The TV documentary “Bad Surgeon, Love under the Knife” tells the story of Dr Paolo Macchiarini, the Italian surgeon and researcher who was known for his regenerative experimental transplantation of a synthetic windpipe.
He was sentenced to two years and a half in prison by a Swedish court which concluded that the interventions could not have been considered medical care and were not consistent with proven scientific methods.
The operation led to the death of many of his patients and was considered a serious assault.
Dr Macchiarini and his team carried out a total of eight transplantations in Sweden between 2011 and 2014 and five others took place in Russia.
The documentary showed how Dr Macchiarini was able to scam his patients and the administration of a famous university hospital in Swede where he worked and how he fooled an NBC journalist when he claimed to be in love with her and promised that the Pope would marry them when he was already married and had children with his wife in Barcelona.
The documentary highlights how Dr Macchiarini used people's trust to conduct his fraud. Trust is an essential component of the doctor-patient relationship. When you visit a doctor's clinic and tell him about your medical condition you will have to trust his experience and clinical judgment that he will do the best to save your life. Most people would not think twice about the integrity of their medical doctor especially since the first ethical principle that binds the medical profession is “do no harm,” however, there are times when such trust becomes misused which eventually leads to disasters.
On such occasions, the doctor who deliberately misuses his medical title to commit grave crimes often has personality traits that make it difficult to recognise the misconduct. When the public discovers that they were caught in webs of lies and deception it is sometimes too late.
Dr Andrew Wakefield, a prominent British physician, serves as another cautionary tale.
His research claimed that the Mumps-Measles-Rubella (MMR) vaccine could be the cause of an autism epidemic.
In 2010, Wakefield's research paper was retracted by the British medical journal The Lancet.
Yet Wakefield and his vaccine theories remain popular among the anti-vaccine movements and lead to many people refusing to give their children the MMR vaccine for fear of developing autism.
This act led to outbreaks of Mumps-Measles-Rubella infections in many countries which led to many children needing hospital care simply because their parents were misled by Dr Wakefield’s claims.
It is not clear to me if Dr Wakefield was tipped by pharmaceutical companies who would have benefited from such an outbreak or if he genuinely believed his research.
The above two stories and many others suggest the importance of health authorities and medical communities being vigilant about the possibility of misconduct from doctors who misuse their position either for fame or for financial gain.
In my opinion, while patients have the right to know about their health care it is the responsibility of the governing bodies to make sure doctors are qualified to do their jobs and adhere to ethical standers when treating their patients.
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