If you have already binge-watched the Netflix true-crime series Bad Surgeon: Love Under the Knife and are jonesin’ for more Paolo Macchiarini, here’s every movie, documentary, and podcast about the once-prominent surgeon brought down by his duplicity.
If you’re not aware, Macchiarini was a rock star in the medical industry in the mid-2010s who claimed to have a revolutionary new treatment for throat conditions like cancer. Macchiarini said he could remove the patient’s windpipe and replace it with a plastic trachea covered in bone marrow stem cells. Macchiarini’s claims made headlines at the time, but there was only one problem: most of his patients later died.
As the Netflix show explains, while at the height of his fame and fortune, the jet-setting surgeon got involved with several women who weren’t aware Macchiarini was already married with children — one of whom produced an NBC documentary on the doctor in 2013. As Macchiarini’s outlandish claims were scrutinized, he was exposed as a fraud in romance and with a scalpel.
Have we piqued your interest? If so, here’s what else to watch for more Macchiarini in your life.
Dr. Death Season 2
As of this report, the only fictionalized version of the Paolo Macchiarini story is Dr. Death season 2, an eight-episode dramatized version of the Macchiarini story, premiering Dec. 21, 2023, on Peacock. A companion documentary, Dr. Death: Cutthroat Conman, will premiere on the same platform.
In the show, Mandy Moore stars as Benita Alexander, the TV producer caught up in Macchiarini’s web of lies. Edgar Ramírez, meanwhile, is the deceitful surgeon. Luke Kirby, Ashley Madekwe, and Gustaf Hammarsten are also feature in the series.
20/20, “True Lies”
In 2021, the venerable TV news program 20/20 told the Macchiarini story in an episode called True Lies, available on ABC.com. According to ABC News, the episode tells the story of a “… handsome surgeon who conned his way through love and the wedding of a lifetime” or how Pope Francis himself would officiate Macchiarini’s wedding to TV producer and his peak-fame love interest Benita Alexander, so the surgeon said. Once Alexander found out Macchiarini was a married father already, his professional and personal lies unraveled.
He Lied About Everything
Another Macchiarini documentary, He Lied About Everything from Investigation Discovery, came out in 2018 and is available on Amazon. The show covers the true story of “the love affair between award-winning investigative producer Benita Alexander and world-renowned surgeon Paolo Macchiarini,” which started like a dream but “developed into a nightmare filled with lies and deceit,” according to ID.
Dr. Death Season 3: “Miracle Man”
And finally, podcast listeners interested in diving further down the Macchiarini rabbit hole should check out the 13-part Dr. Death Season 3: Miracle Man podcast from Wondery, hosted by Laura Beil. According to Wondery, the podcast “tells the story of a globe-trotting surgeon who seduces the medical world and sweeps one woman off her feet.”
And there you have it: Every show, podcast, or doc about Macchiarini for you to enjoy. But with Macchiarini promising to appeal verdicts related to medical malpractice as of 2023 regarding his fraudulent surgeries, surely more will come.
