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.
