Dr. Paolo Macchiarini, once celebrated as a pioneer in regenerative medicine for his work on synthetic windpipe transplants, became embroiled in a major medical scandal after it was revealed that his experimental surgeries lacked sufficient scientific backing and resulted in the deaths of multiple patients. Employed by Sweden's prestigious Karolinska Institute, Macchiarini performed unproven procedures on at least 20 patients across several countries, with many suffering severe complications or dying as a result. Investigations uncovered that he had falsified parts of his résumé and misrepresented the success of his surgeries.
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So this famous doctor is a fraud. Let me explain. Now the story starts with this woman, Benita. And Benita is a TV producer living in New York City. And one day in 2013, she's assigned to work on a documentary story about this amazing rock star of a surgeon, this guy, Dr. Paolo.
And Dr. Paolo is a guy who's so brilliant, he invented a life-saving surgery that gives people with broken windpipes the chance to breathe again. And so he's like famous in the medical world now. So Benita meets this guy to do this story on him and interview him and she's like, oh snap, he kinda fine. And then boom, they start dating. And this is going really well for her.
Dr. Paolo's nice, he treats her good, he's successful, and he's respected in the medical community. And together they seem really happy. But Dr. Paolo is gone all the time for work. He apparently has to fly all over the world to do these breakthrough surgeries. But you know, that's okay. He's always sending Benita little love messages and stuff.
I just wanted to send you a few loving good morning words and a lot of kisses.
And after several months of dating, pow, he proposes. So now these two are officially getting married. But there's a small problem. Dr. Paolo is already married to another woman. I mean, they're not together anymore, but his divorce isn't quite finalized yet. But whatever, they'll figure it out. So anyway, they start planning this wedding, and it's going to be a big destination wedding in Italy.
Not only that, but Dr. Paolo is like famous in the medical world, so he knows a lot of people. He says he's friends with the Clintons, so he's going to invite them to the wedding. He's friends with the Obamas, so they're invited. He knows Vladimir Putin, so he's invited. French leader Nicolas Sarkozy is also going to be there. The Beckhams, Elton John, Russell Crowe, they're all going to be there.
Not only that, John Legend is going to be playing the ceremony. And if that isn't crazy enough, bro is also friends with... the Pope. And so Dr. Paolo tells Benita that the Pope has offered to marry them himself in his papal palace in Italy. And Dr. Paolo even secures a castle for all their guests to stay in.
Isn't it incredible that next week we are to visit a place where we will marry?
And so this is gonna be like an amazing wedding. And so fast forward a little bit to 2014 and they haven't had their wedding yet, but they're a few months away from it and things are still going well. But then it all starts crashing down because one day she's reading the New York Times and boom, she sees a story about Dr. Paolo.
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