Italian surgeon condemned for deadly transplants in Sweden

Paolo Macchiarini, a Swedish surgeon, gets trialed for fatal transplants. The Swedish court came up with the suspended sentence for the surgeon. It concerns on issue emerging on experimenting with stem-cell windpipe transplants.

The Italian surgeon was one of the famous transplant surgeons. He was recently clear from two assaults. However, he is being brought to trial after the death of three patients in the country.

Prosecutors are demanding to put Macchiarini in jail for 5 years. But, the district is ruling out the demand based on not done on intention. The surgeon continues to deny the charge.

The Italian surgeon was the first one to carry out synthetic organ transplants in the year 2011. The transplant was at Sweden’s Karolinska University Hospital. He has done excellent work in the plastic tracheas with stem cells. As a result, patients no longer need to wait for donors as they can operate on and treat them.

But, everything came falling when the first transplant patient died. The reason for death was the infection in those areas. The synthetic trachea became lost shortly. The patient was on the verge of dying, so the operation was necessary for him.

Another two patients who, when given transplants, also died. One of them was Christopher Lyles. He died just within months of the transplant. Another one, Yesim Centre, lost her life after 6 years of transplant. Many patients outside Sweden also died due to the transplant.

Karolinska institute did suspend the surgeon. And also brought up a tv documentary discussing his malpractices during the surgery. The case finally brought down to the Solna district. He has charges of criminal offenses causing harm to the human body. There was no accusation of killing the patients.

The Chief Judge, Bjoern Skaensberg, does agree that the surgeon didn’t practice the science at its best. But, there was no intention on his behalf to kill the patients.

Credits: BBC