Paolo Macchiarini, who made headlines for pioneering surgery, charged with aggravated assault over procedure
An Italian doctor who made headlines for pioneering windpipe surgery has gone on trial in Sweden, charged with aggravated assault for performing the experimental procedure.
The details of this scandal broke a few years ago but it is no less horrifying today. It serves as a demonstration of why we shouldn’t be dazzled by an amazing theory if there isn’t early-stage work that demonstrates the theory has a real potential to help. A sequence of deaths and lives destroyed should prompt the harshest of penalties. We will be following this Swedish case closely.
The procedure was hailed as a breakthrough in regenerative medicine.
But allegations soon emerged that the risky procedure had been carried out on at least one person who had not been critically ill at the time of the operation.
The 63-year-old appeared in court on Wednesday, where he listened to translated audio as prosecutors listed the charges of “aggravated assault” against three patients.