Pioneering Stem Cell Medicine Surgeon Goes to Jail After Failed Transplants | international | News

Surgeon Paolo Macchiarini He was sentenced in Sweden after his stem cell treatments led to the deaths of three of his patients. According to the accusations, The doctor was aware of the risks and had no evidence that his treatment would actually work.

The Stockholm court sentenced the surgeon to Two years and six months in prison. Initially, he was asked for five years in prison, but an appeal by his lawyer reduced the sentence.

Macchiarini performed the three surgeries in 2011 and 2012 when he was working at Karolinska Institutet. plant it Artificial trachea transplanted with stem cells from patients’ bone marrow, hoping that the cells would multiply over time and provide a permanent replacement. but All transplants failed, and patients died.

One of them died just four months after the surgery. Another died two and a half years later, and the third died about five years after the surgery. The last two patients had painful complications in recent months.

The judges ruled that Macchiarini “acted with criminal intent”, although I hoped that this technique would work. The evidence convinced them of this He was fully aware of the “risk that these procedures could cause physical injury and suffering to patients and that he was indifferent to the realization of these dangers.”

according to the court, All patients would have lived a long time, had it not been for Paolo Macchiarini’s surgeries. They also found that two of the patients were not in immediate danger, so they did not need the experimental surgery.

Once the patient’s trachea was removed, Macchiarini realized that if he could not replace it, the patient would die. And he had no evidence that he could replace it, other than his divine or magical belief that stem cell technology must work.” Bengt Jerdena surgeon and professor emeritus at Uppsala University investigated some of the initial allegations of misconduct against Macchiarini.

Pierre Delairea trachea expert from KU Leuven, commented that Macchiarini “Using people as guinea pigs Not to help them, but to promote their name and fame in the scientific community and beyond.”

But the doctor denies that he intended to harm any of his patients. “Intent to harm is the most reprehensible accusation a doctor can make.”he said at a press conference. He also doubted that he was the only one who was sentenced because the rest of his colleagues in the medical center agreed to the surgical interventions.

Macchiarini still has no prison history, as his lawyers are still trying to appeal his sentence. (YO)