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In God's hands?

Bad Surgeon: Love Under the Knife (2023)
Documentary

Perhaps the media is the one that needs to take the blame. It may be people's fascination with the high life and their gullibility. Or the society's rules on the confidentiality of information or the restriction. Some have perfected the art of staying in the limelight to awe others with their stories so tall that they cannot be refuted. These do not make sense, but watching Dr Paolo Macchiarini's shenanigans, they would. 

Dr Macchiarini is an Italian maverick surgeon employed at Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden, between 2010 and 2013. With a long, impressive CV, including a stint as a visiting Professor at University College London and multiple revolutionary discoveries in regenerative medicine in Russia, he hit the headlines performing groundbreaking trachea replacement surgery using a plastic mould and stem cell technology. 

At the height of his success, he meets journalist Benita Alexander. She is swept off her feet, love blossoms and wedding bells will soon be rung. Everything is going well except for his frequent absence. After all, he is a globetrotting star surgeon flying from country to country, performing avant-garde top-notch operations. On top of that, world leaders like the Clintons, Obama and the Pope have Macchiarini on their speed dial. He is their personal physician.

The wedding is planned to happen at the Vatican itself, officiated by, of all people, the Pope himself. Yes, the Pope also does weddings.

One by one, news of botched surgeries comes to the open. His credentials turned out to be fraud. His colleagues at Karolinka start an investigation. An investigative journalist is roped in. Somehow, because the World Wide Web is in its infancy, the information from one part of the world either does not reach or is falsified when it hits the outside world until ... 

Benito Alexander, the journalist scheduled to marry Macchiarini, catches him having a wife and children. She exposes him in an article in Vanity Fair. Thus came the surgeon's downfall. One by one, Sweden charges him in court. He is presently serving jail in Sweden. Macchirianno used Benito's position as a journalist to springboard his own publicity. 

It is funny that at the dawn of the birth of information technology, we were promised knowledge accessible to all. People would be more empowered to make informed decisions after accessing all sides of the multifaceted monster called truth. Surprise, surprise. Humans can still hoodwink the system and abuse the system to fulfil nefarious personal interests. 

Information platforms further help these people to peddle fake news and whitewash things. Bragging and broadcasting tall stories have become much easier. 



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Location: Stockholm, Sweden

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