The widowed husband of Charlie Teo has instructed a listening to the controversial neurosurgeon “cut onto the wrong side” of his spouse’s mind and that different docs instructed him there was “no science” behind his methodology.
Dr Teo additionally allegedly instructed the person he didn’t suppose dinners had been value attending with out his motorcycle.
The Health Care Complaints Commission’s listening to heard that the couple noticed Dr Teo in October 2018 after she was instructed by two different docs her stage 4 mind tumour was inoperable and she or he had 12-18 months to life.
The man, who can’t be named for authorized causes, mentioned they went to Dr Teo as a result of they’d “heard all the good stories in the media”.
Despite there being “tension” between he and his spouse over whether or not they need to go forward with the operation, the person mentioned he in the end went together with his spouse’s “desperate” option to go forward with the tumour elimination.
He instructed the listening to Dr Teo defined the tumour was a “bad cancer in a bad location” being stage 4 and near the mind stem, however he “sold a lot of hope” they might make it to their six-year-old son’s 18th birthday.
“He said that quite confidently,” the person mentioned, including Dr Teo mentioned he couldn’t make sure what high quality of life his spouse would stay after the surgical procedure.
“He said ‘quality of life’ differs for everyone and some people are okay with going to dinner in a wheelchair but if he can’t ride his motorbike it wouldn’t be worth it.”
He mentioned Dr Teo charged $35,000 for the process, telling them there can be a 5 per cent danger of “minor complications” and a 50 per cent danger of main ones.
But devastatingly, his spouse fell right into a coma and by no means wakened from the surgical procedure.
The man instructed the listening to when he spoke to Dr Teo straight after the surgical procedure, the surgeon was “vague about whether it was a success”.
“He said he’s not sure what happened – he had made it clear that it was disaster – that he didn’t know where the line was and he cut on the other side of the brain and cut the wrong side,” the person mentioned.
“With stage four cancer it’s impossible to know where the line is so there was no science or fact behind anything he said, it was all here say and guesswork. He had no idea how far the tentacles had breached the brain stem – it’s impossible – the science is not there to understand”.
Teo’s defence lawyer Mr Hutchins submitted the couple selected to go forward with the process regardless of having been instructed concerning the supposed inoperability by the 2 earlier docs.
He requested the person:
“So it’s your evidence Teo had never told you that this surgery was high risk?” to which the responded that Dr Teo “did not talk about going too far on the surgery and causing harm”.
“It’s doctor’s oath: cause no harm,” he mentioned.
Steve Waugh and Anthony Mundine had been among the many dozens of helps who gathered outdoors the five-day listening to Monday morning.
Mundine mentioned he has lengthy been pals with Dr Teo, who grew to become divisive as a result of his work on mind tumours deemed inoperable by different neurosurgeons.
“He’s been blessed with unbelievable skills in the neurosurgeon game and is one of the best in the world,” Mundine mentioned.
“There will be people that hate it … it’s a 50/50 game, you’re gonna win some, you lose some.”
Waugh mentioned Dr Teo saved his spouse Lynette’s life when he eliminated a big blood clot from her mind.
“He’s done an amazing job – over 11,000 operations. He takes some of the tough cases no one else wants to,” Waugh mentioned.
“(The reason people don’t like him) could be a little bit of tall poppy syndrome … I guess it makes him a target with some people”.
The NSW Medical Council has barred the 65-year-old from working in Australia since August 2021 with out written approval, following an investigation into alleged unsatisfactory office conduct.
The Health Care Complaints Commission listening to may end in additional circumstances imposed on his registration.
The listening to follows a joint Sydney Morning Herald and 60 Minutes investigation which revealed he had charged some households giant quantities of cash for operations that injured his sufferers.
Dr Teo has come beneath fireplace for working on sufferers with diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG) — an inoperable sort of tumour discovered on the mind stem — with one main American surgeon describing any try and function as “incomprehensible”.
But Dr Teo claims he has been demonised by the Australian media and different practitioners are jealous.
The listening to continues.
Source: www.news.com.au
