Former NRL star wants Dr Charlie Teo to tackle fourth brain tumour

Former Newcastle Knights halfback Scott Dureau has put his life in someone else’s hands three times – and he wants Dr Charlie Teo to do it for a fourth time.

Former Newcastle Knights halfback Scott Dureau knows the meaning of putting your life in someone else’s hands – he’s had to do it three times.

The father of two young girls is now faced with the wretched reality of having to undergo brain surgery a fourth time, though this time he can’t rely on the man who for 10 years has kept him alive.

“We are creatures of habit right? If someone literally saves your life three times, then you stick with what you know, with who you trust,” Dureau told the Sunday Telegraph.

And as he prepares for the struggles ahead, the 36-year-old has the extra stress of having to rely on a stranger.

Dureau discovered in January during routine check-ups that he has five new brain tumours.

Former NRL player Scott Dureau with his wife Libby and daughters Imogen, 7, and Everly, 4. Picture: David Swift

Despite having already endured three brain surgeries, chemotherapy, radiation and multiple setbacks with tumours in his liver, his hip and other organs, Dureau has an incredibly positive outlook.

“You have to keep going, you have to get up each day and go to work. I have two daughters, aged seven and four and a half, that I have to provide for and a beautiful wife,” Dureau said.

Family man Scott Dureau has five tumours in his brain and would like Dr Charlie Teo to operate. Picture: David Swift

“We haven’t told them, they are a bit young for what’s gone on. I need to get up every day and be their dad. They deserve a normal life, that’s why I keep doing what I’ve got to do, they’re my world.”

“But it’s rattling around in the back of my mind, those sleepless nights wondering what might be and what I should do.”

Dureau is referring to the unrealistic, expensive option of flying abroad so he can be treated by the man who has saved his life so many times before – controversial neurosurgeon Charlie Teo.

“Is it rough that I can turn to him to operate again? Definitely. Even though I’m not his patient at the moment because his hands are tied, he takes my calls, he gives me advice, he’s become my friend.”

Australian neurosurgeon Dr Charlie Teo’s future is in limbo. Picture: Sam Ruttyn

Dr Teo’s future is in limbo as he waits for the resumption of the Health Care Complaints Commission hearing into two of his cases that had bad outcomes. He has referred Dureau to surgeons he considers the best in the country.

Dr Teo is facing two complaints of “unsatisfactory conduct” related to the care of two female patients who had aggressive, late-stage brain cancers.

The hearing, originally set down for the five days of hearing conducted earlier this month, has been adjourned until March 25. Dr Teo has since been informed he will undergo a further three days of cross examination.

Chair of the HCCC’s professional standards committee, Jennifer Boland, has refused to release the exact nature and detail of the complaints to the media or the public until the proceedings have been completed.

Nor would she allow Dr Teo to present any evidence or details about the “good outcomes” of similar cases – or the fact he’s had just 12 deaths out of 11,000 patients (0.0011 per cent).

Halfback Scott Dureau (centre) celebrates kicking a winning field goal in golden point extra time for the Newcastle Knights.

Dureau is one of hundreds of patients who feel they have been “robbed” of his freedom of choice.

“The first two surgeries Charlie did were really big and took many hours. One of the surgeries, he later told me he hated every minute of it. It was tough for him,” Dureau recalls after seeing the surgeon on New Year’s Day in 2013. He was just 25.

“I was playing in the English Super League for the Catalans Dragon. I was training hard in the pre season and getting really bad migraines, daily.

“Then I started to get some vision issues. When I was watching the news, the scroll across the bottom was wavey, not straight. I was in France, so when I came home for Chrissie at the end of 2012, I went to the optometrist to check my vision.”

Dureau has 20/20 vision but a shadow behind his eye prompted the optometrist to order a CT scan which found a brain tumour.

Through a friend, Dureau heard of Dr Teo, who agreed to meet him in his office on January 1, despite it being a public holiday.

“The next day he called in his team and they operated on January 2, 2013. It was an 11-hour surgery, with a pretty significant avocado size tumour at the time. He got it all.”

Durau is all too aware that the type of cancer he has – hemangiopericytoma – has a pattern of recurrence.

“That’s what these tumours, also known as sarcomas do, they come back. Not sure when and where but that’s the characteristics of it.

“It’s very rare, there’s not a whole heap of research and data to know the right way to go. “That’s why having the person you know and trust to turn to and operate really does take one level of stress out.”

Cydonee Mardon is a former patient of Dr Teo.