Kriti Mehrotra
With Peacock’s ‘Dr. Death’ season 2 delving deep into a tale of lies, medical malpractice, and romance by chronicling the atrocious actions of Paolo Macchiarini, we get an original unlike any other. After all, this true crime anthology drama leaves no stone unturned to let the world know precisely what the cardiothoracic surgeon did not just in Sweden but also across the globe to patients and loved ones alike. Yet for now, if you simply wish to learn more about only Dr. Nathan Gamelli — a colleague turned whistleblower for Paolo, as per the production — well, we’ve got the necessary details for you.
Dr. Nathan Gamelli is Inspired by Dr. Thomas Fux
While it’s unclear whether the reason Thomas became a doctor matches the backstory given to Nathan (Luke Kirby) in the series, a lot of their professional experiences do perfectly align. It’s thus safe to assume that even if some aspects of the latter’s love life, personality, or roots were fictionalized, the way he impacted Paolo’s journey remained the same in both reel and real. We actually say this because he was admittedly one of the first individuals to openly question the then-renowned doctor’s entire practice involving synthetics while also fulfilling his duty of providing surgery aftercare to his patients.
Thomas did have a tough time in the ensuing months owing to internal as well as external pressures regarding not saying much so as to protect his own job, but he couldn’t bear it when patients continued to die one after another. Hence came his breaking point with 22-year-old Turkish native Yesim Cetir, on whom he reportedly had to perform 190 procedures after Paolo replaced her windpipe with a synthetic trachea, all in the hopes of making her survive.
After a point, this aftercare specialist just had to focus on helping her live instead of giving her a good quality of life, all the while her transplant surgeon ostensibly either pursued other patients or traveled the world in a love con with Benita Alexander. In the end, it took three deaths, a past redacted search, plus proof of Paolo having conducted absolutely no animal or clinical trials at all that finally led some of his colleagues/closest friends to believe in his claims.
Thus came the decision to file a formal report with their employer Karolinska Institute — this time, Thomas had the backing of three co-workers who actually penned the document with him — they are Oscar Simonson, Karl-Henrik Grinnemo, and Matthias Corbascio. This unfortunately initially led nowhere, but a re-investigation in 2016 almost immediately sparked an intense police inquiry, through which Paolo was finally arrested on assault charges in 2020.
What Happened to Dr. Thomas Fux?
Although Dr. Thomas served as the loudest voice against Paolo for years, he has actually rarely given interviews or publicly spoken of this matter since news of the latter’s reality broke worldwide — he seemingly never even wrote anything online. However, when the time came for Paolo to face trial in 2022, he didn’t even hesitate to testify against him before requesting he get real prison time: “If he would be allowed to serve his sentence sitting in his house with a view of the Mediterranean, that would be a huge provocation,” he candidly expressed.
Coming to Thomas’ current standing, from what we can tell, this published medical researcher plus 2019 Doctor Of Philosophy-Molecular Medicine & Surgery Karolinska Institute graduate is still based in Sweden. In fact, it appears as if he remains at Karolinska Institute to this day, where he now proudly serves as an Affiliated Researcher in the Department of Physiology and Pharmacology.
Read More: Yulia Tuulik: How Did Paolo Macchiarini’s Patient Die?
