Pioneering surgeon in stem cell medicine goes to prison after implants fail

The surgeon Paolo Macchiarini was convicted in Sweden after his stem cell treatments led to the deaths of three of his patients. According to the allegations the doctor was aware of the risks and had no evidence that his treatment would really work.

The court in Stockholm sentenced the surgeon to two years and six months in prison. Initially, five years in prison had been demanded, but the sentence was reduced due to the appeal of his lawyers.

Macchiarini performed the three surgeries in 2011 and 2012, when he worked at the Karolinska Institute. he implanted synthetic windpipes studded with stem cells from the patient’s own bone marrow, hoping that the cells would multiply over time and provide a permanent replacement. But all implants failed and the patients died.

One of them died just four months after surgery. Another died 2 1/2 years later and the third died nearly five years after his surgery. The last two patients suffered from painful complications in the last few months.

That’s what the judges ruled Macchiarini “acted with criminal intent”, although I hoped the technique would work. The evidence convinced them of that he was fully aware “of the risk that the procedures would cause physical harm and suffering to patients and that he was indifferent to the realization of these risks.

According to the court all patients would have lived for quite some time had it not been for Paolo Macchiarini’s operations. They also found that two of the patients were not in acute danger, so they did not need the experimental surgery.

After the patient’s own trachea was removed, Macchiarini “knew that if he could not replace it, the patient would die. And he had no evidence that he could replace them, other than his kind of divine or magical belief that the stem cell technique should work,” he said. Bengt Gerdina surgeon and emeritus professor at Uppsala University who investigated some of the initial allegations of misconduct against Macchiarini.

Pierre Delaerea trachea expert from KU Leuven, noted that Macchiarini “used humans as guinea pigs not to help them, but to promote their name and fame in the scientific community and beyond.”

However, the doctor denies that he intended to harm any of his patients. “The intent to harm is the most appalling accusation that can be made of a physician”he said at a press conference. He also doubted that he is the only one convicted, as the rest of his colleagues at the medical center approved of the surgical procedures.

Macchiarini is still out of prison as his lawyers are still trying to appeal his sentence.