The second season of "Dr. Death" started out bad. It sensationalized a true story that was already almost too crazy to believe. The parts with Mandy Moore's character, Benita, were the weakest of them all, with too many cheesy and over-dramatic elements (which were also entirely unnecessary).
Until Episode 5, which was also the only one not focused on the couple. Yesim, a young and lovely Turkish woman, comes to Dr. Macchiarini with the hope that he could fix her trachea, which was injured in a freak accident during a previous procedure for treating excessive sweating of the hands. The doctor, naturally, is eager to help, and what follows is a string of surgery after surgery, as the implanted "bio-synthetic" trachea wreaks havoc on Yesim's entire body, culminating in 191 surgeries carried out on the poor woman. The whole ordeal is painstakingly depicted, in all its gory details. I had tears in my eyes watching this miserable woman wheeled in for yet another procedure, which would naturally not help her, as the underlying cause of her suffering and physical decline was still implanted in her throat.
Never in my life have I watched such a raw depiction of medical malpractice. I wanted to scream at the TV, warning her not to do the surgery that would ruin her life. And what a life she had - despite the accident during her first procedure, she was a lovely, optimistic young woman, who loved her family and wanted to be an artist.
The scene at the end, where she's moved to a private wing so as to hide her from public view, was almost too heartbreaking for me to watch.
Season 2 is extremely disappointing - especially in comparison to Season 1, but this episode is its redemption. And what a redemption it is. It should be shown to medical students and to others in the medical field as a cautionary tale, with a single and most important lesson: Ego can kill.
Until Episode 5, which was also the only one not focused on the couple. Yesim, a young and lovely Turkish woman, comes to Dr. Macchiarini with the hope that he could fix her trachea, which was injured in a freak accident during a previous procedure for treating excessive sweating of the hands. The doctor, naturally, is eager to help, and what follows is a string of surgery after surgery, as the implanted "bio-synthetic" trachea wreaks havoc on Yesim's entire body, culminating in 191 surgeries carried out on the poor woman. The whole ordeal is painstakingly depicted, in all its gory details. I had tears in my eyes watching this miserable woman wheeled in for yet another procedure, which would naturally not help her, as the underlying cause of her suffering and physical decline was still implanted in her throat.
Never in my life have I watched such a raw depiction of medical malpractice. I wanted to scream at the TV, warning her not to do the surgery that would ruin her life. And what a life she had - despite the accident during her first procedure, she was a lovely, optimistic young woman, who loved her family and wanted to be an artist.
The scene at the end, where she's moved to a private wing so as to hide her from public view, was almost too heartbreaking for me to watch.
Season 2 is extremely disappointing - especially in comparison to Season 1, but this episode is its redemption. And what a redemption it is. It should be shown to medical students and to others in the medical field as a cautionary tale, with a single and most important lesson: Ego can kill.