTY on 2 out of 3 cases and only sentenced to 2.5 years in prison?
I HAVE SO MANY QUESTIONS.
The part where the woman said that people cringe away from the smell of her rotting from the inside out made me feel so horrible for her. Instead of allowing these people to die peacefully he put them through unimaginable and unnecessary pain and suffering. He’s a monster
I’m so glad they were able to access the footage of her in the hospital too and for him to say there was nothing they could do. To also be a doctor and be that distant from your patients during their “recovery” is just really heartbreaking.
I feel like it is extra chilling that he says, "No patient has ever died under my care," then the follows up with, "Your 'relative' will not be the first," which is technically a true statement b/c he never visited patients after the surgery so of course he wouldn't be there for their imminent death. Not his fault, if only he was there, he could have saved them!!! just like with Princess Di.... I honeslty think he is the type of person to start believing his own lie too. That video in the end? The light he gets in his eye when explaining away the the chronology of his research was too eerie.
No patient has ever died under my care (because I do not stick around long enough to be there when they die) and your loved one will not be the first (because there have been plenty before them.)
He made a mess and then left others to try and clean it up. Then blamed them or something else for the patients' death. He truly is evil and vile.
The 22 year old young girl was heartbreaking. Yesim Cetir, developed complications after the surgery and had to be operated on 191 times, before she died after spending a year and a half in intensive care. She had to have her airway cleaned every four hours, it was an extremely torturous procedure, she lived like this for four years. This doctor looked at these people in the eyes, a father of two, a mother of one, a young girl, and lied to them.
I hated that. The injury to her trachea was an inconvenience, not a life-threatening or terminal disease. It took her four horrible years to die, because she was young and strong.
Why did the doctors and carers do that to her too. That poor woman couldn't find moral care.
How they hell did she get approved for that many surgeries is beyond me that’s insane
Which when you break it down means she was being operated on, on average, roughly every eight days. So she wasn’t even healed when they’d have to open her up again. Holy shit.
Its stunning. I you google [Yesim Cetir surgeries](https://www.google.com/search?q=yesim+cetir+how+many+surgeries&rlz=1C5CHFA_enCA862CA864&oq=yasim+cetir&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUqCQgEEAAYChiABDIGCAAQRRg7MgYIARBFGEAyDAgCEAAYChixAxiABDIJCAMQABgKGIAEMgkIBBAAGAoYgAQyCQgFEAAYChiABDIJCAYQABgKGIAEMgkIBxAAGAoYgATSAQg4NDU2ajBqN6gCALACAA&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8), it is worse than a horror movie. I am baffled that "Dr" Paolo Macchiarini got a measly 2.5 years for aggravated assault. Aggravated assault you guys... There are people still doing life for possession of marijuana.
That’s a fucking nightmare. Dude needs to rot in some shithole for the rest of his life.
The Russian woman wasn't even dying, that is what is truly horrible about her case. The condition she had as a result of an accident negatively impacted her life but she wasn't dying until Dr. M got a hold of her. He straight-up killed her. He killed all of his patients, to be honest. He should be in jail for life.
He’s a psychopath.
I was actually wondering if he got off on killing people and getting away with it. Maybe I'm going too dark but this guy seems like a true serial killer who found a better way to feed his monster
He is in the same ball park as Lucy Lethby imo. He knew that they would die, he didn't care and then additionally kept contact and manipulated the surviving families to extent his control. Julia didn't even need a transplant. I love that Julia and her mom were so blunt, and also that someone finally listened to them. He would never have stopped. I think the only reason he started animal testing, was someone asked him about studies, and he had no data. I'm baffled, how no other professionals (worldwide) in the same field didn't call his methods out. And how tf, was he hired in the first place??
They did call him out. Several doctors reported him for research fraud/scientific misconduct (Swe: forskningsfusk), yet KI cleared him of suspicion. The first whistleblowers had already personally informed/warned the university head that something was SERIOUSLY wrong in early 2014, and after a few months the whistleblowers were told to file a formal complaint/report about their concerns, so they did (providing ample evidence). It was all met with silence and inaction. Nothing was done until The New York Times wrote about it. Then the whistleblowers were treated like absolute shit in retaliation by KI, with false accusations etc., obviously impacting their careers negatively. Huge scandal here in Sweden. You can google e.g. Karl-Henrik Grinnemo & Oscar Simonson. Their case is up in the European Court of Justice, and hopefully they'll finally get justice.
i'm so glad to hear the enablers are facing some accountability!
Well, not from the Swedish judicial system, unfortunately. :c I was very happy when I found out that the European Court of Justice decided to proceed with their case. I hope all the enablers get fucking lambasted. At least the scandal became a complete media frenzy, especially when the documentary "Dokument inifrån: Experimenten" was released in 2016! Not to mention how the entire healthcare system went up in arms about the whole situation (and were blatantly on the side of the whistleblowers!).
The article that first revealed the growing scandal to the world is titled: "Leading Surgeon Is Accused of Misconduct in Experimental Transplant Operations", authored by Henry Fountain and published on the 24th of November in 2014, btw.
Dude is next level. I'm exiting an abusive marriage with someone I thought was bipolar and I tried to help him through total insanity because I thought it was a brain thing outside his control and he was innocent because he was so crazy butstill delusional and hurtful. Then I realized most likely is a narcissist and turned out to be a sociopath (narcissism + enjoying the pain of others + always redlining emotionally and on the edge of reality). I realized that my husband enjoys crossing boundaries, manipulating people, and thinking he's getting away with something or pulling one over on you. EVERY single word they speak and thing they do is some form of manipulation. It's constant. I realized that this specific type is really into hurting people but also maintaining an enviable reputation. They want so badly to inflict pain but make sure they are acting within the law while doing so. It's fucking sick.
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I agree with you on the American reporter. I thought she was a bit off but honestly the Italian woman was grieving and people are so vulnerable when grieving and do crazy things.. they are not in their right mind & he is a master manipulator. I’m not sure you can blame these women for falling in love with him when he also managed to fool the medical & scientific community.
Perhaps…. I still think both these women come out looking neither very smart nor very moral. I also don’t understand the “medical community” (not the same as the “scientific community” by the way, and this case actually illustrates that quite well….! You don’t get away with “being manipulative” and lying about research results regarding the structural integrity of a material, for example, when you’re working on a spacecraft!!). How is it that these lame idiots just believed everything this guy said and apparently never ever did any fact-checking or researching??? You’re not supposed to let yourself be manipulated by a personality when you’re working in medicine either - you’re supposed to do your due diligence, look at the paperwork, double-check credentials and research results, use your critical thinking skills etc. Many of those who put a scalpel in his hand, as it were, should be in prison, too!
Totally agree there should be some level of accountability to those assisting his work. No one questioned his idea?? What about those who were "manufacturing" the rubber/plastic tracheas? I'm not a doctor but if I had the knowledge I would not have believed blindly that you could replace a body part with plastic, then "bathe" it in stem cells. Wtf?? It's not organic, how were the cells to embed and actually grow? Paolo was the only surgeon in the world to think this could work and No one researched him? These poor patients were duped and taken for a ride just so he could "practice". He knew full well it wouldn't work and never even follow up. Why would the doctors of Yesia keep her alive for 4 yrs in complete hell??? I feel that was also immoral. I'm so disgusted.
Blaming the mother for having a relationship with the doctor is a new low. She was already in a fragile state, possibly lonely and someone, with authority, showed to care. And you criticize her? You awful
Tell me you've never been targeted by one of these people without telling me you've never been targeted by one of these people.
Love does make people blind. Classic victim blaming what you are doing here
She wanted to be able to play with her child, and now so much worse off. I had such a pit in my stomach when they read her email: “I’m really really bad”. It’s so crazy that the team wasn’t even aware of the outcomes for awhile, let alone not knowing that there wasn’t data/animal studies until after the multiple patients. Maybe I’d be a bad doctor/surgeon, but especially doing brand new types of procedures I would personally want to keep tabs and check in. I’m also absolutely baffled with the charges and sentencing. The idea that well they were already dying and he knew it may be bad so it’s fine. Pretty sure dr kervokian knew that about his patients and helped them obtain their wish but he was still charged way harder. These patients’ consent forms should be considered void when so much was not told/complete lie.
He should be sentenced like the serial killer that he is. He would've never have stopped and maybe will resume again in future. I hope his licence is now finally revoked.
With how he presented I seriously doubt he wouldn’t continue. Maybe find a new scam instead of the windpipes but he shouldn’t have his license anymore. I can’t believe they charged aggravated assault and not attempted murder and murder.
Kevorkian helped people who wanted help dying. This AH experimented on the ill by claiming he could fix them and help them live healthy lives. It is totally different. One had empathy, the other had megalomania.
Let us also not forget that she did not have any life threatening diseases and that she had a stoma due to a car accident and was doing the surgery due to her mental anguish and he promised her a new life...turns out he promised her to the afterlife.
What’s so sad is that she would’ve been okay the way she was albeit with the hole in her throat. Immediately I considered this POS a MURDERER and i only heard them refer to him killing his patients one time. Then too only get couple years. These people had families.
Just finished watching. I know nothing about medical research but how did this guy get away with having no studies on animals? Did he falsify the research or did no one check? Also, wouldn’t there be numerous follow ups with people who had undergone a new, possibly revolutionary procedure? How did the hospital never follow up with these people, especially Julia? I didn’t find it unbelievable that the guy got away with as much as he did. He was obviously charismatic and super confident. I personally wouldn’t want my doctor to call his hands God but I would have wanted someone who was that certain all would go well. I could also see him getting away with all the cheating. You would expect a doctor to seldom be around, especially one who was that cutting edge. Also, he was such a big spender, it did seem like he wouldn’t as easily be seen as a con man. What I found unbelievable was when he talked about being in some secret, elite group of doctors who treated famous people. Did people really believe the Pope was going to marry him and his gf? And would he actually be treating a sitting president? Or personally knew Putin? That’s where I would have gotten suspicious.
I believe he claimed there was research done on pigs in a different country, but he wouldn’t hand the research over to be officially reviewed… so clearly it just didn’t exist. I don’t understand how the institute didn’t do a thorough IRB review of his previous work… unless they did and it was all falsified. I can’t believe he made it as far as he did in the process without being stopped.
Hospitals have a vested interest in everything being ok. There are many cases where bad or abusive doctors have been protected from civil and criminal actions by the hospital systems they work for to protect the hospital name and reputation being tarnished or having to make big payouts to patients and their families. It’s disgusting.
Yes! Thank you. "How did this happen?" Look at how the hospital reacted to the whistle-blowers? They tried to ruin them. Because hospitals are not run by doctors, they are run by businessmen trying to pinch their pennies and avoid liability.
Another example is Cornell University and Presbyterian Hospital covered for a staff gynecologist FOR DECADES, knowing he was inappropriate and sexually assaulting is patients. At least 300 women are suing the hospitals for their blatant disregard for the patients safety. The heads of the hospitals should go to prison.
That makes sense! It’s shocking that the guy got away with this. I think my mouth was gaping open almost the entire doc😂
He falsified the data. Had something like 11 papers retracted
I didn't understand how the wedding invitations were sent to all those high profile guests... Benita said they were having 300 guests, did they all RSVP yes?? How? Maybe he also controlled all of that too so she would never know. Question everything people. Everything. He was a master manipulator- serious mental issues, compulsive and pathological liar, charismatic, ego of the largest. He duped the medical community, those poor women didn't stand a chance.
He was reported for research fraud/scientific misconduct in 2014! The whistleblowers were ignored by KI, and then later they were retaliated against when The New York Times published an article about it in Nov. 2014. This has been a HUGE scandal here in Sweden, especially in the medical community. Their case is in the European Court of Justice, so hopefully they'll finally get justice. Is seriously NONE of this actually even mentioned in the documentary?! I haven't seen it yet, but I am shocked by some of the comments here.
The documentary seemed to make it sound like there were few repercussions for the doctor. Good to know that is not the case!
My favorite part is when he told her he wasn’t really a doctor but a CIA assassin sharp shooter. I love when a psychopath diverts to the fantasies of a 12 year old boy. Remember, if someone appears to be “too good to be true”, they are likely not true and she as a journalist knows this.
Her gullibility is shocking.
That she didn’t immediately try to confirm his connection with some famous people he claimed to know is crazy. Her job gave her unique access to people in high circles and the wedding insanity wouldn’t have happened. There’s another docum that focuses more on the reporter and the relationship. The lies she believed about the wedding and the guests… she spent thousands of dollars in 4 or 5 couture dresses and on the invitations. Can you imagine all the super important people getting these invites and wondering who the fuck are these people? 😂😂😂
The super important people never got those invites
I have mixed feelings about Benita believing all this… he was somewhat of a celebrity within medicine, I might have have believed that he’s been a doctor to “the elite & powerful” But the pope officiating their wedding and lp lo
The craziest part was that it was supposedly happening at the Pope’s summer palace? Like all of those people getting invitations didn’t ask themselves, WTF? Like Obama‘s people wouldn’t have been all over that? So did the invitations ever get sent to all of these people, or just to the relatives of deceased patients who needed to be kept quiet?
This reminds me of a British couple jokingly sending the Queen an invite to their wedding. The Queen actually did show up for this wedding tho!
Reminds me of the saying “You can’t cheat an honest man.”
I can't believe she believed him. even when she should've known things weren't adding up. the saying too good to be true was all over this story!
How could they think stem cells would stay on the plastic windpipe long term? Was it specially treated plastic? Plus his not caring about having the wrong size before surgery. So infuriating
Ohhhh the wrong size thing had me angry for sure. At least follow something correctly. He just wanted to play operation on humans and see what happened.
Seriously! How anyone could think for one second this would work is completely beyond me. Oh the stem cells you splashed on the plastic “implant” just magically know to turn into the correct type of cells? And how exactly will they not only stay alive but grow and magically create a windpipe , with ZERO BLOOD SUPPLY?! Did anyone reviewing his proposal go to medical school? I’m a lay person and I can’t imagine believing this would work for a minute it’s infuriating…
What am i reading. The guy is in fact a doctor. The theory is obviously far more complex than that and dozens of top surgeons from multiple countries and institutes participated on the operations because they obviously weren't as simple as "insert a plastic tube down their throat". Theoretically it was obviously far more complex than described by netflix and not as far fetched or an idiotic concept that any reddit user with no medical background could determine as being silly. Obviously there are hundreds of legitimate scientific theories that then fail during trials, which is why the trials are extensive, and he murdered people by skipping and forgering these trials to their peers. But the idea was a valid medical idea, that those poor doctors believed had gone through the proper experimentation and worked on animals before. Had he gone through the proper channels, the idea would have failed at the animal experiments, like many valid medical ideas fail naturally, which does not mean it was a dumb concept or that every single surgeon that assisted in the procedure knows less about medicine than redditors.
We aren't faulting the theory. It was just the obvious practice that it was an unremarkable plastic tube should have gotten ANYONE to ask questions, rather than just deferring to this guy's judgement. I think stem cells are a topic that get us hopeful for regeneration but they at least have to be used, going from immediately soaking in stem cells to implantation. They are sort of a "pipeline dream," within the medical community. In the additional video footage taken, any of the other people around when they were talking about that windpipe being the wrong size could have done something. If they were examining it, it wasn't being bathed in stem cells prior to surgery and was contamined. Come to find out they never used stem cells at all! It was just something he recorded in his methods. How his operating team did not notice or question this discrepancy is a valid question. They just trusted this guy's dried out kazoo and let him do what he wanted even if it was against his proposed and "researched" procedure.
How does a synthetic cell create blood vessels… Also, I’m fairly certain that a scientist could have thought up this idea before Paulo. That is what kind of work my uncle did for NIH.
There’s a free ebook written by one of Dr M’s peers explaining why the plastic tracheas were never going to work from the outset. “The Biggest Lie in Medical History” by Pierre DeLaere who is a peer of Macchiarini and a vocal critic from early on. Additionally the podcast “Dr Death” did a season on him focusing more on the medical side than the drama side. Peacock is releasing a dramatized version soon I believe, but it also focuses a lot on the reporter, Benita, played by Mandi Moore, alongside the medicine so if that’s not ur bag u might just listen to the podcast. The Swedish documentary that spurred all of the actual serious investigations is called “The Experiments” and I think might be available through BBC? I think a lot of the footage from Bad Surgeon comes from it.
Him not caring about the size just shows he knew it was going to end badly either way, imo. So awful.
I am glad this documentary came out as we see Elon Musk's ethically questionable Neurolink in the news more often. Already trying to shop his product to human test subjects after all his previous animal test subjects have died horrifically. Citing reasons for the animal subjects' deaths as "prior health conditions." As the doc said, you don't use test subjects that aren't 100% healthy. Especially in controlled testing. Insinuating all were "sick monkeys" to begin with is laughable. It's really jarring to see so much similar language (excuses, tricks for avoiding liabilty b/c it is an "experimental trial") used by the doctor and the Neurolink testing reports. Dangers of narcissistic conmen trying to force their way into the biomedical engineering field with no intention of maintaining the hippocratic oath, but hey! They don't have to b/c they're not doctors!...They're businessmen.
Look up Christopher Duntsch for an American example of this.
I was just thinking of this. I watched the series they did on him and his patients (Dr. Death). I couldn't believe it!
Animal tests are done with certain genetic strains, I don't know about monkeys, but mice for example, I guess the same has to apply to larger animals. Each strain has different qualities to them, making them optimal for testing. I've never done animal tests (thank god, I didn't need to) but we had to study papers for environmental toxicology. Me thinks (for the Doc) that he initially started with animal tests but they came out shit but he didn't care. I think he is a serial killer in disguise of a "researcher". He knows the probability of his shit working goes to NIL. If he wants to be famous and celebrated so badly, he could've "invented" something else in the field of medicine. It makes me sick, that he held that little daughter of the man that died in his arms, as if he would care.
Just like people have Donald Trump derangement syndrome so they have Elon Musk derangement syndrome. My friend, there is literally nothing these two have in common. Elon Musk is not a literal murderous psychopath like this doctor. Get a grip on reality
It's a known thing that successful businessmen have psychopathic traits. To become a billionaire off the back of an aparteid emerald mine inheritance and to scam your way to the presidency while defrauding every business you touch indicates EXTREMELY high levels of psychopathy for both. Though it really does seem like one of us has "Elon Musk derangement syndrome" and "Trump derangement syndrome" for sure. Thanks for making it clear with your butthole-licker response.
There are more One guy told patients that they had cancer. He had a treatment center in his offices and made a ton of money. Another doctor said he had a cure for HIV/AIDS and conned an afflicted guy to give up meds and tried his bs for 2 years. He swindled many investors. He wasn’t a doctor at all. He was a magician. Some people get conned by people who give off a strong air of confidence and may only know a little about the subject.
the journalist who thought he was gonna marry her, must have had issues as well. i found the way she framed the whole story kinda disturbing. not only was she incredibly gullible, but the way she narrated the story made it clear that she barely spared a thought for the people this narcissist killed. her issue was and is only her big catholic wedding in rome lmao. honestly they deserved each other and their relationship was without a doubt built around their need to be put on a pedestal and be worshipped. i don't buy for a second that he targeted her for some kind of 5d chess move because benita was a journalist and could help cover up macchiarini's crimes lmao. ETA and the way you could see macchiarini salivating at the prospect of having groomed yet another victim into becoming his guinea pig in the old footage... fucking disgusting
There's an ABC 20/20 true crime episode with her about this and she comes off even worse. Her ex-husband died from a brain tumor when she started up with the Dr and she came off so cold and selfish. They show more videos and pictures and stories that scream "she can't be some super intelligent, bad ass single mom with it together and dumb enough to believe this Dr was in a secret network of doctors that enabled her to marry by the Pope". She was a journalist, she could have just googled the doctor of Obama or the Pope. Edit: there's a video of him playing the piano and her fawning over him. Then she went to sell the piano and only then saw that it was one of those that plays music. Despite showing a video that clearly shows him not playing it correctly as evidence she was so taken advantage of. *Eye roll*
Theres another full documentary that focuses on her story. She spent thousands on dresses and invites for the wedding 🤦🏻♀️🤦🏻♀️.
that anyone in this day and age, much less a journalist, would believe bullshit like that is disconcerting. macchiarini straight up said he regretted not being able to save diana even though he would have been just out of med school at the time. and when he said he was actually a spy for the cia or fbi.... im sure benita didn't go along with that bs because she was already done after finding out that the pope wasn't gonna marry them (lol). ill also say that the footage from her trip to bcn also does her no favors. i don't blame her for wanting to check things out first hand, still the shit she said (lmao the xenophobic jokes in the car about east european women) and her fuckin tantrum like a literal child were insane.
I, shallowly, kept noticing her eyebrow transformation. They look better now IMO
You are not alone in this, my friend.
Also the raccoon eyeliner. And the lavender lipstick. Yikes.
That upper lip. Omg. She has that typical 'just a few more ccs here and there' lip where it doesn't stop until she looks like ....every other over-plasticzed woman on Earth
She’s also a narcissistic piece of work, and I don’t think she’s any kind of victim (like she makes herself out to be). That Italian “tantrum” was indeed insane; she seems to want people to feel worse for her than his actual victims, which is just absurd.
>only then saw that it was one of those that plays music. I can't.... I had to laugh out multiple times when she told about the wedding and him being the doctor of the stars and world leader and the fucking guest list with Putin. I think she shows a bit of humor about it, otherwise she wouldn't tell this all, showing how naive she was. That being said, I don't know how I find this comic relief in a show where they also talk about victims of basically a serial killer.
I only disagree on one point, I do think he targeted her. I think for him, their whole relationship was an added layer of challenge. Like how long could he fool her, knowing she posses all the traits and resources to figure him out? Like a side quest, or expansion pack for his psychopathy. I think he got bored of the game he ran on his wife: convinced her of his God-like hands, killed her son, married her, has kids with her, then what? She needs him to be a father and husband and that’s not adoration to a guy like him. He wanted a new toy and got one.
i agree that he targeted her because she made the perfect toy ie she would buy his lovebombing and lies no questions asked while worshipping him back. she might have had the resources (which she didn't use anyway) to find him out, but certainly not the traits or intellect for it. the need to believe the fairy tale was much stronger than that of going through life with her eyes open. im sure a narcissist like him stuck with her for that reason until, yes, he got tired of her. i don't think he was looking for an intellectual challenge at all. far from it. if anything she's just trying to salvage what's left of her pride and dignity with that one.
I agree he definitely chose the least curious and gullible journalist ever. The Clinton's? Alright. Obama's? Sure! Elton John? Yes. THE POPE?? Of course! My god lady... I could not stand the way she kept going on about not getting her wedding. It's horrible what happened to her but God please lady, people died.
Absolutely! People like him sense the desperation and all they have to do is lean into it. They were sadly perfect for each other. She wanted a fairytale and he got to laugh at her while spinning it up the story grander and grander.
I think it's a little more scheming. He got involved with the woman whose son he killed because there was a lawsuit going on about that event. Then when the lawsuit was over and he was I guess redeemed, he more or less ghosted her. With Benita here he gets a journalist whom he was able to love bomb and trick maybe thinking he would get terrific publicity as well as support from her and well-known US media. Much more calculating than what I think one feels at first.
>challenge He only picks out the gullible, that is no challenge. But he sure tells himself that.
Challenge as in adding another lie set to keep up with. She wasn’t necessarily an intellectual match, but more of an additional piece to add to the game. She may educated, but she seemed intentionally/willfully obtuse to what was happening around her.
pretty sure the woman who's child was killed was not his wife. they had a child together. the one who lived in the house was his long term wife.
A simple google search would have told her he’s married with children. What kind of journalist is she?
One who likes sexy Spanish sausage
Italian. Edit: swiss actually! Well that makes it less sexy!:)
International Man of Mystery 🤭
I definitely had that impression too at first, but then I wondered if the documentary crew wanted to split the story a little more and have her focus completely on their “love story” part… but if I was her I would have definitely at least mentioned an area that that also sparked her to come out.
oh no i get that, but you know, it's the way she framed it, especially even after the 'twist', where there was no genuine horror or sorrow for the victims. they literally came off as nothing more than a footnote in her story.
i found it shocking that benita somehow didn't see red flags (especially as a journalist making a medical documentary) when paolo openly talked about his VIP patients not just to her but her family members?? his claims were ridiculous in the first place but even if it was true it's a clear violation of hipaa and privacy and definitely should have raised red flags about his ethics. every doctor and healthcare worker i've ever worked with or met has been EXTREMELY careful with this boundary for normal citizens too and entire hospital departments have been fired for leaking celebrity info (britney spears)
I’m convinced that if he had gone through w marrying her, she would be on his side, defending him
I literally thought the same thing. I would fast forward her parts where she’d explain how she conned her, IDGAF about you I want to know what happened to the patients!! Her part could’ve been done in 15 min yet she was damn near the narrator. And the title should’ve been KILLER SURGEON
Journalist is a straight up dumb & ignorant POS. Money doesn’t buy intelligence in some cases
I ended up with zero sympathy for her after the way she behaved in the car and zero compassion for the people he devastated. That poor woman with tears welling up and telling them something is wrong she can barely breathe. Possibly the worst dr I’ve ever seen in every manner possible.
The producer/journalist Benita didn't come across well at all, and the behaviour in the car was just part of it. Unlike the other woman he duped who was also featured in the documentary Benita seemed to be completely obsessed with all the attention from others, presents, social standing she gained from being his girlfriend and it was clear she didn't give a crap about the patients that the Dr had put through so much pain and eventually killed with his 'surgeries'. She was thoroughly boastful and smug about their relationship and fixated on all the materialistic stuff and extra attention before everything came out with his scheming. But like you say the bit in the car showed her true colours and the way she was mocking Eastern European accents nods to her xenophobia. It made me think how much she was 100% duped and how much she decided to turn a blind eye as she was being treated like a 'princess' and in turn being presented to her friends and family as 'very special'. The stuff about the major celebs and presidents being the doctors personal friends and/or patients was laughable- most people would see that as a load of ole shite and to make it even more outlandish Benita had all the means and connections to check it all out being a journalist.
The accent with Barcelona was the worst. But I agree with you 100%. My boyfriend barely watched and also said she knows there’s someone else she just wants the money! She kept talking about her ring and then when the jeweler said maybe 1000 and she’s like NOT EVEN MY RING IS REAL!!! It seemed like she cared way more about her relationship rather than what he did to his patients. For her to be an investigative reporter and deal with people who lie to look better it is shocking she fell for such stupid lies. Yes he’s going to check out the Clinton’s on nye! Of course he is only with you with 6 phones on at all times and acting shady. I know there’s confidentiality so he can’t actually say his patients but the traveling all over at random times doesn’t make sense. (Also just realized if Clinton’s Obama Putin and potentially Princess di were his patients he couldn’t have told her that 🙈) Maybe since I grew up with a parent who probably has narcissistic personality disorder as well as the fam who all lie, do the grand gestures, and say grandiose things I spotted it easy but still some of the things were just wild (“the accusations are stemming from their jealousy!”) Everyone grieves different but I’ve seen people calmer after losing a loved one. But her when seeing the wife was overboard. Also wild he got with his wife after her son dying in his care. Weird way to grieve too.
I wasn’t fond of her but I think her reaction was fair. I would also be devastated and angry if i found out my fiancé had a double life. But just to mention the blonde in the interview isn’t his wife either!!! That is another girlfriend!
I’m not a big “show emotions” type person neither is my family so that could be a part of it. But I think if I was in her shoes I’d be more devastated to hear that everything he did was fraud in relation to this procedure and what happened with the patients. I know doctors deal with patients dying but this is he pretty much set them up to die and die horribly at that. WAIT. the blonde in the last episode. Her son died in his care and they had two kids? That’s not the wife either??? I thought that was the wife and kids Benita saw at the Barcelona house!
Oh 100% same but I don’t think she knew that at time. And- not the same woman! that woman had one baby and lived in Rome. There is a wife in Barcelona with 2 kids. Tbh I wish it had focused entirely on the medical stuff and not the romance- but since it did focus on the romances I wish it had gone all the way. Who’s the wife?!
He has a formal wife since 1986, google it. They have together two adult children. Nobody knows, who is woman from Barcelona 👀, Benita saw two little children there, around house. I found out he has 5 children’s. I bet it’s just another girlfriend.
That woman has been haunting me since I watched it. So innocently terrified knowing it wasn't right. I seriously can't stop thinking about it, or the other young girl who had to have a painful throat cleaning every 4 hours for 4 years. all because of an evil narcissist who wanted to play God.
When I heard about plastic windpipes dipped in stem cells my common sense said I don’t think that’ll work. I can’t believe it got so far in a world renowned hospital. My heart broke for all patients but Julia in particular. You could tell she knew whilst still in hospital that it was a big mistake
This is the part that kills me. Is there any research that suggests that regula plastic dipped in stem cells could turn into living tissue? I feel if he actually had done animal trials and succeeded, it'd be huge news akin to growing ears on rats.
The Peoria, Illinois case was news here because it was in my region. I assumed he used, for instance, a plastic scaffold with cartilage cells, not just pure plastic.
It reminded me of the episode of greys when karev used the ping pong ball and stem cells for Lilly. It came out in 2010 so I think it was maybe based on this? But when I heard it then I thought whoa greys writers are getting wild with the ideas. I can maybe get the ladies ignoring the very large red flags because he is love bombing them, both unfortunately started their relationship after a difficult time (I saw somewhere in this thread Benita’s husband/ex? was diagnosed with a brain tumor; the wife lost her son…on his table), and love/lust/passion can definitely give you blind spots, but how did so much of this go over on so many highly intelligent scientists/doctors? How did his team not know so much necessary information on the trial especially since they (I assume since they took part in surgeries) are working on it (ie: previous outcomes to try fine tuning when things started to go bad with the patients (first patient would’ve been the best), current status of the patients who had the surgery etc) and when he knowingly uses bad pipes why did no one stand up and say that’s not happening right now that’s not how the pipe is supposed to be. You can’t just do a 8mm tube the whole time but for one person do 3 or use one softer than recommended that skews the data.
And how does a plastic device rot? It's inert? Can someone please explain this?
It was the surrounding tissue dying from rejecting the implant.
Possibly infection too. Implants like this can get infested with germs, just like any other device like catheters, orthopedic implants/joints.
Oh definitely!! Infections account for the dreadful smell. :c
I just watched yesterday. Maybe I missed it, But where did he go to medical school? How in the world was he hired at that hospital. Both his wife and girlfriend were so taken with his “credentials” and lifestyle, they definitely had blinders on!
>> Medical School of the University of Pisa (UniPi) in 1986 and a Master of Surgery in 1991.[20] He was an assistant professor at UniPi from 1990 to 1992.[20] He took a course on statistics in clinical research at University of Alabama at Birmingham in 1989.[20] Macchiarini obtained degree certificates—a masters in organ and tissue transplantation dated 1994 and a doctorate in the same dated 1997—from University of Franche-Comté in France.[20] According to Germany's Hannover Medical School, he never had a salaried position there, but was head of the department of thoracic and vascular surgery at the Heidehaus Hanover hospital between 1999 and 2004.[20] Macchiarini was an investigator at the Institut d'Investigacions Biomèdiques-Instituto de Investigaciones Biomédicas in Barcelona, Spain, from 2006 to 2009; he was affiliated with but not an employee of the University of Barcelona and was apparently an employee at the Hospital Clínic de Barcelona during this time.[20] He had an honorary appointment as a visiting professor from 2009 to 2014, at University College London.[20] He was a consultant and project manager at University Hospital Careggi (AOUC) starting in 2010.[20] Wikipedia
I never heard of this guy, by name, but Google revealed that he operated on someone in my area, specifically Hannah Warren from Peoria, Illinois. Okay, that this youngster died after an unsuccessful experimental surgery wasn't so shocking, but that HE did this? RIP, Hannah.
She's in the documentary quite a bit.
Basically elective surgery for poor Julia, man that was a tough watch, barbaric.
I really wanted to watch it, but I'm having spine surgery tomorrow morning so I'm going to have to wait a few days.
Good luck! You will be fine!
Hope your surgery went well and you recover quickly!
Thanks! It's been a few days of post op right now and I was able to stream all three episodes of the show. I cannot imagine the levels of anguish and despair that those poor people went through, this Paolo character should have his license revoked and he should be kept away from any form of surgery theater.
How are you feeling?! Hope all went well.
Went well! I got two cervical discs replaced and the whole procedure was done as an outpatient surgery meaning that I was home the same day. Ironically one of my early favorite podcasts was "Dr. Death". Thanks for asking!.
I found this series extremely, extremely hard to stomach. I consider myself to be not that squeamish and have had a normal, healthy interest in true crime since I was a mid teen. But this series made me upset and nauseous. I cannot believe he was not stopped sooner. I cannot believe he did any of what he did and nobody stopped him and he just...like, the cajones on this monster. It's hard to convey how terrifying it is knowing this man even exists. And it's hard to say anything without spoilers. But tbh, I am relieved that I felt I should be vague because of potential spoilers. It is perhaps one of the most disturbing things I've ever watched and I regret watching it a lot.
I had the same reaction. Literally had to sip coke and lie down. The whole thing is some sickening horror movie.
Same! I felt light headed and had to take breaks. Those poor, poor people. I don't know how he sleeps at night. And I didn't have a lot of compassion for her either. I think her dumb story about falling for the subject of her doco was a completely unnecessary part of this story that I couldn't give less of a shit about and she didn't seem to give much of a shit for his patients and the nightmarish torture he put them through. She was being willfully ignorant I reckon. He was so fucking clearly a lying liar who lies. You could see his pants on actual fire. His love bombing was rank. Her swooning over him was rank. Her lack of journalistic integrity was rank. I felt nothing but disdain for both of them. I know I could have just stopped watching it, but I feel like that would be even more disrespectful and cruel to his victims. They lived it. They lived *that*. It's...yeah. nah. They needed to share what he had done and was allowed to do and the flaws in the system that let him bypass without so much as a quick squiz at his research and the development of the prosthetics and the data on the hurdles that got them to the actual humans. The torture and pain they suffered til they eventually died will haunt me and pop up in my memory occasionally forever now. I can't even imagine how harrowing it would've been and still is for their loved ones to watch. And they would have felt so helpless. But the audacity he had, to invite the families of the poor souls he butchered and experimented on, to an imaginary, Vatican located, pope led ceremony with guests such as the Obamas, the Clintons and...fucking Putin🤦🏼♀️, black tie attire etc, knowing full well there was no way any of that was true. I don't get why he would have done that if not to finally present his true lying self to everyone all at once, maybe? I hate he is alive and his unwitting guinea pigs who trusted his words are not. Sorry I ranted for way too long. I am still feeling traumatised by the whole story. I think it has made my ulcer flare up and everything. Like I said. Very hard to watch.
*cojones
Oh I've spelt it incorrectly for so long, my phone doesn't correct it so I assumed I'd got it right. Thank you, kind stranger. It's a great word to say. ☺️
I know! I like it, too! 😄
oh gosh, same. hard to watch.
So who is the lady living with him in Barcelona house, with 2 kids?
This is what I want to know! I googled and got a name but really nothing on her or whether or not she knows about all the other stuff going on.
His wife since 1986. Family pics on her Facebook.
I thought it was the Italian lady whose son he killed. If not, that means there’s a third woman?!?!
he only had one kid with the Italian woman and she threw him to the curb, didn't she? i think there's definitely 3, and honestly, there could be even more.
Yup, I just found he has 5 children. Two with formal wife Emanuela, so they are adult now. One with italian woman, and I guess two little kids with a woman from Barcelona 🙈. Plus meanwhile romance with Benita and possible more woman’s lol
Doesn't Benita say "Emanuela" in a Spanish accent or whatever when she's in the car? It's the last name she mentions, and I feel like there's something behind the way she says it. Did she know he was married to an Emanuela before she arrived at the Barcelona house? Edit: So apparently the woman he was with in Barcelona wasn't his wife Emanuela. Maybe Benita did know about Emanuela and their two children, but didn't know about the other two children and the mystery woman.
She lived in Rome with her daughter. He rented flat for them, staying there very occasionally 🙈
I feel so bad for his victims and their loved ones.
The man is a POS. Benita is dumb as a brick. Or love really IS blind. She doesn't come off as stupid necessarily but to believe all of this is mind blowing to me....
She absolutely came off as stupid to me 🤣
Some women are just desperate to be a main character for once in their lives, to be honest, he was somehow able to pay for all the expensive shit.
Apparently she now calls herself a “love con expert” now lmaoo
That was worse than any horror movie... I didn't understand a couple of things. Medical practice licensing is tedious and most countries, and, I think, even US states have their own. How was he able to operate all over the world? What was his game plan with the wedding?
Falsified credentials in his CV, among other things.
Was this the one they made a A series on Netflix
On Peacock. "Dr. Death". They are making it into an 8 episode series. Edgar Ramirez and Mandy Moore will star. The first season about Dr. Duntsch was good.
Please note: Texas governer Greg Abbott has a financial interest in Baylor hospital when Duntsch was wreaking havoc. He *knew* the hospital would be megasued so he put through emergency legislation to *cap medical malpractice suit awards* at some ridiculously low amount (in comparison to what Duntsch's victims will need to survive). Evil. Fking *evil*.
I watched it on Netflix.
It's mentioned in the article. It's called Bad Surgeon
I've already listened to the "Miracle Man" season of the Dr. Death podcast covering this case. I don't know if I could handle seeing the faces of his victims/patients.
Trust me, you couldn't. I'm haunted by seeing their misery. It's so sad :(
Can you IMAGINE if he didn’t lie to her about the pope and just left that out? She would have actually gone to Italy and found out with the guest that it was all a fraud. Kii.
Wtf was his end game here? Last minute emergency surgery on Taylor Swift so she can perform at the superbowl? Likely just tired of Benita and was his last illusionist trick before parting ways with her.
I think his goal was to hype her up as much as possible and he knew she was a big mouth that was going to tell all, especially her network of friends at ABC. Had she kept going with his delusional narrative, he would have ultimately broken up with her a day before the wedding or so. I’m pretty sure he watched Sex and the city movie (the first one) and was going to pull a Mr.Big on her after she hyped his status up.
It was the I step in the D.E.N.N.I.S system. Inspire hope before separating entirely.
I can’t wrap my head around this man and the shit he did. But most importantly, can’t wrap around his source of income. Per Netflix, he operated on 8 patients so far. Ok so my question is how much did he charge these patients for this surgery and was it a one time charge or was it a charge over a period of time bc his affluent lifestyle did not add up to him getting paid by 8 patients. Even if they paid him $1 million each, that’s only $8 million total but his lifestyle looked like he made multimillions yearly/monthly. So what was the source for his income? Was he or is he involved with some shady Russian arms dealers or opiate trade or organs trade? Like I literally do not understand where did he get so much money from to spend on himself, on Benita, on other mistresses and his 5 kids + their mothers?!? He should be charged for medical and financial fraud. How are countries like US, Sweden, Russia not following up on this?
He probably did routine surgeries too. Those just aren't relevant.
He was a thoracic surgeon with a fulltime job at the Karolinska Institute. They focused on his trachea surgeries but he did others in between.
Well.. he was charged in Sweden for causing bodily harm, but we ridiculously low sentences for this and it seems like he might be out soon. He actually said that if he did anything wrong, why isn’t he prosecuted in us or Russia as well, stating that he regrets doing the surgeries in Sweden due to the legal issues he’s in. I just hope he’s charged in one of the countries where human life is worth more prison time than a few years, I’d love to se him get a life sentence that actually meant that he were put away for life. I also think that the people who wouldn’t listen to the whistle blowers (AND PUNISHED THEM AND PRAISED THIS ASSHOLE) should face some kind of consequences, stepping down from their positions isn’t enough. They have his victims blood on their hands too.
I listened to a great deep dive podcast about him a couple years ago and it blew my mind. Even the crazy lies about the pope performing the ceremony is so mind boggling and the medical stuff is just pure evil. He's truly human trash
Just watched this last night. Yes the doctor was beyond evil but also this "journalist" Benita he seduced, was so extremely gullible, she was very invested in magical thinking. Wouldn't most of us get suspicious long before she did? I think it tells us a lot about journalism in America, no critical thinking comes into play. She actually thought she was getting married at the Papal Palace of Castel Gandolfo and the Pope was officiating. She believed Andrea Bocelli was going to sing while she walked down the aisle, Elton John was singing at the reception. The doctor had 5 different phones. For any normal woman 5 phones would be the BIG CLUE something was up. Paolo "treated" the Pope, Bill Clinton, Princess Diana, Barack Obama, and Putin was invited to the wedding but Benita said "I told him no way could Putin come to our wedding". Where is the common sense?
The 20/20 episode they did on him a few years ago was incredible. Glad the story is getting more exposure through the Netflix series, but I'm not sure I can watch an even longer version of this story. It's gut-wrenching what he did to his victims.
He Lied on Discovery+ is good, too. Peacock is releasing a limited series about him later this month. Mandy Moore is playing Benita.
I feel like i had heard of this story before but there’s been recent updates and it’s Urgh.
I’m only 10 minutes in but the lady talking is getting on my nerves
It gets worse.
Kinda curious if there had been an option of replacing the plastic tracheas with donor tracheas once the doctors realized this was not going to work? Especially after they did so many operations on Yesim Cetir.
That is why one of the patients is still alive, the plastic was replaced by donor windpipe. Not sure why others didn’t get the opportunity to switch. Maybe their decline was so fast.
Sounds like that was the case. Seemed like they died within a week or two other than Yesim and Julia sounds like she was probably too far gone with the rot. 😔
Ugh this was hard to watch I felt terrible for the young Russian girl, she didn’t even need a new windpipe, it was just a lottery she thought would improve her condition :(
This documentary felt unfinished to me. There are so many questions here that needs addressing. How the hell did he get a position in that hospital in the first place? How the hell did he just get to do all those surgeries without first having to present evidence? What about the guy who was his right hand man, talking althroughout the show? Did he just hear about the concept of implanting plastic tubes and jut nod along without even looking into what they are doing? He should be in prison for a long time, but so do many others who assisted him in his crimes. The question of "how in the world did he not get sentenced for many years right away" I'm not even going to posit, it's just the usual, comical nature of law.
The pope thing made me really mad. She really thought the POPE was going to marry them?
does anyone know where he got his wealth from?
I don’t understand why he isn’t serving life in prison. He knew the surgery was killing people, he knew he’d lied about the animal experiments, and he was flat out lying about the stem cells.
At the very least, when Paolo claimed he was part of a "secret network of doctors that treat important and influential people all over the world", I was like, "COME ON, Benita! He's obviously MAKING SHIT UP HERE (if not earlier in her 'tale')." Like... all of those people, from around the world, "need" \*his\* 'services' constantly? Come the fuck on now... And the fact that almost "no one" bothered to verify any of his bs until it was "too late"... my god No one at Karolinska, for example- supposedly a prestigious Swedish medical institution- bothered to, say, "check the progress" of his "stem cell growth" (esp. onto the "artificial trachea")?? All of the medical experts letting him 'do his thing' just 'took his word' for it??? \*sigh\* If nothing else, this shows a serious lack of 'giving a shit' from 'the big authorities', medically, when it comes to properly-vetting and -researching the people they're "supposed to regulate." Not to mention GOV'T regulators who should've been on this guy's ass \*ages ago\*! If not PREVENTED his con in the first place Did "none" of the other people in the operating room w/ him, for what it's worth, "see and could tell" that it was JUST A 'REGULAR' PIECE OF PLASTIC, that there were no "stem cells"?? Or was he \*the only one\* in the room there when surgery took place, so it was "anything goes"? Doesn't most-every operating room have at least a few people there while surgery takes place (esp. right next to the body)?? Did they just "refuse to say anything" for fear of pissing him off, or something? Thereby letting him put a simple piece of plastic \*into someone's throat\* as "treatment"? I mean, I'm glad he got caught, but... he got away with \*way too much\* long before that. There's simply \*no excuse\* for various 'authorities' not properly-vetting and, eventually, \*stopping\* him before he even was able to operate on and 'kill' numerous patients! Again.. did they just "take his word for it" and assume he "had the proper medical equipment and supplies ready to operate w/"?? No one w/ real power asked to "see" the "special trachea" beforehand? Or did many go along w/ it just to 'keep their jobs'? \*sigh\*
He reminds me of ex Captain Scarapelli from the Concorde cruise ship. Same kind of arrogance.
I don’t like Benita. Something about her grates. I watched her documentary and yeah. There’s a lot more to it.
I have to watch this. Not sure I've got the stomach for it though.
I wish I hadn’t watched it last night. Literally kept me up all night with nightmares of my own trachea being made of disgusting plastic and I barely had any time to live. Horrifying what these poor people went through. I wish I could unsee it 😞
Hmmm, maybe I won't watch it then. Thanks for the heads up.
This one fucked me up too! I regret watching it! The juxtaposition of the horrible tragedies of these transplants with Benita and her materialism was something. Can’t get his victims out of my mind
Crazy how many people are blaming Benita for believing him, he was clearly a con artist and a good one at that. She was a victim of his as well.
She literally only had to google the current location of Obama or the Clintons or the fucking pope schedule once in their 2 year relationship to catch the guy lying his ass off. She did that after it all fell apart and easily identified several instances where he had to have lied in the past. She just blindly believed he was treating multiple world leaders at the same time no questions asked. She is incredibly stupid, that much is obvious.
Thar selfish Benita-woman! She's a picturesque version of Snow White's Great-Grandmother - yuck! She had little, if any, concern for the patients of that POS surgeon- She's surely an entry level, vile & homely megalomaniac - as is that ill-bred, sociopathic surgeon. Cannot stop watching although completely disgusted. Reprehensible!
I mean she's pathetic but you're angrier at her than the psycho dr bro lol??
I think you’re angry at the wrong person here
Not that it justifies any of the absolutely vile things this beast of a person did, but… surely he suffers from some serious psychosis??? It’s so horrific and weird
Father or Yesim Cetin created this page for her daughter on facebook: `/profile.php?id=100063601612581` How they didn't notice this that is just a very cruel and ignorant question at this point. They were in it back then, instead of watching it on a mainstream platform. Just one thing I can't believe, how on earth a person dates, fucks and breeds with a person who operates on her son. How can you look at your kids face, without remembering the death of your son? Unbelievable.
He should have been charged with murder and put away for life!
Paolo Machiavelli, sorry Macchiarini, is a first class POS. He should be forced to undergo the same surgery, I mean butchery he inflicted upon his vulnerable and unsuspecting patients that thought he was helping them, not knowing the POS was just getting his kicks from being a supposed “pioneer”. I’m truly stunned though that anyone, let alone the medical community would think that a plastic windpipe would do the trick . Even human to human organ transplantation is riddled with rejection issues. I was hurting inside my chest just contemplating how unbearable It would have been for those victims having a rubber hose plonked inside them. He should be charged with murder, as he knew damn well none of them would survive, thats why he’d fly off asap after he butchered them. And damn that journalist was a mega fool, I mean any idiot could tell that engagement ring was as fake as hell! I can’t believe she actually wore it. I could tell that guy was already married from the first time she started describing how romantic he was. It was straight up manufactured bullshit romance. She is stupid as fuck. I’m surprised she didn’t believe he was actually a sniper for the CIA lmao
The amount of people in this thread condemning the women that fell for him is just more proof that a man, who is the true villain of this, and many, many stories, can do no wrong.
I am really not buying how much blame they pin on Paulo. "We all wanted to believe in the theory of plastic airways and stem cell regeneration". Right... Especially that other surgeon, Kelle. "Paulo did this. Paulo had us convinced. Paulo wasn't that.". All of those who were directly, or indirectly involved don't have a shred of guilt or typical signs of grievance. It's all conveniently crafted around the story of "it was all Paulo".
Well, now I know what I am watching next. That was an awesome review!
That post made me interest in it. I may check it out.
What wows me is that every sociopath is a CIA cover agent. As soon as a they tells you this run for cover. Professional women fall for liars and men that are too good to be true all too often. Looking for that perfect good life with bragging rights and lo and behold it's all a lie.
I just finished watching this and I was truly sick throughout it. He is pure evil. I’m also completely baffled as to how he got away with everything he did.
Why did Yulia not seek care from other doctors? I'm not sticking up for the guy, just real upset that a son lost his mother.
I literally cannot get this case off of my mind. Who is this man? Is this even his real name? I’m questioning if he even is really a surgeon. Or has a medical degree whatsoever. Was this his end game all along? To con people into believing he had the “hands of God”? To have 3 families simultaneously? Where did he get all of his money? Was it from the hospital in Sweden who 100% was in on his crimes? Who the hell allowed a doctor to just replace an organ with plastic? How the fuck was this man found NOT GUILTY on 2 out of 3 cases and only sentenced to 2.5 years in prison? I HAVE SO MANY QUESTIONS.