Karl Stefanovic defends Dr Charlie Teo after 60 Minutes ‘pile-on’

Dr Charlie Teo has been snapped leaving a gala event in Sydney hand-in-hand with girlfriend Traci Griffiths flashing a diamond ring.

Karl Stefanovic has spoken out to defend his mate Dr Charlie Teo, saying the controversial neurosurgeon is the victim of a “pile-on”.

The Today host’s comments come even as his own employer, Nine Entertainment, has led recent media attacks on Dr Teo via 60 Minutes and The Age and Sydney Morning Herald newspapers.

“I adore him and I love him and I’m just sorry this whole thing’s gone on for so long and continues to go on,” Stefanovic told The Daily Mail.

“The pile-on with Charlie is very difficult to watch given how much I know he is committed to the profession and how much great work he does and how many lives he’s saved. I would hate to see this guy and all of his talent exterminated from a profession that he’s so gifted at. It would be a travesty.”

Stefanovic — who, along with other Nine stable heavyweights Ben Fordham, Peter Overton, Richard Wilkins, Alex Cullen, Chris Smith and Jim Wilson, is an ambassador for the Charlie Teo Foundation — described Dr Teo as one of his “dearest friends”.

“So this whole episode that’s been going on for years now has caused tremendous stress for him and obviously all the families involved,” he said.

“I guess when you’re that high-profile, when you’re that good and you’re that public you have to weather the storms every now and then. Whilst there’s obviously stuff that he’s out there defending at the moment there’s also this unbelievable side to him. He is nothing short of a beautiful person.”

Karl Stefanovic has defended his close friend. Picture: Today

On Friday, Dr Teo, 64, was snapped leaving a gala event in Sydney hand-in-hand with girlfriend Traci Griffiths, 47, flashing a diamond ring as she left the venue following rumours in August that the pair were engaged.

The gifted but polarising neurosurgeon has come under renewed pressure this week after a 60 Minutes segment claimed he offered false hope to families of patients while charging large sums of money.

Former patients of Dr Teo subsequently voiced their support, describing their “absolute disgust” at the program.

Dr Teo, sitting down with A Current Affair’s Tracy Grimshaw on Tuesday, addressed specific accusations in response to a “comprehensive” 60 Minutes piece which he blasted as “abhorrent and disgusting“.

While he admitted he had made mistakes in his career, he said the idea that he was just in it for the money was totally false.

“For some outsiders not sitting in the room with you having a discussion with the patient, it’s so wrong for them to judge you on what’s going on in the room,” Dr Teo said.

Charlie Teo and Traci Griffiths leaving a Gala event in Sydney. Picture: Media Mode

“If someone is trying to portray me as some money-hungry bastard that was operating and hurting children based on money, that’s what I want to correct. It’s not that case.”

Stefanovic told The Daily Mail the voices of patients Dr Teo had saved were being drowned out by the families of those he could not.

“There’s a tremendous amount of people out there who do feel that he gave them a little bit of extra life and I think that’s a really glorious thing,” he said.

“No doubt he’s one of the top neurosurgeons in the world and he lives on the dangerous side of what is an understandably conservative game. I just know how keenly he feels it, how hard it is for him and how many pressures have taken a huge toll on him and that’s all incredibly sad.”

Dr Teo, who is under investigation by the Health Care Complaints Commission, has been barred from operating in Australia since August 2021.

Charlie Teo on The Soda Room podcast. Picture Supplied

Under rules imposed by the Medical Council of NSW, 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.

“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 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.”