Bad Surgeon: Liebe unter dem Messer

"Bad Surgeon" does one thing above all - shock.

Throughout the entire documentary, you ask yourself how Paolo Macchiarini was able to kill patients negligently for so long with a clear conscience and shamelessly lie to their faces, and how he was able to manipulate the people around him so that he was still highly praised for his "innovative medicine".

The picture of Paolo Macchiarini, who is nothing more than a narcissist who was completely indifferent to the lives of his patients, is painted very nicely here.

Even after his cruel deeds were exposed, Paolo was not aware of any guilt and always took the position that innovations in medicine would require sacrifices.

For my taste, however, they spent too long on Paolo's private life. Yes, it is certainly important to emphasize that Paolo not only deceived people in his job as a surgeon, but also lied to and manipulated people in his private life, but I don't need to know the entire course of his relationships for that.

However, other aspects, such as how Paolo achieved this high status in medicine or how he concealed and falsified everything, are neglected.

Nevertheless, the documentary series is good and serves its purpose.

Imagine a child who was taught by those around him to believe that who or what he is is unacceptable, repulsive and deserving of deep unrelenting shame. He fashioned for himself an alternate reality and alter ego where he is the hero, flawless and beyond reproach. Grossly overcompensating for his innate sense of defectiveness, his sole aim in life is to evade his belief that he is deeply unlovable by striving to achieve the adulation and recognition of others by all means necessary, even if it means costing lives and leaving a trail of destruction. One could say that Macchiarini is in a psychic prison of his own making, unable to break free from being a wretched automaton driven by his insatiable ego because he cannot stand to face his mistakes and therefore has to commit to his own con or risk utter obliteration.

There are millions of Paolo Macchiarinis walking amongst us. As much as this Paolo Macchiarini would love to think that he is an exceptional human being and just short of godliness, he is not. As egregious and intelligent as he was to make it as far as he did, he also had help from those around him who saw him as a fast ticket to fame and fortune. A Paolo Macchiarini who was not fatally shamed in childhood could have used his intellect for good. Instead he has destroyed lives and continues to live in his fantasy world. He might have only received a sentence of 30 months in prison, but he has already been sentenced to a lifetime of self-hatred and self-delusion. The documentary would have been more complete with a look into his formative years and testimonies from those who knew him before the ignominious events at the Karolinska Institute.

I was utterly engrossed in this story. But the third episode, during which Dr. Macchiarini is publicly discovered as a fraud in his professional and personal life, ends abruptly and without answering most of the questions the documentary raises. Did the filmmakers run out of money, interest or time? They spent endless hours interviewing Benita Alexander and telling every detail of her personal story. They were conscientious about giving time to his peers at the Karolinksa Institute who risked their careers and reputations, and the Swedish documentarians who researched the story methodically for over a year. So then, why do they give the viewer a "wrap-up" that is neither expository nor analytical? They give us a few black screens with an epilogue that only focuses on Dr. Macchiarini's subsequent court cases in Sweden. While the results are initially disappointing (subsequent appeals make them seem more just...maybe), the viewer is sidestep giving the viewer any resolution that reflects the material presented throughout the documentary. The problem with the documentary is that Dr. Macchiarini's story, specifically the damage he did to his patients and the complicity of the medical establishment, was NOT the focus of the documentary as it should have been. He committed crimes. He was a reckless and narcissistic doctor who broke myriad rules in medicine. The tragedy of this story should have been his professional hubris and the danger that "superstardom" in medicine creates. Honestly, the documentary's focus on the women - their "shattered" lives - was a poor choice. Was it for ratings? There was certainly enough medical intrigue that the jilted lover angle wasn't necessary. And, indeed, the amount of time spent on the personal relationships angle of the documentary should have, at least for consistency, given a recap of all the individual women who were duped. I could imagine them considering a reality TV style "tell all" show. Thankfully, they did not do that. But they also failed to give the viewer something that resolved all the troubling questions they touch upon throughout the documentary when they do focus on his professional work. I found myself craving a table that listed every statement or assertion about him with a "true or not". For example, related to important medical issues, did Dr. M. have all the accreditations he said he did? Did anyone find animal research that preceded the implants in humans? What is the backstory of the development of the plastic trachea? Who signed off on it and where? Were they prosecuted? Is he still working somewhere? I realize not all of these are True/False questions but they should have been answered if the documentary makers were even remotely interested in exposing a medical charlatan. I think the documentary makers had an obligation (given the Netflix hype and surprisingly positive reviews) to deliver on more facts to complete the story.

I thoroughly enjoyed this mini documentary series and found it a well-made case study of a narcissistic psychopath.

I don't understand those reviewers who complain about there being too much focus on the women he duped. For me, that was all part of the tapestry of his character and his modus operandi. He acted in a similar way in both his professional and personal life, slowly weaving a web of lies with his narcissistic charm, and this was the point of the entire documentary.

I don't see that the journalist Benita glorified him in any way at all, she was just describing how she fell for the manipulations and lovebombing of a narcissist. This is, sadly, a very common thing, as narcissistic psychopaths can be extremely charming and fool people very well. That is the entire point.

All in all, an intriguing and well-balanced character study that is excruciatingly harrowing to watch. You can feel your gut wrench as the extent of his is scheming is slowly revealed, just like it probably was for his victims.

9 stars for exposing this story.

This is a story about a man who is a sociopath, a highly skilled con man, who is also a surgeon. He has delusion of grandeur and his arrogance is off the scale. To summarize this all - he is mentally deviated.

Now, the main question is how his fellow surgeons and assistants and nurses and other staff had remained oblivious of the true nature of his surgeries. Not a word is said about stem cell collection and its subsequent application to the plastic tracheas. Stem cells collection is not a simple process. So was it done or not? Documentary is silent about it. That is why it is unclear how the entire team of medical professionals at Karolinska (and in Russia) went along with assisting the implantation of plastic tubes, as if they were operating on dummies, not living and breathing human beings. I refuse to believe they didn't know what was happening.

As for the women, nothing is new here.