Dr. Charlie Teo, a prominent Australian neurosurgeon, has been found guilty of unsatisfactory professional conduct by the Health Care Complaints Commission. The commission accused him of having a “substantially experimental” approach when performing surgery on two patients.
The allegations against Dr. Teo came from the families of two women, referred to as Patient A and Patient B, who claim they were not adequately informed about the risks before undergoing surgery. Unfortunately, neither woman regained consciousness after their surgeries in 2018 and 2019 at Sydney’s Prince of Wales Private Hospital. Both had been diagnosed with terminal brain cancer.
The commission conducted an eight-day investigation into the complaints, which included accusations of misleading patients, failure to obtain informed consent, and inappropriate behavior towards a patient’s daughter. In its 112-page decision, the commission’s Medical Professional Standards Committee noted Dr. Teo’s decision to perform surgery even when the risks outweighed the potential benefits.
Additionally, the committee found that Dr. Teo charged an improper fee of $35,000 and displayed poor judgment by performing a high-risk and inappropriate surgery on a 41-year-old woman from Perth. The committee stated that the surgery should have been conducted under clinical trial conditions or subjected to other ethical scrutiny.
Dr. Teo was accused of being “substantially experimental” and the committee stated that the surgery he performed was not recommended by the majority of his peers or a responsible minority of surgeons. They emphasized that the procedure lacked support from the medical literature and that Dr. Teo had an ethical duty to refuse the surgery.
As a result, the commission reprimanded Dr. Teo and imposed conditions on his registration. They also ordered him to obtain a written statement from a medical council-approved neurosurgeon to support him in performing certain surgical procedures. If the written statement does not support him, he will not be allowed to perform the surgeries.
During the hearing, Dr. Teo took responsibility for the poor outcomes of the two women but denied any negligence. He expressed his frustration at not being able to save lives that he believed he could save.
Despite the allegations, Dr. Teo received support from former patients and their families, with 47 letters and over 100 pages of social media messages backing him.