Former patients of Dr Charlie Teo hit back at 60 Minutes accusations

Former patients and supporters of Australian neurosurgeon Dr Charlie Teo have shared their “absolute disgust” at a TV segment lashing the doctor.

Former patients and supporters of Australian neurosurgeon Dr Charlie Teo have shared their “absolute disgust” at a 60 Minutes segment which claimed the doctor offered false hope to families of patients, while coming forward to support the surgeon.

The joint investigation between Nine newspapers and the current affairs program interviewed some of Dr Teo’s former patients who claimed the surgeon charged families up to $150,000 for the ultimately unsuccessful operations.

However, 24-year-old Sydney woman, Monica Lopresti disagrees and says she credits the 64-year-old surgeon with saving her life.

Despite being fit and in perfect health, Ms Lopresti began losing her memory in February 2021 to the point where she was “forgetting her brother’s name,” she told news.com.au.

While she returned normal blood tests, her symptoms worsened over time. Then in May 2022, an MRI revealed that she was suffering a benign cystic tumour in the middle of her brain. After seven Sydney-based neurosurgeons refused to operate on her, Dr Teo agreed.

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Monica Lopresti travelled to Spain in order to receive the surgery. Picture: Supplied.

Ms Lopresti says Dr Teo explained the risks, which included death, paralysis and being left in a vegetative state, she decided to proceed with the surgery, which took place in Spain on July 21.

Commenting on the accusations, Mr Lopresti says that “to say that Dr Teo gave false hope or robbed people. It just isn’t true”.

“I wasn’t living a life. I was always calling in sick and I wasn’t having the quality of life that I wanted.

“I’m one of four children and losing me just wasn’t an option to my family and we were still getting over the passing of my dad (who also died from brain cancer in 2014).”

Within four days of her surgery, Ms Lopresti says she was back on her feet and has had her life restored. While the operation restored her quality of life, she’s most appreciative of the care and attention to detail she received during her treatment.

Ms Lopresti said the care she believes she was well aware of the risks. Picture: Supplied.

She says Dr Teo was in constant contact with the family and messaged them to have a safe flight. After experiencing a panic attack in the days before the surgery, the surgeon FaceTimed Ms Lopresti after her mum texted him at 2am in the morning.

“He’s a world-renowned surgeon but he just listened to me. There was no judgment and he was just so humble and treated me like his own family,” she said.

“Despite the fact I could have driven 25 minutes to have the surgery in Sydney, [we had to] travel 23 hours and I would do it all again.”

Mother of Dr Teo’s ‘miracle girl’ hits back

However, for Monica Smirk, the mother of Dr Teo’s miracle girl,’ Milli Lucas, she says Dr Teo is “an amazing surgeon who gives all some real hope”.

In 2019, Milli made national headlines after the surgeon removed 98 per cent of a brain tumour which had been deemed inoperable and incurable by other surgeons.

Ms Smirk told news.com.au she was “absolutely disgusted” with the 60 Minutes report.

“I bet if people got brain cancer there would be only one doctor they would want to do the operation.”

Previously speaking to news.com.au, Ms Smirk said Dr Teo was the “only person who was involved in Milli’s care who still rings us to see if we’re OK”.

“Nothing was ever going to save Milli,” said Ms Smirk.

“We all knew that but he gave us an extra few years – she wouldn’t have had that and we wouldn’t have had that without him.”

Charlie Teo performed two operations on Milli Lucas before she died in 2021.

While the child died of the disease aged 14 on January 4, 2021, her family has consistently backed the surgeon for operating on their daughter.

“He always tells patients what could happen,” Ms Smirk shared in a scathing Facebook post shared on Monday.

“Pick four people out of thousands. I sincerely wished everyone knew the true story.”

“These people went to him as a last resort and he tried his best now want to have a go?”

Her parents say the surgeon have her daughter an extra few years.

‘No such thing as false hope’

Ms Smirk’s defence of Dr Teo joined the dozens of social media posts which described the doctor’s surgical abilities and rapport with patients.

The father of a former patient, Christian De Haas, said Dr Teo was the “only one that treated her like a human, like she was worth something”.

In 2017, his then seven-year-old daughter, Lily underwent an operation for an aggressive and often fatal diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma tumour (DIPG). Although Lily tragically passed away in August 30 that same year, her parents have been vocal supporters of Dr Teo.

In particular, Mr De Haas denounced accusations that the surgeon offers false hope.

“At no time did Charlie Teo profess to having a cure,” wrote Mr De Haas in a Facebook post shared by his wife, Simone De Haas.

“As we chose to proceed with surgery for our daughter, we did what not all chose to acknowledge on tonight’s program, which was, we made that difficult choice. We chose to take the risk and have hope in a what was a no-win situation.

“I also remember vividly, him saying, that if this was a true diffuse tumour in our daughter’s brain, then he would not be able to help.”

Christian De Haas with Dr Teo and his daughter Lily. Picture: Facebook.

He also criticised the public hospital system for inflating the total cost of the surgery. Although the family paid more than $100,000 for Lily’s operation, an itemised breakdown of the surgical costs showed that Dr Teo’s fees was around $8000.

“In comparison to the other multiple healthcare professionals required during major brain surgery, we felt this was more than reasonable,” wrote Mr De Haas.

“The sad truth was that the Sydney Children’s Hospital, situated next door to the Prince of Wales in which Charlie had operated, was responsible for creating such an inflammatory fee.

“The Prince of Wales private hospital does not have an ICU and Charlie’s patients are forced go to the public ICU post-surgery for monitoring. And this is where a lot of the money goes.”

Dr Teo hits back at 60 minutes investigation

While Dr Teo declined to speak to the joint Nine newspapers and 60 Minutes investigation, he has hit back at the claims as “appalling and inaccurate”.

Speaking to the Sunday Telegraph, he told the publication he was “not given the opportunity to answer these slurs,” directly and were only asked general questions.

In one particularly damning interview, a former patient Michelle Smith claimed her epileptic seizures increased in severity after her surgery. Later, she said scans after a near fatal car accident in 2014 showed that none of her brain tumour had been taken out and her initial operation had occurred on the wrong side of the brain.

In 2019, Ms Smith sued Dr Teo for professional negligence, however the outcome has not been publicly disclosed.

Commenting on the Ms Smith’s claims, Dr Teo rejected the claims and told the Sunday Telegraph that: “for the record, I have never, ever operated on the wrong side of the brain in my entire career.”

Dr Teo barred from operating in Aus

Since August 2021, Dr Teo has been barred from operating in Australia, despite daily requests from desperate patients.

Rules imposed by the Medical Council of NSW since August 2021 mean Dr Teo is unable to perform high-risk procedures unless he has written approval from a second independent neurosurgeon with more than 20 years of specialist experience.

Recently speaking to Mark Soderstrom on the podcast The Soda Room, Dr Teo said he believes his restrictions are the result of a broken medical system.

Dr Charlie Teo has hit back at Australia’s medical system. Picture: Brenton Edwards.

“It’s a dysfunctional system whereby a competitor can make a vexatious complaint about you, you are immediately presumed to be guilty,” he said.

“And then you’ve got to prove your innocence to the very person who complained about you. How can that system work?”

Dr Teo said the restrictions meant that he is unable to perform lifesaving surgeries, which he estimates leaves nine patients a week without potentially lifesaving care.

“So the sadness of the situation is that my entire practice was mostly taking out tumours that other people called inoperable, so that was 90 per cent of my practice,” he said.

“That’s 10 tumours a week. So that means, quite conceivably, that there are nine patients a week, who are missing out on either extension of life or cure from a condition that I know that I can help. Now that’s sad.”