User Reviews

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.

This episode was extremely difficult to watch, but in a strongly cinematic way. I had a very visceral response to everything that happened to poor Yesim Cetir. Seeing her hesitation regarding the exploratory procedure, enduring the complications of the biosynthetic trachea, and ultimately suffering through 191 surgeries to attempt to fix an unfixable problem was so heartbreaking. It was so hard to wrap my mind around how any human being could be put through that. So many procedures, so many organ removals, the loss of quality of life, and blatant medical malpractice. It made me so angry for her and her family. In my opinion, this is the best episode of Season 2 so far, and one of the best episodes of any show I've seen in some time.

Okay, I'm no film critic by any means, but I HAD to give my thoughts on this episode.

Largely, I think that season 2 of Dr. Death is far weaker than season 1. I just find the plot being split between the Karolinska team, and Benita to be silly. I don't find the whole Benita end of the storyline interesting at all. I mean, yes, it sucks she got scammed, but the medical aspect of the story is far more important in my opinion. I'd much rather have a season fully focused on the Karolinska end of the story.

Luckily, this episode has NOTHING to do with Benita, it's the only episode of the sort in this season. The entire episode is focused on Karolinska.

In the previous episode, we briefly meet Yesim Cetir, a beautiful 22 year old Turkish woman who has traveled to Stockholm for a consultation with Dr. Macchiarini. Yesim had a previous surgery to attempt to correct her hyperhidrosis, where her trachea was damaged, and she had to have a tracheostomy placed. Determined to have her trachea fixed, and her tracheostomy removed, she was referred to Dr. Macchiarini to see if she qualified for compassionate use to have a "bio synthetic" "trachea" placed.

In "191", towards the beginning of the episode, Doctors Macchiarini and Lasbrey try to convince Yesim to have a simple exploratory surgery to determine if she will qualify for compassionate use for the "bio synthetic" "trachea" transplant. Yesim reluctantly agrees to the surgery.

While on the table for her exploratory surgery, Yesim unexpectedly goes critical, and in a turn of events, Dr. Macchiarini cuts into her chest and discovers Yesim's right lung is bleeding and infected. Despite arguments that Dr. Macchiarini could have cauterized her lung to save it, he ends up removing her entire lung, right then and there, making Yesim a perfect candidate for compassionate use now.

Yesim has the "bio synthetic" "trachea" placed and her tracheostomy removed by Dr. Macchiarini, right before he promptly flits off out of the country. Yesim's care is transferred to Dr. Gamelli, who notoriously dislikes Dr. Macchiarini.

After Yesim's transplant, she begins developing mucus plugs in her airways, that must be suctioned out EVERY 4 TO 6 HOURS. Despite all the effort to clear Yesim's airways, with the mucus plugs, and her only having one lung, Yesim's body is massively oxygen deprived.

What unfolds in the remainder of the episode is a heartbreaking set of complications. Being deprived of oxygen, Yesim begins experiencing organ failure, loss of vision, loss of hair, loss of teeth, seizures, stokes...the list of complications is endless. We watch Yesim be wheeled into surgery, after surgery, to try to keep her alive. Yesim suffers through a staggering 191 surgeries at Karolinska, before being transferred to the care of doctors in the US with a hope for better care.

It's so hard to even describe the emotions I felt watching this episode. You want to scream watching Macchiarini remove her lung, cry why he transplants the "trachea". By this point in the show, we know that Macchiarini's patients are human lab rats, and we know that anyone who receives the "trachea" is sure to suffer and die.

We watch Yesim, an intelligent, caring, independent, artistic woman, slowly wither away, and lose her spark for life. Painfully, we watch her grow resentful of Dr. Gamelli, who is just trying to keep his promise to take care of her, to keep her alive. He's been handed someone with a death device in her throat, and is told to take care of her. Incredibly painful to watch. A particularly heartbreaking scene to watch is the one in which Yesim tells Dr. Gamelli she hates him. You can hardly blame her for feeling this way, as she's slowly dying in Dr. Gamelli's care, but we also know how hard Dr. Gamelli is fighting to keep her alive. Yesim was sentenced to death the moment the "trachea" was placed in her body.

Oh, and don't forget, this is all based on a true story. Yesim Cetir was a real person, who experienced real suffering.

Alisha Erozer and Luke Kirby both deliver absolutely beautiful performances, that brought tears to my eyes. As humans, we feel uncomfortable watching anyone suffer, and these two display that suffering in the most beautiful way. It was so painful to watch, but so poetically shown that I could not look away. I sat in horror, my jaw dropping further and further, as I watched the number of surgeries climb higher and higher. I found myself wanting to rewatch this episode to make sure I really soaked in every terrible detail, and let me tell you, it's so much worse the second time. Watching Yesim walk into Karolinska hopeful and happy, knowing the horror she's about to experience, is truly harrowing.

I'm an emotional person in general, but I'm not typically moved to tears by tv shows and movies. But this episode touched me in such a way, I don't think I will ever forget it. I think it will stick with me for the remainder of my life.

Although I like this show generally. This episode seems over the top, sensationalistic, and serves to the desensitized society we live in today. Although a possible correlation and retelling of a true story, it seems the recount of 191 surgeries was not necessary to get the point across or maybe it was. Either this episode may have turned me off, it actually may have lured me in further. That this doctor existed is further proof to the excessive pride, arrogance and conceit that was unnecessarily permitted because of money, power and fame of an individual and all those connected to him. I think this show has left me more nauseated than any other.