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Star brain surgeon Charlie Teo slapped a patient across the face in front of her family members in an attempt to wake her up after an operation, according to a list of factual allegations produced by a disciplinary hearing.
Expert medical witnesses said slapping the patient was “totally unacceptable” and one described it as “assault”, at a hearing into Dr Teo’s conduct in Sydney on Wednesday.
The patient was essentially left in a vegetative state following the January 2019 surgery intended to extend her life expectancy by several months.
The hearing is investigating two surgeries performed by Dr. Teo over concerns including that he failed to adequately inform his patients of the risks involved in the operations.
Neurosurgeons Andrew Morokoff, Bryant Stokes and Paul D’Urso unanimously condemned Dr. Teo for slapping the patient, but said his decision to have the surgery, while controversial, was not black or white.
A Health Care Complaints Commission hearing is investigating allegations against star neurosurgeon Dr. Charlie Teo that he failed to inform some patients about the risks of surgery (pictured with Traci Griffiths)
Neurosurgeon Charlie Teo (left) and his fiancee Traci Griffiths arrive at the hearing Tuesday.
“Regardless of family members, it is completely unacceptable to slap a patient across the face,” Professor D’Urso said.
Outside the audience, Dr. Teo told the media that the slap had actually been a slap to the face as an alternative to other methods, which he described as “kinder and gentler” for the patient.
Professor Morokoff explained that there were other medically accepted techniques for invoking pain in a patient to wake them up that did not carry ‘insulting’ social and cultural implications.
The experts told the commission that the amount of normal brain tissue removed during the surgery was on the high end of what they had seen during their careers.
All said they probably would not have performed the surgery because of the risks involved, but added that the decision to offer surgery to a patient could vary by doctor.
“If you asked 100 neurosurgeons what they would do, they would probably have different answers,” Professor D’Urso said.
The experts were asked if Dr. Teo should have disclosed the amount of healthy brain tissue that would be removed during the procedure.
They agreed that it was common to not disclose it to a patient, but Professor Morokoff said that in this case the patient should have been told because of the extreme amount of normal brain tissue that is removed.
“I think every neurosurgeon in the country would be guilty of failing to state that they are removing normal brain tissue when they are removing a brain tumor,” Professor D’Urso said.
You wouldn’t have anything else to do but have neurosurgeons on your committee if that was the line you took.
Dr. Teo has built his career performing highly skilled brain surgeries that other surgeons said could not be done.
Dr Teo faces a second day of proceedings before the Health Care Complaints Commission in Sydney over allegations including that he did not sufficiently inform patients about the risks involved with his surgery.
When asked by Health Care Complaint Commission attorney Kate Richardson if there was any literature or statistics showing the benefits of very high-risk surgery, Dr. Morokoff said, in his opinion, there weren’t.
“No, I don’t think there are any guidelines or statistical data, including the literature, to say that,” Dr Morokoff replied, The Daily Telegraph reports.
Dr. Stokes said the only benefit would be to shrink the tumor and then follow up with chemotherapy or radiation, but the benefits did not outweigh the risk.
Professional Standards Committee member Professor Michael Murphy asked the experts how long such a surgery should take, both Dr Morokoff and Dr Stokes replied about four hours.
The audience heard that the woman’s surgery performed by Dr. Teo took around two hours.
“(That’s) too fast in my opinion, but Dr. Teo is a very skilled surgeon, so I can’t comment on that,” Dr. Stokes said.
Dr. Teo is famous for performing neurosurgery on cancer patients with tumors that other doctors have deemed inoperable, but he has been accused of charging exorbitant fees and offering false hope to some patients.
She told the media ahead of Wednesday’s hearing that she had no regrets performing brain surgeries that left women with catastrophic injuries because she was acting in her best interest.
“I did it in their best interest, thinking it was going to help them, it wasn’t,” he said.
Dr Teo was restricted by the NSW Medical Council in August 2021 from operating without the approval of another doctor after an investigation by the state Health Care Complaints Commission.
‘They’re just trying to paint me as some kind of money-hungry, reckless, unsympathetic doctor, I’m not. I just love my job. I love my patients,’ she said.
‘I’m not trying to deny that complications occur. They do.’