Netflix viewers gobsmacked over 'eye-opening' and 'insane' series that's based on true story

A new documentary has shocked and disgusted fans after it depicted a con man in an unlikely career.

There has always been a morbid fascination into real-life horrors, but this one might have made viewers regret clicking play.

True crimes fans described the series as 'scary' and 'crazy brilliant', while some say it gave them nightmares.

Netflix

The thee-episode Netflix docuseries dropped on 29 November and follows a plastic surgeon’s downfall as his risky procedures catch up to him.

The medical documentary is described as telling the story of Dr Paolo Macchiarini, who was supposed to be a revolutionary Italian thoracic surgeon known for windpipe transplants.

Netflix’s synopsis sums it up as: “Dr. Paolo Macchiarini is world famous for his revolutionary stem cell-infused windpipe transplants. There's just one problem: His patients keep dying.”

But why do they keep dying? According to fans and the show, Macchiarini took far too many risks and lied his way through consultations.

However, it’s a little darker than that.

You can watch the shocking trailer for Bad Surgeon: Love Under the Knife below:

Macchiarini was initially a visiting professor and director at Sweden's Karolinska Institute from 2010, where he worked on a temporary contract.

It was there that he began his journey of allegedly using patients as guinea pigs for his experimental surgeries, which saw seven of eight patients die from complications caused by his synthetic trachea transplants, which meshed the patient’s stem cells with synthetic materials.

After watching the three-part series, viewers were left unable to comprehend the actions of the doctor.

One person on X wrote: “I was watching Bad Surgeon on Netflix like this man gotta be a Leo the way he lying and boom … a whole a** LEO.”

Another penned that it gave them long-lasting effects, saying: “Bad Surgeon gave me nightmares. Unbelievable how the modern medical system can avert its eyes while people like Paolo Macchiarini butcher people and use them as human trials."

However, there were those who sympathised with the surgeon, donning him misunderstood.

One person wrote in Facebook group Netflix Bangers: “I feel like he did just wanna help people and just kept going because he had a feeling it would work."

Netflix

Another person believed it was down to his lack of testing which caused him to fail: “He was actually a talented surgeon who have some new invention a plastic trachea, but he didn't do animal trial first and he tried it to human hoping it would work.

“It worked for a couple of weeks then complication started.”

In 2022, Macchiarini was convicted of causing bodily harm and received a suspended sentence.

The following year he was found guilty of gross assault against three patients and his sentence was increased to two years and six months.