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Peterborough boxer death raises radiology concerns, coroner says

Peterborough boxer death raises radiology concerns, coroner says

BBC News25-04-2025
A coroner has said he is concerned there are not enough radiologists in England following the death of a 17-year-old amateur boxer.Christian Hobbs died from an undiagnosed heart condition at Peterborough City Hospital on Boxing Day in 2017.At an inquest, David Hemming said the urgency of his situation was "underappreciated" at hospital.In a report, published last week, he pointed out that nothing was recorded "in the notes on assessment" of Christian's X-rays.
"I have a concern over whether there are sufficient numbers of radiologists to cover the ever-increasing expansion of imaging as a key diagnostic tool," he wrote.He listed 19 concerns he had relating to Christian's treatment.Mr Hemming also wrote that he was concerned funding was not available to help increase awareness among healthcare staff of cardiogenic shock (CS).CS is a life-threatening condition in which the heart cannot pump enough blood and oxygen to the brain.
Christian Hobbs was a boarder at Rugby School in Warwickshire.He trained twice a week at the Heart of England Community Boxing Club in Hinckley, Leicestershire.He was amongst the "fittest" of men, according to his father who served for 10 years as an infantry officer in the Army.On Christmas Day he seemed well, but the following day, his grandfather - a retired consultant surgeon - noted that he had turned "morbidly white" and was "clammy".His grandfather could not find a radial pulse and measured a carotid pulse of 240bpm.His parents took him to Peterborough City Hospital, arriving at 17:42 GMT, complaining of "chest tightness and vomiting".Just after 20:00 he went into cardiac arrest and CPR was started. At 23:45, with the family's consent, treatment stopped and he was pronounced dead.A post-mortem examination found he had arrhythmogenic cardiomyopathy, a rare condition which can cause the heart's walls to become weak.
In his prevention of future deaths report, which followed the inquest that concluded in October, Mr Hemming said there had been a "number of instances in our coroner investigations" where there were issues surrounding radiology within the North West Anglia Foundation Trust (NWAFT).He also said: "The under appreciation by some staff of how critically unwell Christian was raises an issue on exchanges of information and team culture."Mr Heming highlighted reports by the Care Quality Commission in 2018 and 2019."There have now been a number of independent expert reviews in coronial investigations which have highlighted sub-optimal clinical care in fact-specific scenarios," he said."This is a concern and it is unclear as to whether there has been a deep dive audit [or] review to look at patterns [or] trends rather than simply looking at raw overall mortality data."He suggested there could be a lack of general awareness among parents of athletes regarding sudden cardiac death and how to spot red flag symptoms. A spokesperson from the NWAFT said it would review and respond to the report. The trust, alongside the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Integrated Care Board and six national organisations, have until 2 June 2025 to provide details of action taken or proposed actions.
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Ex-partner of disgraced surgeon reveals how his horrifying double life emerged
Ex-partner of disgraced surgeon reveals how his horrifying double life emerged

Daily Record

time10-08-2025

  • Daily Record

Ex-partner of disgraced surgeon reveals how his horrifying double life emerged

Writer and director Benita Alexander eventually went on to co-produce He Lied About Everything, a documentary based on her former lover's fall from grace. An ex-partner of former stem cell surgeon Paolo Macchiarini thought she was living a real-life fairytale until she uncovered his dark web of lies. ‌ Writer and director Benita Alexander eventually went on to co-produce He Lied About Everything, a documentary based on her former lover's fall from grace. ‌ In 2023, Macchiarini was sentenced to two and a half years in prison by a Swedish court for aggravated assault against patients he treated. ‌ The court found he had acted with criminal intent in his treatment of three patients who received trachea transplants while he was working at the Karolinska Institute. The Mirror reports that all three patients died after suffering complications from the procedure. The court ruled that Macchiarini knew the surgeries were unlikely to succeed but disregarded the risks to the patients. Macchiarini bypassed essential safety protocols: he conducted no animal testing, clinical trials, or safety reviews before implanting the synthetic tracheas into human patients. His team also allegedly failed to obtain government approvals for the artificial windpipes, chemicals, and stem cells used, and did not seek ethical clearance from Stockholm's review board. ‌ One surviving patient, Yesim Cetir, reportedly spent three years in intensive care at Karolinska University Hospital and underwent nearly 200 surgeries. Investigations by both the Karolinska Institute and Karolinska University Hospital later revealed that complications and patient deaths may have been intentionally concealed. Macchiarini also faced accusations of scientific misconduct from several colleagues. In 2011, Macchiarini created the world's first artificial windpipe using a plastic trachea scaffold infused with a patient's own stem cells, aiming to prevent rejection of the transplanted organ. ‌ As part of her job as a producer, Alexander arranged to meet Macchiarini at Boston's Mandarin Oriental hotel to discuss his work. She later told The New York Post: 'I'm not a believer in love at first sight. But the second our eyes locked, that's what it felt like.' Though their first meeting sparked romantic feelings, Alexander tried to keep their relationship professional at first. She was coping with her ex-husband's battle with an aggressive brain cancer, and Macchiarini was a steady support. ‌ She said: 'He was an amazing friend to me during that time, and a solid, reliable pillar of strength. 'He spent hours listening to me talk about it all and offering gentle advice.' ‌ By June 2013, the pair were in a relationship and on Christmas Day that year, Macchiarini proposed. Alexander happily accepted. Shortly after, he told her he had to leave for an 'emergency VIP surgery' and claimed he was part of a secret circle of elite doctors treating figures like Bill and Hillary Clinton, Emperor Akihito of Japan, and President Obama, according to Vanity Fair. ‌ Then, throughout 2014, Macchiarini teased extravagant nuptials, including a Catholic ceremony officiated by Pope Francis at the Vatican's summer residence in Castel Gandolfo, a four-day celebration, and performances by Andrea Bocelli and John Legend. Alexander welcomed Macchiarini's offer to surprise her with an Italian wedding. She said: 'All I had to do was buy the dress.' ‌ But in May 2015, the truth unravelled. Just as Alexander planned to move to Europe and quit her job, she received an email from a friend titled 'The Pope.' It linked to an article revealing Pope Francis would be in South America on their supposed wedding day. She said: 'I demanded an explanation from Paolo. He claimed Vatican politics had interfered with the plans.' But when she contacted the Italian castle where the wedding was allegedly booked, 'nobody there knew Paolo's name.' ‌ She cancelled the wedding and hired a private investigator, who revealed Macchiarini was still married to his wife of 29 years — and living in Barcelona with another mistress and their two children. 'I just didn't want to put two and two together,' Alexander said. 'I didn't want Paolo to not be the man I believed him to be. I didn't want the fairy tale to end.' The Vatican confirmed Pope Francis never knew Macchiarini or promised to officiate the wedding. Bocelli's wife also denied his involvement. ‌ On what would have been their wedding weekend, Alexander, disguised in a blonde wig, and two friends confronted Macchiarini at his Barcelona home. A woman with two children emerged, confirming his deception. 'He was like an embarrassed schoolboy who had been caught,' friend Leigh McKenzie told Vanity Fair. Alexander watched silently from the car, marking the definitive end of their relationship. Join the Daily Record WhatsApp community! Get the latest news sent straight to your messages by joining our WhatsApp community today. You'll receive daily updates on breaking news as well as the top headlines across Scotland. No one will be able to see who is signed up and no one can send messages except the Daily Record team. All you have to do is click here if you're on mobile, select 'Join Community' and you're in! If you're on a desktop, simply scan the QR code above with your phone and click 'Join Community'. We also treat our community members to special offers, promotions, and adverts from us and our partners. If you don't like our community, you can check out any time you like. To leave our community click on the name at the top of your screen and choose 'exit group'.

Surgeon assaults patients on operating table before horrifying double life emerges
Surgeon assaults patients on operating table before horrifying double life emerges

Daily Mirror

time10-08-2025

  • Daily Mirror

Surgeon assaults patients on operating table before horrifying double life emerges

Benita Alexander thought she was living a real-life fairytale when she met Dr Paolo Macchiarini - the world's first doctor to perform a synthetic organ transplant. But then the dark truth unravelled Charismatic surgeon Paolo Macchiarini gained international fame as the world's first doctor to perform a synthetic organ transplant. ‌ When not in the operating room, he whisked his girlfriend, Benita Alexander off on exotic vacations and promised her a lavish Italian wedding officiated by the Pope himself. But just months before their dream wedding, Alexander learned her fiancé was not the man she thought he was. ‌ As Macchiarini's surgical achievements came under scrutiny, Alexander discovered the famed Italian had won her heart with lies - and was secretly married to another woman. ‌ Alexander first met Macchiarini in February 2013 while working as a producer for NBC. She was researching a two-hour special titled A Leap of Faith about the "super-surgeon". READ MORE: Man, 30, put shoulder pain down to gym aches, then doctors asked where he'd like to die ‌ In 2011, Paolo created the world 's first artificial windpipe using a plastic trachea scaffold infused with a patient's own stem cells, aiming to prevent rejection of the transplanted organ. Collaborating with Stockholm's Karolinska Institute, Macchiarini quickly rose to prominence. However, multiple patients died following the procedures, and others suffered serious complications, according to a report by biomedical researcher Leonid Schneider. These surgeries were carried out across Sweden, Italy, Russia, Spain, and the United States. As part of her job as a producer, Alexander arranged to meet Macchiarini at Boston's Mandarin Oriental hotel to discuss his work transplanting synthetic organs. At the time, he was working to implant a synthetic trachea into a two-year-old child, Hannah Warren. ‌ "I'm not a believer in love at first sight. But the second our eyes locked, that's what it felt like," Alexander later told The New York Post. Though their first meeting sparked romantic feelings, Alexander tried to keep their relationship professional at first. She was coping with her ex-husband's battle with an aggressive brain cancer, and Macchiarini was a steady support. ‌ "He was an amazing friend to me during that time, and a solid, reliable pillar of strength," she told Vanity Fair."He spent hours listening to me talk about it all and offering gentle advice." By June 2013, the line between friendship and romance blurred. Alexander recalled an "incredibly romantic weekend" in Venice, followed by a trip to Stockholm two weeks later. After spending two months apart, Macchiarini flew to New York in September 2013 to be with Alexander during her surgery for uterine fibroids. Their relationship progressed, and on Christmas Day 2013, Paolo proposed. Alexander happily accepted. ‌ Shortly after, Paolo told her he had to leave for an "emergency V.I.P. surgery" and claimed he was part of a secret circle of elite doctors treating figures like Bill and Hillary Clinton, Emperor Akihito of Japan, and President Obama, according to Vanity Fair. Then, throughout 2014, Macchiarini teased extravagant nuptials, including a Catholic ceremony officiated by Pope Francis at the Vatican's summer residence in Castel Gandolfo, a four-day celebration, and performances by Andrea Bocelli and John Legend. Alexander welcomed Macchiarini's offer to surprise her with an Italian wedding. "All I had to do was buy the dress," she said. The woman had four dresses made and wedding invitations printed for high-profile names including Vladimir Putin and the Obamas. ‌ But in May 2015, the truth unravelled. Just as Alexander planned to move to Europe and quit NBC, she received an email from a friend titled "The Pope." It linked to an article revealing Pope Francis would be in South America on their supposed wedding day. "I demanded an explanation from Paolo," Alexander told The Post. He claimed Vatican politics had interfered with the plans. But when she contacted the Italian castle where the wedding was allegedly booked, "nobody there knew Paolo's name." ‌ She cancelled the wedding and hired a private investigator, who revealed Macchiarini was still married to his wife of 29 years — and living in Barcelona with another mistress and their two children. "I just didn't want to put two and two together," Alexander said. "I didn't want Paolo to not be the man I believed him to be. I didn't want the fairy tale to end." The Vatican confirmed Pope Francis never knew Macchiarini or promised to officiate the wedding. Bocelli's wife also denied his involvement. ‌ On what would have been their wedding weekend, Alexander, disguised in a blonde wig, and two friends confronted Macchiarini at his Barcelona home. A woman with two children emerged, confirming his deception. "He was like an embarrassed schoolboy who had been caught," friend Leigh McKenzie told Vanity Fair. Alexander watched silently from the car, marking the definitive end of their relationship. In 2018, she executive produced the documentary He Lied About Everything, chronicling the ill-fated romance. ‌ Meanwhile, a Swedish court found Macchiarini acted with criminal intent in his treatment of three patients who received trachea transplants while he was working at the Karolinska Institute. All three patients died after suffering complications from the procedure. The court ruled that Macchiarini knew the surgeries were unlikely to succeed but disregarded the risks to the patients. ‌ Macchiarini bypassed essential safety protocols: he conducted no animal testing, clinical trials, or safety reviews before implanting the synthetic tracheas into human patients. His team also allegedly failed to obtain government approvals for the artificial windpipes, chemicals, and stem cells used, and did not seek ethical clearance from Stockholm's review board. One surviving patient, Yesim Cetir, reportedly spent three years in intensive care at Karolinska University Hospital and underwent nearly 200 surgeries. Investigations by both the Karolinska Institute and Karolinska University Hospital later revealed that complications and patient deaths may have been intentionally concealed. Macchiarini also faced accusations of scientific misconduct from several colleagues. Macchiarini was sentenced in 2023 to two and a half years in prison after being found guilty of aggravated assault against patients he treated. Today, Alexander continues producing and leads Berraca Productions, a company dedicated to empowering women who have survived fraud.

Man who died for 6 minutes says he ‘can't imagine anything worse' than what he saw
Man who died for 6 minutes says he ‘can't imagine anything worse' than what he saw

Metro

time05-08-2025

  • Metro

Man who died for 6 minutes says he ‘can't imagine anything worse' than what he saw

Hiyah Zaidi Published August 4, 2025 3:44pm Updated August 4, 2025 3:44pm Link is copied Comments Some people think that when you die you get sent to either heaven or hell. But according to some people who were clinically pronounced dead for a certain amount of time, that's not always the case. One man, who was pronounced dead for six minutes before being brought back to life, claims that the afterlife is a truly terrible place. So, what did he see? (Picture: Getty) Although it is hard to measure, there have been a few studies looking into near death experiences. In general, people tend to describe sensations of seeing their life being replayed, having out-of-body experiences, dreaming and meditative states. The research of one psychiatrist, Dr Raymond Moody, reveals that hundreds of people described pleasant experiences in which they left their body, viewed themselves from above, and passed down a tunnel toward a light that helped them to evaluate their life before returning back to life (Picture: Getty) But writing on Reddit, a man describes the situation which occurred when he was just 15 years old. After an episode of ventricular fibrillation, which is a type of irregular heart rhythm, he collapsed. He was told after that the emergency medical service arrived to the scene and discovered that his heart had stopped beating - and although this state of 'death' lasted six minutes, the man claims he went on quite a journey in the viral post (Picture: Getty) The man said things began with a white light. The light initially calmed him, and he had a feeling that he was ascending. As he was doing so, he passed several gates, before arriving to a place he describes as 'beyond reality'. He thought he was not alone, and says that several 'life forces' came towards him. He wrote: 'At first, because of my Christian upbringing, I believed them to be angels. In my incorporeal form, I made the spiritually-equivalent gesture of opening my arms, anticipating their embrace.' However, it was not what he thought it was (Picture: Getty) The man goes on to explain that he felt himself to be shackled by the lifeform's powers, and feelings of humiliation and terror came over him. He realised that these beings were 'cruel, unsympathetic overlords' that laughed at him in a manner described as 'cold' and 'mocking'. And he said that the beings revealed some 'horrifying truths about existence' which he shared in the post (Picture: Getty) He wrote: 'Our universe, like many others running parallel to it, contains a pittance of the total energy in existence. It is a farm, used to produce souls, which only arise in the precise conditions found in our cosmos. When you hear scientists talk about the improbability of the existence of our goldilocks universe, it's because they don't actually come into being spontaneously. They're designed. And the hands that craft them are not benevolent gods, but rapacious beings with little care for the creatures they create. Our ultimate purpose, I learned in the custody of the spirits that shackled me, was to ripen until we were ready to serve them on their higher plane' (Picture: Getty) He added: 'I can't imagine anything worse than what I experienced, subsumed beneath an ineffable grief and torment.' The man writes in the post that he was warned not to reveal their existence, but when he was revived, he tried to explain to anyone who would listen about what he experienced. However, he said he was brushed off, and was told he had suffered a very serious and traumatic experience for a young man. Eventually, he said he convinced himself it was all a dream. Until he met someone else (Picture: Getty) He says he met the author of a book who had claimed to meet God in the afterlife, and told him that 'he knew the truth, that slavery awaits us all'. He continued: 'A flicker in his gaze betrayed his knowledge of the fact. He really had died and visited the afterlife, but lied about it in his book. Because he knew.' So, why did the man tell his story? He wrote: 'During my visit, I learned things about our universe that I wish I hadn't. Perhaps in sharing my story, I might help our species prepare for what comes after we expire' (Picture: Getty) Your free newsletter guide to the best London has on offer, from drinks deals to restaurant reviews.

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