Last week Paolo Macchiarin, formerly a transplant surgeon, was convicted of one count of “causing bodily harm,” a felony, in the Swedish court system. He was found guilty of gross assault for the failed experimental surgeries against three of his patients. And was sentenced to 2 years and 6 months in prison by an appeals court in Stockholm.
Once celebrated as an expert, Macchiarini was known as a pioneer of stem cell medicine. In 2010, the Italian surgeon was recruited by the Karolinska Institute (KI). The research hospital is the home of the committee that awards the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
He was convicted of performing unsuccessful experimental surgeries on three patients in 2011 and 2012.
The latest ruling comes a year after a Swedish district court gave him a suspended sentence for “bodily harm” in two of the three cases.
A five-judge panel issued today’s ruling. The prosecution was asking for 5-years in prison. And Macchiarini’s attorney argued to the appeals court for a full acquittal of all charges.
Transplant surgeon experiments
Dr. Macchiarini implanted artificial tracheas which were seeded with stem cells from the bone marrow of the patients. It was hoped the stem cells would multiply and develop into a healthy trachea.
