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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.

Three patients eventually died due to the highly experimental implant surgeries.

The first patient died suddenly when the implant caused massive bleeding just 4 months after it was implanted. And although two others survived for longer periods, they suffered painful and debilitating complications before their deaths.

The appeals judges disagreed with the district court’s decision that the first two patients were treated under “emergency” conditions. Both patients could have survived for a significant length of time without the surgeries, the court ruled. 

The third case was an “emergency,” the court ruled, but the treatment was still indefensible because by then Macchiarini was well aware of the problems with the technique. (One patient had died and the other was suffering severe complications.)

The judges ruled that Macchiarini “acted with criminal intent,” even though he hoped the technique would work.

The fame factor

“I think this is a fair verdict,” says Dr. Pierre Delaere, a long-time critic of Macchiarini. “He used people as guinea pigs not to help them, but to promote his name and fame in the scientific community and beyond,” Delaere says he believes that Macchiarini’s remaining papers on tracheal regeneration should now be disavowed and retracted.

At a press conference today with his lawyers, Macchiarini denied he had any intent to harm the patients. He claimed his colleagues and supervisors all approved of the surgeries. 

And said, “In the operating room we were 20, 25 people. What surprises me is, why I am here alone?” 

He said his only regret was accepting KI’s job offer in the first place.

In 2016, the Swedish government dismissed the board of the KI after an investigation showing it was negligent when it hired Macchiarini. And allowed him to operate on patients. Sweden’s University Chancellor Harriet Wallberg, who was heading up the KI at the time of Macchiarini’s surgeries was also fired.

The high court will decide whether to hear the case. If the sentence is upheld, Macchiarini is likely to serve two-thirds of his sentence, in line with Swedish sentencing standards.