Is ‘Dr. Death’ based on ‘Bad Surgeon’ Paolo Macchiarini?

The true crime craze is shifting focus to zero in on malicious physicians, and it may disappoint you to learn that there are several to choose from.

Doctors are looked on as largely unimpeachable professionals — people who hold our lives in their hands, and, to the very best of their ability, keep us breathing even in the worst of circumstances. Doctors endure years of additional schooling, sky-high student loans, and a grueling schedule, and they save lives while doing it.

Not all of them are so trustworthy, unfortunately. Plenty of stories detail the typical failings of our very human doctors — misdiagnoses, stubbornness, even greed. Those things are to be expected, but purposeful negligence and permanent maiming? Not so much.

Such things aren’t unheard of in the medical field, as it turns out, and true crime fans are getting a front row seat to several harrowing tales of doctors who, wielding the power their education lent them, left their patients far worse than they started. The release of Netflix’s Bad Surgeon is ramping up conversations about these depraved doctors, and causing some confusion in the process. The series follows a doctor who’s fraudulent and unethical behavior cost several patients their lives — but is he also the subject of 2021’s Dr. Death?

Who is Dr. Death about?

The first season of Dr. Death, which released on Peacock in July of 2021, follows Dr. Christopher Duntsch, an American neurosurgeon who’s known for injuring a high percentage of his patients. He was nicknamed “Dr. Death” after mutilating the spines of several of his former patients, killing some, and dodging charges for years. He’s thankfully since been stripped of his license, and is currently serving a lengthy sentence in prison. May he never see the light of day again.

Bad Surgeon, meanwhile, follows a completely different — but no less malicious — surgeon named Paolo Macchiarini. A Swiss thoracic surgeon (which means he operated on the lungs, esophagus, etc.), Macchiarini is accused of performing unethical surgeries and misleading patients, all of which resulted in the death of the majority of people he operated on.

Macchiarini is set to serve as the focal point of Dr. Death‘s second season, which is expected to arrive on Peacock on Dec. 21, 2023. His story will be explored in a similar manner to Dr. Death‘s treatment of Duntsch, delving into the gritty details of his medical background, the people he injured and killed, and the criminal charges he subsequently faced.