Bad Surgeon: Love Under the Knife is currently streaming on Netflix, and while it may seem intriguing, given it is a crime documentary, audiences have gotten more curious about Paolo Macchiarini, the central figure.
He was infamously known for medical fraud, who allegedly toyed with the lives of patients in the name of breakthrough and was issued several investigations in the past. So, where is Paolo Macchiarini now, and what is he doing?
The once-hailed scientific genius Paolo Macchiarini, who was later found to be committing medical fraud in the name of saving patients, is currently sentenced to two years and six months in prison but is unsure when he will be reporting. The verdict was passed by the Swedish Supreme Court in October 2023.
What Did Paolo Macchiarini Do?
Paolo Macchiarini is an Italian thoracic surgeon and a former regenerative medicine researcher who was once hailed as a pioneer of stem cell medicine.
While he was working at the Karolinska Institute (KI) of Sweden in 2010, he was accused of unethically performing experimental surgeries on patients in the name of making a scientific breakthrough.
Although his initial experiments showed some results of successful implantations, he was later indicted by his colleagues for manipulating the results of his research and operating on critically ill patients.
After being fired from Karolinska Institute in 2016, he went on to work for Kazan Federal University in Russia while investigations were ongoing regarding his manipulative research.
Until 2018, a total of 11 of Macchiarini’s research papers were retracted by the Lancet medical journal, and it didn’t stop there. In 2018, the Sweden high court charged Macchiarini with the deaths of three patients.
Several months later, though, they had to drop the case due to insufficient evidence, as the patients may have died due to other medical issues. Later, in 2020, they reopened his case and charged him with forging documents and other criminal wrongdoings.
For two years, his trials and appeals went on until, in June 2022, Solna District Court cleared him of the two charges and gave him a suspended sentence.
Fast forward a year, and the Svea Court of Appeal found the original decision to be inaccurate and labeled Macchiarini guilty of three crimes of assault, prolonging the investigation even further.
Where Is Paolo Macchiarini Now?
Even though the investigations have been moving forward since 2016, it took around seven years to deem Macchiarini guilty of three cases. The appeals court in June 2023 reopened the previously denied claims.
In October 2023, the Swedish Supreme Court sentenced Macchiarini to prison for two years and six months, but it is currently unknown when he will be reporting to jail.
Following the court’s verdict, Macchiarini spoke out at a press conference that he never intended to harm the patients, and he was the only one convicted while there were over 20 people present in the operating room.
Macchiarini’s story is currently depicted in Bad Surgeon: Love Under the Knife, which is streaming on Netflix and is also set to feature in Peacock’s Dr. Death season 2, which will premiere on December 21, 2023.
So, what do you think about Paolo Macchiarini’s case? Did he deserve the sentence he was given?
