Dr. Death (2021) s02e07 Episode Script
Compassionate Uses
1
[EERIE MUSIC]
[SCREAMING]
- BP's dropping.
- [MACHINES BEEPING]
- He's bleeding.
- I can fix this.
Can you believe it? It's
finally fucking happening.
Yulia's tracheas, they're defective.
Sorry.
Just wait a little bit longer.
Okay.
You were right about
him, about all of it.
Andy Beyene.
He just died.
I wanna see it his trachea.
I wanna see it with my own eyes.
Now, when you remember this day,
will you feel shame?
Don't have a solution. Welded wrong.
♪
Clearly not working.
- I don't have a solution.
- [TOOL CLICKING]
Welded wrong.
We have to change the material.
Clearly not working.
What of the ones we used on Mr. Beyene?
[TENSE PERCUSSIVE MUSIC]
♪
[CAMERA SHUTTER CLICKS]
The endoluminal surface is barren.
We should be seeing anastomosis,
blood vessels developing
around the implant.
It looks like the trachea ate away
at the surrounding cartilage.
Here, take a sample of the tissue
near the left main bronchus.
Oh, holy [SIGHS]
That's advanced degeneration. Necrosis.
We'll test it.
You test it all you want.
That is rotting flesh.
I tend to agree.
I see no evidence of
vascularized neomucosas.
This is this is gross.
Stay with us, man.
Just be quick, please.
We need to be out
before the morning shift.
- Shh.
- Hmm?
[FOOTSTEPS PASSING]
[WHISPERING] Okay, go.
The stem cells, they were supposed to
they were supposed to come alive.
It's a bad time to find
enlightenment, Lasbrey.
Come on, let's go.
Anders, breathe.
I'm good. I'm fine. I'm totally fine.
Nate, look.
It's barely attached.
He coughed the damn thing loose.
How the hell was he breathing?
♪
Oh.
[GROANS]
All right, pal.
- Just keep an eye on that door.
- [GROANS]
Hedley's already got a hard-on for us.
The last thing we need
is for him to find out
- we went behind
- Wait, wait, wait.
Ah, shit.
Ah.
Yahoo. Can you go like this?
Like that? And then.
[KEY CLICKS]
Macchiarini. Did you see the email?
Yeah, we've worked
around the clock for
we still don't have a solution.
[INDISTINCT SPEECH]
[SOFT DRAMATIC MUSIC]
♪
The material because these
are clearly not working.
- [KEYS CLICKING]
- Are clearly not working.
To change the material because these
clearly not working.
I got you, you son of a bitch.
Yo, time's up, toots.
No, no, no, I found something.
You said you needed two hours.
- You're rounding up to six.
- Yeah, yeah, but hold on.
- Hold on.
- You gotta get out of here
before the morning shift.
Listen.
Yeah, we've worked around
the clock for two weeks,
and we still don't have a solution.
And I'm very unhappy.
When I felt the tracheas,
they were completely welded wrong.
They dried out too quickly.
They were like the ones
we used on Mr. Beyene.
Yes, I mean, definitely, we
have to change the material
because these are clearly not working.
His tracheas don't work.
They don't work, and he knew, Kim.
B, you don't work,
not here, not anymore.
They don't work, and he
kept putting them in people,
in real people, in Hannah Warren.
I thought it was just me,
but it's his patients too.
Fuck, Kim, the fog. The fog.
This is the way out.
I have to expose him.
Okay, you can expose
him all over the place,
but right now, the "Today
Show" people are coming in,
and if anyone sees you
Wait, wait, wait, wait, what time is it?
Oh, shit.
I gotta go. I gotta go.
Sorry. Sorry. Thank you so much.
- Wanna run the noble gases?
- Nah, I got it.
Lizzi!
Sorry, guys, I don't know what happened.
One minute it was
midnight, and the next
Mom, it's fine.
Your hair looks really cute today.
Did you finish your homework,
'cause I could check
it for you before
oh, honey, I know it's
your day to bring snacks,
so I got a whole assortment
of different muffins and
We picked up some on the way.
- Oh.
- Sorry.
No, no, no, no, no, that's great.
I appreciate it.
Bye, love.
Mom! Mom!
Sorry. Sorry. Okay.
Go ahead and give the extras
to your teachers or classmates
or whatever.
All right. Phone?
Keys?
[SOMBER MUSIC]
♪
Look, this is completely unacceptable.
This is why we have protocols.
You're the head of security.
You tell me how it happened.
I don't care what was signed.
[TENSE MUSIC]
Was it worth it?
♪
Oh, the entire posterior
quadrant is ruptured.
Trachea ate its way right
through his goddamn neck.
[SIGHS] We have the samples
I smuggled out from the autopsy.
I can run most of the tests myself,
but some I need to send out to the labs.
We should have results
within a few weeks.
Sure.
Is it Hedley?
He can threaten disciplinary
action all he wants.
We have the science on our side.
No, it's not Hedley.
It's just this it's all too familiar.
Yesim.
Ah. Any word?
She made it through her
transplant in the U.S.
Donor lung, donor trachea.
But after everything
she's been through
[KNOCK AT DOOR]
Tracheas were just the beginning.
We had more organs ready to go
animal testing, prototypes, all of it.
- Where?
- Russia.
In a lab overseen by you.
I'm here now.
Yeah, and your sudden urge to give back
is truly inspiring.
"Two months after transplantation,
the patient is asymptomatic,
breathes normally, and is tumor free."
Anders, this is what we published.
Our names are on this.
After what we just saw
we have to expose him.
How many papers has
Macchiarini published
since his time at Karolinska?
Six, with more in the pipeline.
Uh
No, that's fine. Just use my wall.
Macchiarini used these publications
to build his name.
Perhaps they'll lead to his ruin.
Six papers, three patients
from here on out known
as patients A, B
Ah!
Sorry.
We'll repaint it later.
C.
We'll write our own paper.
A report
contrasting the results Paolo released
with his patients'
actual clinical outcomes.
We show the discrepancies,
show that he knew, proving
Fabrications. Falsifications.
Scientific misconduct at the very least.
And we walk this straight
to the board of directors.
This implicates Karolinska as well.
They'll try to bury it.
Yeah, and dig three more
holes while they're at it.
They'll crucify us.
Not if we do this by the book.
We keep the patient anonymous.
We'll need permission from the families,
access to their files
Karolinska will make
our lives miserable.
Hedley warned us.
[SPEAKING SWEDISH]
Fuck it.
We see this through.
You wanna blow the whistle
on one of the most powerful
medical institutions in the world.
Well, I'd rather take a
bullet to the back of the head
than get one of those tracheas.
All right, let's go,
before Macchiarini adds
another letter to our alphabet.
[SOFT DRAMATIC MUSIC]
♪
[MACHINES BEEPING]
Open your eyes.
Yulia.
Welcome back.
[COUGHING]
Can you speak?
Say something.
[RASPINGLY] Is is it
The operation is a success.
- [WHEEZING]
- [APPLAUSE]
[COUGHING]
See, I told you.
I told you it would go perfectly.
Aren't you glad that
you changed your mind?
Is it
is it working?
Of course it's working.
[GASPING]
Something's not right.
It hurts.
[SOBBING]
You have to remain calm, Yulia.
It will help you heal faster.
Yulia, everything is fine.
[EERIE MUSIC]
♪
Will I be able to play with my son?
Yes.
Everything is as it should be, my dear.
Everything.
♪
Paolo Macchiarini is a con artist.
Google him, and you'll
find a sea of good press,
good intentions, a miracle man.
But it's all just a con.
This is a story about who he really is,
and the more I learned about him,
the more questions I had.
He left a trail of bodies behind him
from Italy to London.
Before that, it was Hanover, Germany.
Paris, France.
Every two or three years,
he suddenly relocates his work.
Why?
He's running,
trying to distance himself from the lies
he leaves behind him.
[SPEAKING ITALIAN]
House arrest charges of bribery,
extortion, except none of them stick.
And it all comes back to
this little piece of plastic,
this little piece of plastic
that turns into a windpipe,
but none of it's true.
Here, here, listen to this.
Used on Mr. Beyene.
Yeah, well, definitely, we
have to change the material
because these are clearly not working.
That man that he's
talking about in the video,
Mr. Beyene, died.
But Dr. Macchiarini keeps on operating.
And I'll admit I bought
into this fiction myself.
I wanted to believe that he
was a man who could perform
all of these miracles,
but Paolo Macchiarini
is more mirage than man.
And this story proves
just how deadly a mirage can be.
[BREATHES DEEPLY]
There's a story here, all right.
I told you.
But it's not the one you're selling.
Back in Detroit, you and me and John,
we had quite the little
rivalry going, didn't we?
A three-way tug-of-war,
and you, you were merciless.
When you had a story, you had a story.
You weren't sharing it,
let alone giving it away.
All these years, Percy, and
you really haven't gotten
any better at getting
to your point, have you?
Like I said, there's a story here,
and there's a reason
you're bringing it to me,
to anyone, for that matter,
same reason you don't have
half the 27th floor of
30 Rock on this right now.
I feel like this is a much
stronger written piece,
and with your magazine behind it,
- I know we could
- Bullshit.
You're neglecting your lead.
You, with this guy, that's
the story I'd publish.
Yeah, I don't know what you heard,
- but I have not
- Okay, okay, fine, fine.
Let's break down what you're pitching.
Synthetic tracheas, no
one gives a synthetic fuck.
Stem cells, people are
either for 'em or against 'em.
They don't wanna read about 'em.
He's he's killing people.
Maybe, but at the end of the day,
you don't have any proof
of what you're claiming.
Like you said, a sea of good press
is all that I'm seeing.
Maybe no one has the balls
to print anything else.
This version of the
story is too complicated,
too medical.
We need a road into this world, Benita,
and that boulevard is you.
Don't go there.
It's the only place to go.
Deception, crossed
lines, secret affairs
I mean, that's the through line
to this other sciencey shit.
Am I wrong?
You wanna expose him, you said.
- Yes.
- To save lives.
Yes. That's what this is.
I have a journalistic responsibility
to tell this story.
It doesn't seem you were too worried
about your journalistic
responsibility before.
Thank you for your time, Percy.
[SCOFFS]
[SOFT DRAMATIC MUSIC]
♪
Okay, let's review complications.
Tussis.
- Patient A, yes.
- Patient B, yes.
Patient C yes.
[INQUISITIVE MUSIC]
You spelled sepsis wrong.
What? No, I didn't.
Is that a P?
[SCOFFS] Don't worry about me.
Worry about patient A.
This is going to be hell.
Okay, tracheoesophageal fistula.
Patient A, yes.
B, yes.
C, yes.
♪
Hey, Dr. Lakshmi, I'm having flashbacks
to JV basketball here.
I'm sorry?
I can't seem to find
my name on the roster.
Nothing for you this week.
You've got me working six-day
shifts without any surgery?
So I'm, what, changing IVs?
Perhaps you can help your
colleagues with their paperwork.
♪
They're sticking us in the rubber room.
It's not what it sounds like.
I've been on call 120 hours straight,
and all I'm doing is
other doctors' paperwork.
I'm clocking 110.
Honestly, I'm surprised
they even let me touch a case
since I came back from Russia.
I'm not touching cases, only case files.
I haven't done a surgery.
I haven't done an intake.
I haven't seen a
patient's face in weeks.
[FOOTSTEPS APPROACHING]
I received notice today
my emails are under audit.
What does that mean?
They're tracing back through every email
I've sent and received
over the last two years.
I expect you two will be
receiving the same request.
- What are they looking for?
- [SIGHS]
Slip-ups, mistakes, breaches
in patient confidentiality,
whatever they can find
to justify our dismissal.
All this extra scrutiny,
the unending hours
They're trying to break us.
Is it working?
The sooner we complete our report,
the sooner we can get
back to our regular work.
Patient A, tracheal materials
were made from POSS-PCU.
But Paolo found the initial
materials to be too dry,
so patient B was pure PET.
Time-out.
Pure PET?
Where are the trials to back that up?
You switched materials
between Beyene and Lyles
without any prior testing in place?
We switched materials
with every patient.
[DRAMATIC MUSIC]
♪
- B?
- Yes.
♪
More tea?
No, I do not want hot plant water.
The fuck do you think coffee is?
Who keeps opening the window?
It's 30 degrees in here. I need air.
If it's 30 degrees, then
Don't make a Celsius joke.
You should be cold.
Oh, my God, you live in Europe.
You live in Europe.
Sweet baby Jesus, my seven-year-old is
better behaved than you two.
He's so stubborn. It's ridiculous.
Oh, no, she just gets pissed when
she doesn't get what she wants.
Nathan, stop.
You've been difficult enough on her.
Why are you always sticking up for her?
She's the reason we're in this shit.
What's done is done.
We can't continue on like this.
[PHONE BUZZES]
Thank God.
Hello.
We need to get out of this apartment.
[SPEAKING SWEDISH]
That can't be.
What can't be?
I had Macchiarini's stem
cell solution tested.
The lab found elevated
traces of TGF beta 3.
No, that's a mistake.
It's right here in the labs.
What is it?
It's a growth factor.
But it's barred for
use outside of the lab.
- It's a known carcinogenic.
- Jesus.
Who on ethical approval
board would have allowed this?
They were probably all just as blinded
by the miracle man as everyone else.
They have no idea what they approved.
♪
Ministry of Health. How can I help you?
Hi, yes, I'd like to speak to someone
in permits and approvals.
Yes, I'm I'm looking
for an application
for ethical permission.
Dr. Paolo Macchiarini out of Karolinska.
No, that can't are you sure?
Where are you located?
To the Karolinska
Board of Directors,
we hereby request
No, demand.
- No.
- [KEYS CLICK]
We hereby demand a inq
Investigation.
- No.
- [KEYS CLICKING]
An investi
Do you want me to type?
When I'm in need of numerous typos,
I'll be sure to let you know.
Investiga
I would have chosen a
different font, but whatever.
What [SIGHS]
gation.
[OMINOUS MUSIC]
♪
"It is our opinion that
these articles neglect
to address the fatalities
associated with these procedures
and omit the majority of complications,
which these patients have endured."
♪
"We have analyzed the medical records
of three patients transplanted
with synthetic trachea
and compared them to the outcomes
published by Dr. Macchiarini."
"The claim that a
synthetic tracheal implant
can develop into a functional airway
is unsubstantiated by our findings."
"We found that all six articles contain
falsified information."
"That crucial data
had been omitted or"
There was no ethical approval.
- What?
- He never applied.
Didn't even try. He just skipped it.
That's impossible.
You can't that's
that's the first step.
You can't conduct studies
that's that's felony.
You can't
You can't, but he did.
Everything he did to those people,
everything I did
[DOOR SLAMS]
Can I have a drag?
Actually, I don't smoke.
Neither should you.
What's the matter with you?
I started back up in Russia.
Vodka and cigarettes.
Only way to stay warm stay numb.
- Hey, so
- Don't.
I keep thinking about
Beyene on the table.
I saved him.
My first operation with Paolo,
and everything went
wrong until I stepped in.
I was brilliant.
I spent days studying the
science, his physiology.
I hear it's called preparing.
Maybe it would have
been better if he died.
Then none of this would have happened.
How can I still call myself a doctor
when I think like that?
There was a moment in the OR with Yesim.
All those surgeries
I started to lose
track that she was real.
We're all animals after a while.
Body parts, organs, meat.
I couldn't shake the feeling
that I was some kind of butcher.
And I pushed things further.
I crossed lines that
I didn't ever think I
The more I tried to save
her, the less I could.
None of it had anything to do with him.
We all get lost in the dark, Ana.
And there will be time to grieve,
you know, to figure out
how to forgive ourselves,
but what we're doing,
this could help set things right.
But in order to do that,
we need you with us.
[KNOCK AT DOOR]
Got a minute?
How's school?
You guys still working
on the periodic table?
They didn't invent some magical
new element to rewind time,
did they?
[CHUCKLES]
'Cause there's a few things
I would do differently.
Okay.
You know, we are gonna
talk about this, right?
Maybe not tonight, maybe
at some point, we're
gonna talk about it.
I know these last few
months have been really hard.
- And I'm sorry, but I'm trying.
- [PHONE BUZZES]
It's just it's not
easy to untangle your
Papa?
Mom
- Mom, give it back.
- He's been texting you months?
I don't I don't even answer.
- Lizzi
- Please
How could you talk to him
after everything he did to us?
I don't even text back. Give it.
Okay. Nope, sorry. You lost your phone.
You lost your laptop.
You lost your iPad.
- It's all mine now.
- Mom, you can't do that!
Yes, I can do that.
None of what he's saying is true.
They're all lies.
So? All you ever do is lie to me.
I lie to you? How do I lie to you?
Well, about Dad, about how sick he was.
And you lied to Kim.
You think I don't see this stuff?
Mom, I'm not blind. I know you did.
All he ever did was lie.
Every goddamn word out of
his mouth was a lie, Lizzi.
You think he cared about you?
You think you're special? No.
He's got women all over the world.
He's got little Lizzis
all over the world.
You're not special.
We were never special.
[TENSE MUSIC]
♪
[DOOR SLAMS]
♪
[SIGHS]
[INQUISITIVE MUSIC]
Well, no turning back now.
♪
I'll make the personal
delivery to Hedley's door.
You're a very gifted doctor.
There will be other opportunities
far away from the polar circle.
I was the right hand to a fraud.
My most notable paper is a sham.
No serious institution
will ever touch me.
Oh, I wouldn't be so sure.
How many researchers publish
a revolutionary thesis,
then succeed it with a new treatise
that's designed to
dismantle that very thesis?
It shows versatility.
Huh?
[CHUCKLES]
This will make a difference.
It has to make a difference.
My last patient in
Russia was a young mother.
Her name's Yulia.
He was going to put one of those in her.
I convinced her to wait before I left.
Wherever she is, this Yulia
owes you a debt of gratitude.
You didn't just save a life.
You saved her from a
fate worse than death.
[OMINOUS MUSIC]
♪
[COUGHING SOFTLY]
Gentlemen, we have had
a tremendous breakthrough
that will help us not
only to enhance one's life
but to extend it.
Here she is.
May I present the
beautiful Yulia Tuulik,
the very first recipient
of a bioartificial implant
here at this facility,
and with your generous new grant,
the first of many to come.
Yulia.
Here.
[CLEARS THROAT]
Death came for Yulia
after a tragic accident,
but little did death know
that he messed with the wrong Russian.
[LAUGHTER]
[COUGHING]
Oh, gentlemen, come on.
You're making her afraid.
I'm not afraid of anyone.
Mama.
- Sasha.
- Mama.
[GASPS]
[SOBBING]
See? This.
This is why I became a surgeon.
Through all the delays,
through all the setbacks,
moments like this keep me going.
And I promise you I
I will never stop.
Andre.
[SPEAKING RUSSIAN]
[SPEAKING RUSSIAN]
[OMINOUS MUSIC]
[COUGHS]
♪
This man hurt a lot of people,
and they deserve the truth.
My daughter deserves to know the truth.
So I'll give you the story.
But you leave her out of it, all right?
Lizzi is off-limits.
[RECORDER BEEPS]
Paolo loved playing the martyr,
the selfless doctor
who was, you know, so
busy, so caring, so lonely
without a bed to call his own.
But it couldn't have been
that much of a surprise.
Meaning?
There were plenty of signs
your wedding, celebrities.
I mean, drown me in wine,
you could maybe feed me that one,
but the Pope?
I did my homework. It happened before.
For two divorcées, a non-Catholic?
Paolo knew people at the Vatican.
You still believe that.
It's so easy sitting in that chair,
never believing it could happen to you.
Paolo could make any person in any room
feel like they were
the most important soul
in the entire world to him.
It's a really wonderful
gift for a doctor
and a potent weapon.
Once someone believes that
you mean something to them,
they just let their guard down.
They trust you.
That's why so many of
Paolo's patients trusted him.
And why you trusted him
that night at the Russian hotel.
- I never told you about that.
- He operated on you.
He probably saved your life.
You talked to him.
I'm obligated to get
both sides of the story.
You know that.
He said you contacted him from the ER
when you had your episode.
Of all your friends, your colleagues,
you chose to call him.
Why?
I was scared.
[CLEARS THROAT]
And I felt really vulnerable
'cause I had just lost John.
Paolo made you feel safe.
At the time, he did, yeah.
You loved him.
I did.
He offered you security, stability,
then he took it away,
just like your father.
[SOMBER MUSIC]
♪
Excuse me?
He kicked you out, your father,
right after your mother
ran out on your family.
It's understandable why a man like Paolo
would fill a paternal void for you.
But then he turns out
to be just the same.
Man after man, betrayal after betrayal,
after all that, one can imagine
you might want some revenge.
Go fuck yourself, Percy.
Any intern doing a
five-minute background on you
would find this, and you're
smart enough to know that.
[OMINOUS MUSIC]
♪
Ana.
Paolo.
♪
I'm so happy to see you.
I have to admit that your departure
was a complete surprise for me.
♪
I just feared I would never
have the chance to thank you
for everything you've done.
I
I've encountered many
surgeons over the years,
but you?
[BREATHES DEEPLY]
You possess something that
gets driven out of most doctors.
Imagination.
Oh, yes, you do.
I realized that the moment we met
because you reminded me of me.
I'm nothing like you.
I read your report.
You and your partners
crafted quite a page-turner.
I'm just surprised that you
would go so far to undermine
what you and I built together,
after all that you have sacrificed.
But that's why I'm here today.
Karolinska has given me
the time to refute these allegations,
the opportunity to defend my name.
To defend what, a lie?
That's all it ever was, and you know it.
I always thought you understood.
Why else would you cheat?
Why else wouldn't you seek
Ethical approval?
Because my surgeries were
vital to saving patients' lives.
A loophole.
Loophole?
Our entire history
is built on loopholes.
On lines that we must
be willing to cross
so that we can give
desperate people a chance
when no one else will.
That's compassionate use.
There is nothing compassionate
about what you do.
You know, I meant to tell you
Yulia sends her greetings.
She's doing exceptionally well.
She's back home in St. Petersburg
with her family
with her new trachea.
No.
You almost had her convinced,
but luckily, she changed her
mind before it was too late.
Dr. Lasbrey, we have a
few questions for you.
Would you come with us, please?
Ciao, Ana.
[SOMBER MUSIC]
♪
It was a mistake.
I don't know what I was even thinking,
why I thought this would work.
We've seen it happen over and over.
People who try to speak
out, to tell the truth
[SCOFFS]
They're the ones who suffer in the end.
♪
Heads down, mouths shut.
That's the moral of the fucking story.
♪
The system is rigged.
Good people, they learn to stay silent.
And men like Paolo, they win.
- Not always.
- Maybe.
But this time.
You want me to come over?
No.
I think I need to be
by myself right now.
Okay. Try to get some sleep.
Okay.
[DRAMATIC MUSIC]
♪
[EERIE MUSIC]
[SCREAMING]
- BP's dropping.
- [MACHINES BEEPING]
- He's bleeding.
- I can fix this.
Can you believe it? It's
finally fucking happening.
Yulia's tracheas, they're defective.
Sorry.
Just wait a little bit longer.
Okay.
You were right about
him, about all of it.
Andy Beyene.
He just died.
I wanna see it his trachea.
I wanna see it with my own eyes.
Now, when you remember this day,
will you feel shame?
Don't have a solution. Welded wrong.
♪
Clearly not working.
- I don't have a solution.
- [TOOL CLICKING]
Welded wrong.
We have to change the material.
Clearly not working.
What of the ones we used on Mr. Beyene?
[TENSE PERCUSSIVE MUSIC]
♪
[CAMERA SHUTTER CLICKS]
The endoluminal surface is barren.
We should be seeing anastomosis,
blood vessels developing
around the implant.
It looks like the trachea ate away
at the surrounding cartilage.
Here, take a sample of the tissue
near the left main bronchus.
Oh, holy [SIGHS]
That's advanced degeneration. Necrosis.
We'll test it.
You test it all you want.
That is rotting flesh.
I tend to agree.
I see no evidence of
vascularized neomucosas.
This is this is gross.
Stay with us, man.
Just be quick, please.
We need to be out
before the morning shift.
- Shh.
- Hmm?
[FOOTSTEPS PASSING]
[WHISPERING] Okay, go.
The stem cells, they were supposed to
they were supposed to come alive.
It's a bad time to find
enlightenment, Lasbrey.
Come on, let's go.
Anders, breathe.
I'm good. I'm fine. I'm totally fine.
Nate, look.
It's barely attached.
He coughed the damn thing loose.
How the hell was he breathing?
♪
Oh.
[GROANS]
All right, pal.
- Just keep an eye on that door.
- [GROANS]
Hedley's already got a hard-on for us.
The last thing we need
is for him to find out
- we went behind
- Wait, wait, wait.
Ah, shit.
Ah.
Yahoo. Can you go like this?
Like that? And then.
[KEY CLICKS]
Macchiarini. Did you see the email?
Yeah, we've worked
around the clock for
we still don't have a solution.
[INDISTINCT SPEECH]
[SOFT DRAMATIC MUSIC]
♪
The material because these
are clearly not working.
- [KEYS CLICKING]
- Are clearly not working.
To change the material because these
clearly not working.
I got you, you son of a bitch.
Yo, time's up, toots.
No, no, no, I found something.
You said you needed two hours.
- You're rounding up to six.
- Yeah, yeah, but hold on.
- Hold on.
- You gotta get out of here
before the morning shift.
Listen.
Yeah, we've worked around
the clock for two weeks,
and we still don't have a solution.
And I'm very unhappy.
When I felt the tracheas,
they were completely welded wrong.
They dried out too quickly.
They were like the ones
we used on Mr. Beyene.
Yes, I mean, definitely, we
have to change the material
because these are clearly not working.
His tracheas don't work.
They don't work, and he knew, Kim.
B, you don't work,
not here, not anymore.
They don't work, and he
kept putting them in people,
in real people, in Hannah Warren.
I thought it was just me,
but it's his patients too.
Fuck, Kim, the fog. The fog.
This is the way out.
I have to expose him.
Okay, you can expose
him all over the place,
but right now, the "Today
Show" people are coming in,
and if anyone sees you
Wait, wait, wait, wait, what time is it?
Oh, shit.
I gotta go. I gotta go.
Sorry. Sorry. Thank you so much.
- Wanna run the noble gases?
- Nah, I got it.
Lizzi!
Sorry, guys, I don't know what happened.
One minute it was
midnight, and the next
Mom, it's fine.
Your hair looks really cute today.
Did you finish your homework,
'cause I could check
it for you before
oh, honey, I know it's
your day to bring snacks,
so I got a whole assortment
of different muffins and
We picked up some on the way.
- Oh.
- Sorry.
No, no, no, no, no, that's great.
I appreciate it.
Bye, love.
Mom! Mom!
Sorry. Sorry. Okay.
Go ahead and give the extras
to your teachers or classmates
or whatever.
All right. Phone?
Keys?
[SOMBER MUSIC]
♪
Look, this is completely unacceptable.
This is why we have protocols.
You're the head of security.
You tell me how it happened.
I don't care what was signed.
[TENSE MUSIC]
Was it worth it?
♪
Oh, the entire posterior
quadrant is ruptured.
Trachea ate its way right
through his goddamn neck.
[SIGHS] We have the samples
I smuggled out from the autopsy.
I can run most of the tests myself,
but some I need to send out to the labs.
We should have results
within a few weeks.
Sure.
Is it Hedley?
He can threaten disciplinary
action all he wants.
We have the science on our side.
No, it's not Hedley.
It's just this it's all too familiar.
Yesim.
Ah. Any word?
She made it through her
transplant in the U.S.
Donor lung, donor trachea.
But after everything
she's been through
[KNOCK AT DOOR]
Tracheas were just the beginning.
We had more organs ready to go
animal testing, prototypes, all of it.
- Where?
- Russia.
In a lab overseen by you.
I'm here now.
Yeah, and your sudden urge to give back
is truly inspiring.
"Two months after transplantation,
the patient is asymptomatic,
breathes normally, and is tumor free."
Anders, this is what we published.
Our names are on this.
After what we just saw
we have to expose him.
How many papers has
Macchiarini published
since his time at Karolinska?
Six, with more in the pipeline.
Uh
No, that's fine. Just use my wall.
Macchiarini used these publications
to build his name.
Perhaps they'll lead to his ruin.
Six papers, three patients
from here on out known
as patients A, B
Ah!
Sorry.
We'll repaint it later.
C.
We'll write our own paper.
A report
contrasting the results Paolo released
with his patients'
actual clinical outcomes.
We show the discrepancies,
show that he knew, proving
Fabrications. Falsifications.
Scientific misconduct at the very least.
And we walk this straight
to the board of directors.
This implicates Karolinska as well.
They'll try to bury it.
Yeah, and dig three more
holes while they're at it.
They'll crucify us.
Not if we do this by the book.
We keep the patient anonymous.
We'll need permission from the families,
access to their files
Karolinska will make
our lives miserable.
Hedley warned us.
[SPEAKING SWEDISH]
Fuck it.
We see this through.
You wanna blow the whistle
on one of the most powerful
medical institutions in the world.
Well, I'd rather take a
bullet to the back of the head
than get one of those tracheas.
All right, let's go,
before Macchiarini adds
another letter to our alphabet.
[SOFT DRAMATIC MUSIC]
♪
[MACHINES BEEPING]
Open your eyes.
Yulia.
Welcome back.
[COUGHING]
Can you speak?
Say something.
[RASPINGLY] Is is it
The operation is a success.
- [WHEEZING]
- [APPLAUSE]
[COUGHING]
See, I told you.
I told you it would go perfectly.
Aren't you glad that
you changed your mind?
Is it
is it working?
Of course it's working.
[GASPING]
Something's not right.
It hurts.
[SOBBING]
You have to remain calm, Yulia.
It will help you heal faster.
Yulia, everything is fine.
[EERIE MUSIC]
♪
Will I be able to play with my son?
Yes.
Everything is as it should be, my dear.
Everything.
♪
Paolo Macchiarini is a con artist.
Google him, and you'll
find a sea of good press,
good intentions, a miracle man.
But it's all just a con.
This is a story about who he really is,
and the more I learned about him,
the more questions I had.
He left a trail of bodies behind him
from Italy to London.
Before that, it was Hanover, Germany.
Paris, France.
Every two or three years,
he suddenly relocates his work.
Why?
He's running,
trying to distance himself from the lies
he leaves behind him.
[SPEAKING ITALIAN]
House arrest charges of bribery,
extortion, except none of them stick.
And it all comes back to
this little piece of plastic,
this little piece of plastic
that turns into a windpipe,
but none of it's true.
Here, here, listen to this.
Used on Mr. Beyene.
Yeah, well, definitely, we
have to change the material
because these are clearly not working.
That man that he's
talking about in the video,
Mr. Beyene, died.
But Dr. Macchiarini keeps on operating.
And I'll admit I bought
into this fiction myself.
I wanted to believe that he
was a man who could perform
all of these miracles,
but Paolo Macchiarini
is more mirage than man.
And this story proves
just how deadly a mirage can be.
[BREATHES DEEPLY]
There's a story here, all right.
I told you.
But it's not the one you're selling.
Back in Detroit, you and me and John,
we had quite the little
rivalry going, didn't we?
A three-way tug-of-war,
and you, you were merciless.
When you had a story, you had a story.
You weren't sharing it,
let alone giving it away.
All these years, Percy, and
you really haven't gotten
any better at getting
to your point, have you?
Like I said, there's a story here,
and there's a reason
you're bringing it to me,
to anyone, for that matter,
same reason you don't have
half the 27th floor of
30 Rock on this right now.
I feel like this is a much
stronger written piece,
and with your magazine behind it,
- I know we could
- Bullshit.
You're neglecting your lead.
You, with this guy, that's
the story I'd publish.
Yeah, I don't know what you heard,
- but I have not
- Okay, okay, fine, fine.
Let's break down what you're pitching.
Synthetic tracheas, no
one gives a synthetic fuck.
Stem cells, people are
either for 'em or against 'em.
They don't wanna read about 'em.
He's he's killing people.
Maybe, but at the end of the day,
you don't have any proof
of what you're claiming.
Like you said, a sea of good press
is all that I'm seeing.
Maybe no one has the balls
to print anything else.
This version of the
story is too complicated,
too medical.
We need a road into this world, Benita,
and that boulevard is you.
Don't go there.
It's the only place to go.
Deception, crossed
lines, secret affairs
I mean, that's the through line
to this other sciencey shit.
Am I wrong?
You wanna expose him, you said.
- Yes.
- To save lives.
Yes. That's what this is.
I have a journalistic responsibility
to tell this story.
It doesn't seem you were too worried
about your journalistic
responsibility before.
Thank you for your time, Percy.
[SCOFFS]
[SOFT DRAMATIC MUSIC]
♪
Okay, let's review complications.
Tussis.
- Patient A, yes.
- Patient B, yes.
Patient C yes.
[INQUISITIVE MUSIC]
You spelled sepsis wrong.
What? No, I didn't.
Is that a P?
[SCOFFS] Don't worry about me.
Worry about patient A.
This is going to be hell.
Okay, tracheoesophageal fistula.
Patient A, yes.
B, yes.
C, yes.
♪
Hey, Dr. Lakshmi, I'm having flashbacks
to JV basketball here.
I'm sorry?
I can't seem to find
my name on the roster.
Nothing for you this week.
You've got me working six-day
shifts without any surgery?
So I'm, what, changing IVs?
Perhaps you can help your
colleagues with their paperwork.
♪
They're sticking us in the rubber room.
It's not what it sounds like.
I've been on call 120 hours straight,
and all I'm doing is
other doctors' paperwork.
I'm clocking 110.
Honestly, I'm surprised
they even let me touch a case
since I came back from Russia.
I'm not touching cases, only case files.
I haven't done a surgery.
I haven't done an intake.
I haven't seen a
patient's face in weeks.
[FOOTSTEPS APPROACHING]
I received notice today
my emails are under audit.
What does that mean?
They're tracing back through every email
I've sent and received
over the last two years.
I expect you two will be
receiving the same request.
- What are they looking for?
- [SIGHS]
Slip-ups, mistakes, breaches
in patient confidentiality,
whatever they can find
to justify our dismissal.
All this extra scrutiny,
the unending hours
They're trying to break us.
Is it working?
The sooner we complete our report,
the sooner we can get
back to our regular work.
Patient A, tracheal materials
were made from POSS-PCU.
But Paolo found the initial
materials to be too dry,
so patient B was pure PET.
Time-out.
Pure PET?
Where are the trials to back that up?
You switched materials
between Beyene and Lyles
without any prior testing in place?
We switched materials
with every patient.
[DRAMATIC MUSIC]
♪
- B?
- Yes.
♪
More tea?
No, I do not want hot plant water.
The fuck do you think coffee is?
Who keeps opening the window?
It's 30 degrees in here. I need air.
If it's 30 degrees, then
Don't make a Celsius joke.
You should be cold.
Oh, my God, you live in Europe.
You live in Europe.
Sweet baby Jesus, my seven-year-old is
better behaved than you two.
He's so stubborn. It's ridiculous.
Oh, no, she just gets pissed when
she doesn't get what she wants.
Nathan, stop.
You've been difficult enough on her.
Why are you always sticking up for her?
She's the reason we're in this shit.
What's done is done.
We can't continue on like this.
[PHONE BUZZES]
Thank God.
Hello.
We need to get out of this apartment.
[SPEAKING SWEDISH]
That can't be.
What can't be?
I had Macchiarini's stem
cell solution tested.
The lab found elevated
traces of TGF beta 3.
No, that's a mistake.
It's right here in the labs.
What is it?
It's a growth factor.
But it's barred for
use outside of the lab.
- It's a known carcinogenic.
- Jesus.
Who on ethical approval
board would have allowed this?
They were probably all just as blinded
by the miracle man as everyone else.
They have no idea what they approved.
♪
Ministry of Health. How can I help you?
Hi, yes, I'd like to speak to someone
in permits and approvals.
Yes, I'm I'm looking
for an application
for ethical permission.
Dr. Paolo Macchiarini out of Karolinska.
No, that can't are you sure?
Where are you located?
To the Karolinska
Board of Directors,
we hereby request
No, demand.
- No.
- [KEYS CLICK]
We hereby demand a inq
Investigation.
- No.
- [KEYS CLICKING]
An investi
Do you want me to type?
When I'm in need of numerous typos,
I'll be sure to let you know.
Investiga
I would have chosen a
different font, but whatever.
What [SIGHS]
gation.
[OMINOUS MUSIC]
♪
"It is our opinion that
these articles neglect
to address the fatalities
associated with these procedures
and omit the majority of complications,
which these patients have endured."
♪
"We have analyzed the medical records
of three patients transplanted
with synthetic trachea
and compared them to the outcomes
published by Dr. Macchiarini."
"The claim that a
synthetic tracheal implant
can develop into a functional airway
is unsubstantiated by our findings."
"We found that all six articles contain
falsified information."
"That crucial data
had been omitted or"
There was no ethical approval.
- What?
- He never applied.
Didn't even try. He just skipped it.
That's impossible.
You can't that's
that's the first step.
You can't conduct studies
that's that's felony.
You can't
You can't, but he did.
Everything he did to those people,
everything I did
[DOOR SLAMS]
Can I have a drag?
Actually, I don't smoke.
Neither should you.
What's the matter with you?
I started back up in Russia.
Vodka and cigarettes.
Only way to stay warm stay numb.
- Hey, so
- Don't.
I keep thinking about
Beyene on the table.
I saved him.
My first operation with Paolo,
and everything went
wrong until I stepped in.
I was brilliant.
I spent days studying the
science, his physiology.
I hear it's called preparing.
Maybe it would have
been better if he died.
Then none of this would have happened.
How can I still call myself a doctor
when I think like that?
There was a moment in the OR with Yesim.
All those surgeries
I started to lose
track that she was real.
We're all animals after a while.
Body parts, organs, meat.
I couldn't shake the feeling
that I was some kind of butcher.
And I pushed things further.
I crossed lines that
I didn't ever think I
The more I tried to save
her, the less I could.
None of it had anything to do with him.
We all get lost in the dark, Ana.
And there will be time to grieve,
you know, to figure out
how to forgive ourselves,
but what we're doing,
this could help set things right.
But in order to do that,
we need you with us.
[KNOCK AT DOOR]
Got a minute?
How's school?
You guys still working
on the periodic table?
They didn't invent some magical
new element to rewind time,
did they?
[CHUCKLES]
'Cause there's a few things
I would do differently.
Okay.
You know, we are gonna
talk about this, right?
Maybe not tonight, maybe
at some point, we're
gonna talk about it.
I know these last few
months have been really hard.
- And I'm sorry, but I'm trying.
- [PHONE BUZZES]
It's just it's not
easy to untangle your
Papa?
Mom
- Mom, give it back.
- He's been texting you months?
I don't I don't even answer.
- Lizzi
- Please
How could you talk to him
after everything he did to us?
I don't even text back. Give it.
Okay. Nope, sorry. You lost your phone.
You lost your laptop.
You lost your iPad.
- It's all mine now.
- Mom, you can't do that!
Yes, I can do that.
None of what he's saying is true.
They're all lies.
So? All you ever do is lie to me.
I lie to you? How do I lie to you?
Well, about Dad, about how sick he was.
And you lied to Kim.
You think I don't see this stuff?
Mom, I'm not blind. I know you did.
All he ever did was lie.
Every goddamn word out of
his mouth was a lie, Lizzi.
You think he cared about you?
You think you're special? No.
He's got women all over the world.
He's got little Lizzis
all over the world.
You're not special.
We were never special.
[TENSE MUSIC]
♪
[DOOR SLAMS]
♪
[SIGHS]
[INQUISITIVE MUSIC]
Well, no turning back now.
♪
I'll make the personal
delivery to Hedley's door.
You're a very gifted doctor.
There will be other opportunities
far away from the polar circle.
I was the right hand to a fraud.
My most notable paper is a sham.
No serious institution
will ever touch me.
Oh, I wouldn't be so sure.
How many researchers publish
a revolutionary thesis,
then succeed it with a new treatise
that's designed to
dismantle that very thesis?
It shows versatility.
Huh?
[CHUCKLES]
This will make a difference.
It has to make a difference.
My last patient in
Russia was a young mother.
Her name's Yulia.
He was going to put one of those in her.
I convinced her to wait before I left.
Wherever she is, this Yulia
owes you a debt of gratitude.
You didn't just save a life.
You saved her from a
fate worse than death.
[OMINOUS MUSIC]
♪
[COUGHING SOFTLY]
Gentlemen, we have had
a tremendous breakthrough
that will help us not
only to enhance one's life
but to extend it.
Here she is.
May I present the
beautiful Yulia Tuulik,
the very first recipient
of a bioartificial implant
here at this facility,
and with your generous new grant,
the first of many to come.
Yulia.
Here.
[CLEARS THROAT]
Death came for Yulia
after a tragic accident,
but little did death know
that he messed with the wrong Russian.
[LAUGHTER]
[COUGHING]
Oh, gentlemen, come on.
You're making her afraid.
I'm not afraid of anyone.
Mama.
- Sasha.
- Mama.
[GASPS]
[SOBBING]
See? This.
This is why I became a surgeon.
Through all the delays,
through all the setbacks,
moments like this keep me going.
And I promise you I
I will never stop.
Andre.
[SPEAKING RUSSIAN]
[SPEAKING RUSSIAN]
[OMINOUS MUSIC]
[COUGHS]
♪
This man hurt a lot of people,
and they deserve the truth.
My daughter deserves to know the truth.
So I'll give you the story.
But you leave her out of it, all right?
Lizzi is off-limits.
[RECORDER BEEPS]
Paolo loved playing the martyr,
the selfless doctor
who was, you know, so
busy, so caring, so lonely
without a bed to call his own.
But it couldn't have been
that much of a surprise.
Meaning?
There were plenty of signs
your wedding, celebrities.
I mean, drown me in wine,
you could maybe feed me that one,
but the Pope?
I did my homework. It happened before.
For two divorcées, a non-Catholic?
Paolo knew people at the Vatican.
You still believe that.
It's so easy sitting in that chair,
never believing it could happen to you.
Paolo could make any person in any room
feel like they were
the most important soul
in the entire world to him.
It's a really wonderful
gift for a doctor
and a potent weapon.
Once someone believes that
you mean something to them,
they just let their guard down.
They trust you.
That's why so many of
Paolo's patients trusted him.
And why you trusted him
that night at the Russian hotel.
- I never told you about that.
- He operated on you.
He probably saved your life.
You talked to him.
I'm obligated to get
both sides of the story.
You know that.
He said you contacted him from the ER
when you had your episode.
Of all your friends, your colleagues,
you chose to call him.
Why?
I was scared.
[CLEARS THROAT]
And I felt really vulnerable
'cause I had just lost John.
Paolo made you feel safe.
At the time, he did, yeah.
You loved him.
I did.
He offered you security, stability,
then he took it away,
just like your father.
[SOMBER MUSIC]
♪
Excuse me?
He kicked you out, your father,
right after your mother
ran out on your family.
It's understandable why a man like Paolo
would fill a paternal void for you.
But then he turns out
to be just the same.
Man after man, betrayal after betrayal,
after all that, one can imagine
you might want some revenge.
Go fuck yourself, Percy.
Any intern doing a
five-minute background on you
would find this, and you're
smart enough to know that.
[OMINOUS MUSIC]
♪
Ana.
Paolo.
♪
I'm so happy to see you.
I have to admit that your departure
was a complete surprise for me.
♪
I just feared I would never
have the chance to thank you
for everything you've done.
I
I've encountered many
surgeons over the years,
but you?
[BREATHES DEEPLY]
You possess something that
gets driven out of most doctors.
Imagination.
Oh, yes, you do.
I realized that the moment we met
because you reminded me of me.
I'm nothing like you.
I read your report.
You and your partners
crafted quite a page-turner.
I'm just surprised that you
would go so far to undermine
what you and I built together,
after all that you have sacrificed.
But that's why I'm here today.
Karolinska has given me
the time to refute these allegations,
the opportunity to defend my name.
To defend what, a lie?
That's all it ever was, and you know it.
I always thought you understood.
Why else would you cheat?
Why else wouldn't you seek
Ethical approval?
Because my surgeries were
vital to saving patients' lives.
A loophole.
Loophole?
Our entire history
is built on loopholes.
On lines that we must
be willing to cross
so that we can give
desperate people a chance
when no one else will.
That's compassionate use.
There is nothing compassionate
about what you do.
You know, I meant to tell you
Yulia sends her greetings.
She's doing exceptionally well.
She's back home in St. Petersburg
with her family
with her new trachea.
No.
You almost had her convinced,
but luckily, she changed her
mind before it was too late.
Dr. Lasbrey, we have a
few questions for you.
Would you come with us, please?
Ciao, Ana.
[SOMBER MUSIC]
♪
It was a mistake.
I don't know what I was even thinking,
why I thought this would work.
We've seen it happen over and over.
People who try to speak
out, to tell the truth
[SCOFFS]
They're the ones who suffer in the end.
♪
Heads down, mouths shut.
That's the moral of the fucking story.
♪
The system is rigged.
Good people, they learn to stay silent.
And men like Paolo, they win.
- Not always.
- Maybe.
But this time.
You want me to come over?
No.
I think I need to be
by myself right now.
Okay. Try to get some sleep.
Okay.
[DRAMATIC MUSIC]
♪