Peacock Thieves – Review of “Dr. Death: Cutthroat Conman”

This is my unwelcome review of the US documentary about Paolo Macchiarini, called “Dr. Death: Cutthroat Conman”, made by Maxine Productions and distributed by Peacock (who also market the “Dr Death” true-crime fiction series about Macchiarini).

In brief: the documentary is bad, mostly the usual stuff about Macchiarini’s relationship with a US journalist and his fantastic wedding lies. Several scenes are ridiculously re-enacted by actors. Yet one “exclusive” aspect stands out: the stolen story of the Spanish patient Paloma Cabeza, who bravely resisted Macchiarini’s threats to kill her if she didn’t agree to a trachea transplant. And then blew the whistle – Paloma contacted me in 2018, and she published a guest post on my site.

There are otherwise no records of Paloma’s story, anywhere. One main reason is that journalists so far only reported about Macchiarini’s plastic trachea murders, and totally ignored those murders he committed with decellurised cadaveric tracheas before – in Spain, Italy and russia. I did try to get other journalists interested in Paloma’s story, but in vain. Maybe it is because Macchiarini’s former colleagues convinced them that those cadaveric grafts really work? Because they themselves continue deploying this technology even now, and thus evade all journalistic scrutiny.

But finally, Paloma’s story is out to the bigger public. I am truly happy about that. Paloma was and still is in contact with Macchiarini’s first trachea transplant victim and one of the rare survivors – Claudia Castillo. The documentary mentions that Claudia warned Paloma that her transplant failed, and later on Claudia lost her left lung to save her life. She never wanted to talk to me, and she also didn’t talk to the Maxine Productions film-makers.

The documentary was made by John Pappas and Adam Ciralsky, the latter is the author of that revealing Vanity Fair article about Macchiarini from 2016, and Ciralsky gets prominently interviewed throughout the film. By omission, he gets credit for my investigations also. Which in reality the film-making team stole from me. I told them of Paloma’s existence and I brought them in contact.

On 28 June 2023, I was contacted via my website’s contact form by an Elie H from Maxine Productions (part of Sony Pictures Television’s nonfiction group):

“I’m a producer working on a documentary for a major streaming and TV network about surgeon Paolo Macchiarini and I’m reaching out because I’d like to connect about the project and your experience with covering him.
Given your years of following Macchiarini’s career and your excellent reporting on him, your particular insight would be invaluable.”

I didn’t want to talk to her, because my Macchiarini reporting is being constantly “used” without any acknowledgement by journalists and book writers, for years. People made huge money with my work, while I incurred enormous legal costs being sued by Macchiarini’s acolyte Philipp Jungebluth (who was involved in almost all trachea transplants).

I recommended they interview any “pompous dude with titles and opinions” instead, which was literally what they really did at the end. But Elie H convinced me to talk to her:

“I know what it feels like to have pompous dudes and holier-than-thou ladies use your work without citing it and, at least in my experience, it’s terribly frustrating and demoralizing. I can promise you that you would be credited appropriately if you change your mind and decide to talk with me/us on the record for this project. Even if you only consult. 

Your website is the best source for information about Paolo Macchiarini. Full stop. Your legal battle reveals a side to Macchiarini that nobody’s reported on before and your insight would be invaluable.”

At the end, pompous dudes and holier-than-thou ladies did indeed steal all my credit also this time. But I did want to get the mass media to credit Patricia Murray‘s and Elizabeth Woeckner‘s work in exposing the trachea transplant carnage, and I wanted them to report Paloma’s story, so I agreed to talk to Elie H. She even offered financial compensation for my consulting (I never got a penny of course):

“…you’re the foremost authority on his career and your assistance would be invaluable. In terms of compensation, if you agree to be interviewed we would cover any costs you might possibly incur to get to where we’d be filming as well as a fee to make up for lost work hours during the time of the interview.”

I spoke with Elie H over Zoom in July 2023. Right after, she wrote to me that they contacted Patricia Murray and Elizabeth Woeckner, and were preparing a letter in Spanish to contact Paloma. She mentioned again:

“We’re so excited to have you bring your expertise to our production — truly, nobody has covered Paolo Macchiarini the way you’ve covered him over the years.”

Liz Woeckner was dropped from the final film, I guess they decided that a young female sheepish-looking bullshit-talking “neuropsychologist” they pulled out from who knows where was much more presentable. Trish Murray features in the film, but not that much, also without any mention about her immensely important role in uncovering the Macchiarini affair, including her serving as expert witness in Swedish court. Basically, Trish is much less relevant than that clueless “neuropsychologist” or than another “expert”, some older white American male academic opining on Macchiarini’s psyche in an authoritative voice.

At least Trish Murray’s hilarious quip about Macchiarini’s using a piece of a vacuum cleaner hose (which is what a plastic trachea implant does look like) is on film.

On 13 July 2023, I received this Spanish-language email for forwarding to Paloma, which I duly did:

“Querida Paloma,

Mi nombre es Ellie y soy una productora que trabaja en un documental para una importante red de transmisión y televisión sobre el cirujano Paolo Macchiarini. Me comunico con usted porque Leonid Schneider sugirió que nos comuniquemos con usted, ya que alguna vez fue uno de sus pacientes.

Usted es una de las pocas personas que aún vive que sabe lo que es ser tratado por Macchiarini, y su percepción sería invaluable. Especialmente ahora que finalmente enfrentará las consecuencias de sus acciones.

Según lo que me contó Leonid, su historia muestra un lado del cirujano que el resto del mundo nunca vio. Tu experiencia es increíblemente importante y sería un honor ayudarte a compartir tu importante historia con el mundo. Me encantaría contarles más sobre el documental y el enfoque que buscamos adoptar y, por supuesto, su posible participación.

Trabajo para Maxine, una productora de documentales fundada por la directora y productora ejecutiva ganadora del premio Emmy Mary Robertson. Aquí está nuestro sitio web y aquí hay un artículo en The Hollywood Reporter sobre nosotros.

¿Estaría disponible para hablar conmigo (a través de un intérprete) en una llamada de Zoom más adelante esta semana? Si eso no es posible, ¿tal vez podríamos hacer una llamada de WhatsApp (también con un intérprete)?

Me complace contarle más sobre este proyecto y responder cualquier pregunta que pueda tener por correo electrónico.

Gracias por su consideración. Espero que te encuentres bien.

Mejor,

ellie”

Paloma wrote back, the film crew arrived to Spain, and her story became the only interesting pat of that documentary (even if they re-enacted it with actors as well). Since it is now in the public, I can confirm that Paloma did fulfil her dream of having children, her second child was born in October 2023, just around the time Macchiarini’s two Lancet papers about Claudia Castillo‘s trachea transplant were retracted. The retractions were largely Trish Murray’s (and Peter Wilmshurst‘s) achievement but these retractions for whatever reason did not make it into the film.

I had in total at least two long Zoom conversations with Elie H and her colleagues, and received “an extra large thank you for referring us to Patricia, Liz, and Paloma.” They listened very attentively when I told them about all those academics and doctors who helped Macchiarini, especially his surgeon colleague in UK and fellow trachea transplanter Martin Birchall. And indeed, in the Peacock documentary one does briefly glimpse Birchall’s face on a photo with Macchiarini, but that was all.

I also spoke to Ellie H about the Swedish stem cell biologist Urban Lendahl who was responsible for recruiting Macchiarini to the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, and how Lendahl failed to understand the simple biology of how science-free and fraudulent Macchiarini’s stem cell method was. Lendahl’s resignation as the Secretary of the Nobel Prize committee in the wake of Macchiarini scandal is mentioned in the film in passing, and that was it.

Of course Macchiarini’s right-hand man, the failed regenerative medicine researcher and failed thoracic surgeon apprentice Philipp Jungebluth is not shown or mentioned at all, probably because he likes to sue. Anyway, the documentary is, like all other Macchiarini stories, almost exclusively about Benita Alexander, his fiancee. And the surgeon’s bizarre lies about the Pope marrying them, with Obama, Clinton and putin coming as guests.

I believe the film director John Pappas was present during the Zoom conversations. Elie H and her colleague Jessica C kept talking about possible dates to interview me in person, which they seemed very keen on. They wanted me to come to Sweden, where they were present during Macchiarini’s court trial and where they interviewed two of the four Karolinska whistleblowers: Oscar Simonson and Matthias Corbascio. These two feature prominently in the documentary.

At the end, I am glad I didn’t interrupt my August 2023 vacation to go to Sweden to get filmed, because it is now obvious the film-makers were scheming to steal from me. Most likely they wouldn’t even have refunded my trip. Nobody from Maxine Productions ever contacted me since about an in-person interview.

In October 2023, Pappas wrote to me directly, asking for help with more personal contacts. I couldn’t help him with those particular requests, and I never heard from him or Maxine Productions again. Until I heard that their film was out, so I wrote to Elie H and Maxine Productions, asking for a viewing link to review the documentary. Pappas eventually replied to me on 2 January 2023:

“Ellie is no longer on contract with Maxine.”

I wonder if Elie did try to get me credited, and this is why she was let go? I was then connected with the press department of Peacock, who initially didn’t want to let me view the film arguing that it was not out in Germany yet. Eventually they did send me the viewing link, with this request:

“We would just kindly ask that any reviews are held until closer to when the documentary has been sold in your territory and becomes available for viewers to watch.”

Sod these thieves.

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