Paolo Macchiarini, a surgeon once praised for developing and transplanting synthetic tracheas using stem cells, has been convicted by a Swedish court of causing bodily harm, the Guardian reports.
Though Macchiarini was first praised for those transplants, it adds that allegations soon swirled that at least one of the patients was not critically ill at the time of the procedure. According to Science, Macchiarini performed three such trachea transplants in Sweden and others in Russia and the US, noting that all the patients, except one who had the synthetic trachea removed, died. Though the Karolinska Institute initially rejected findings from an investigation that found Macchiarini guilty of misconduct, it fired him in March 2016 shortly after a documentary portrayed him as a fabulist, Science says, noting that a second 2018 investigation also found him guilty of misconduct.
Swedish prosecutors argued that the three transplants Macchiarini performed in the country constituted assault, the Guardian adds.
A Swedish district court has now ruled that the procedures Macchiarini conducted on two of the three patients were justified due to their medical conditions but was not for a third, The Scientist reports. The court added the experience of the first two procedures should have further given him pause on the third, the Guardian adds.
It adds that the court convicted Macchiarini of causing bodily harm and gave him a suspended sentence.