Transplant surgeon sentenced to prison for failed stem cell treatments

Surgeon Paolo Macchiarini, who was once hailed as a pioneer of stem cell medicine, was found guilty of gross assault against three of his patients today and sentenced to 2 years and 6 months in prison by an appeals court in Stockholm. The ruling comes a year after a Swedish district court found Macchiarini guilty of bodily harm in two of the cases and gave him a suspended sentence . After both the prosecution and Macchiarini appealed that ruling, the Svea Court of Appeal heard the case in April and May. The prosecution asked for a 5-year sentence while Macchiarini’s lawyer urged the appeals court to acquit him of all charges. Macchiarini performed experimental surgeries on the three patients in 2011 and 2012 while working at the renowned Karolinska Institute. He implanted synthetic windpipes seeded with stem cells from the patients’ own bone marrow, with the hope the cells would multiply over time and provide an enduring replacement. All three patients died when the implants failed. One patient died suddenly when the implant caused massive bleeding just 4 months after it was implanted; the two others survived for 1.5 and 4 years, respectively, but suffered painful and debilitating complications before their deaths. In the ruling released today, the five-judge panel 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 leng...
Source: ScienceNOW - Category: Science Source Type: news