Top neurosurgeon Dr Charlie Teo says Sydney Children’s Hospital refuses to let him operate on sick children

ONE of our top brain surgeons, Dr Charlie Teo, says a leading Sydney hospital is refusing to let him operate on sick children.

ONE OF Australia’s top brain surgeons claims a leading Sydney hospital is refusing to let him operate on an 18-month-old child who is dying from a brain tumour.

In an interview with Studio 10 on Wednesday, neurosurgeon Dr Charlie Teo made explosive claims about the Sydney Children’s Hospital in Randwick, as part of his ongoing campaign exposing the culture of bullying and harassment in Australia’s surgical profession.

He says doctors are letting their egos get in the way and are putting children’s lives at risk.

The 58-year-old is famous for operating on brain tumours that other surgeons consider inoperable or too high risk. His patients comes from all over the world to visit his neurology centre at the Prince of Wales Hospital in Sydney.

His radical approach has drawn criticism from some in the surgical profession, who argue he offers “false hope”, and many doctors will refuse to refer their patients onto Teo.

But he believes if a patient wants to be operated on, that’s their choice.

“While there’s quality of life, there’s hope. If people aren’t willing to die I will certainly not condemn them to a death sentence. People I’ve operated on that really should have died within six months, a lot of them are still alive and a lot survived two, three, four years,” he told Fairfax.

Dr Teo claims the Sydney Children’s Hospital hasn’t referred one of their patients onto him for 17 years.

“You know the [Sydney] Children’s Hospital is currently not letting me operate on a kid again?You’ve read how much s*** I get from the Children’s Hospital,” he told Ita Buttrose on Studio 10.

“I have a child who’s dying from a brain tumour. It’s a benign tumour. It doesn’t respond to chemo and radiotherapy typically. It responds very well to surgery.

“They’ve tried operating at somewhere else. They couldn’t get the tumour out. They’ve given chemotherapy, it hasn’t responded.”

Dr Teo believes he can remove the tumour successfully.

“I’ve taken many of these tumours out before with some good and bad results but mostly good results. I’m willing to give it a shot.

“The Sydney Children’s Hospital hear about this. It goes against everything they believe in because it’s their doctors who’ve said it’s inoperable. It’s their doctors who’ve given the chemotherapy. And now they’re putting pressure on me not to operate on that child.

“I have to battle. There’s day-in and day-out administrators, other doctors who feel like they have the final say and I don’t have the final say.”

Dr Teo on Studio 10.

Dr Teo says it’s up to the patients and their parents, not doctors, to determine what risks should be taken.

“It’s all about patient autonomy. It’s all about the fact that the parents have taken that information and it’s all about risk propensity. They are willing to take the risk.

“But other doctors and other administrators – they don’t have the right to dictate the plight of their child.”

He cited a previous example where a child with a similar type of tumour — “bad area, so-called inoperable” — was declared a ward of the state to prevent the child’s parents from letting Teo operate.

“[The hospital] has sent the child home to die. So the parents came to me, I said I’d take the tumour out on Monday.

“On the Friday, the doctors at the Children’s Hospital decided to make the child a ward of the state so they could take the responsibility away from the parents to give that child life.

“Thankfully, we operated early Monday morning before the court injunction came through. The kid is alive and well today.

“So there’s all these cases I can tell you about and the extremes they go to, to try and stop me from giving these children a fair go.”

A spokeswoman for the Sydney Children’s Hospital said all decisions regarding a child’s care are made in partnership with the parent or care giver.

“As in all clinical care situations, doctors provide parents with the options and subsequent implications, risks, benefits and possible side effects,” she told news.com.au.

“Most children with complex conditions have a team of highly specialised experts involved in their care with one of those doctors identified as the principal clinician summarising the options. “In other words, many of these patients already have multiple opinions as part of their standard of care.”

She said a fear of being sued “plays no part” in determining whether surgery should be performed.

Dr Teo is famous for his radical approach to surgery.

In the wide-ranging interview, Dr Teo also spoke about the extreme bullying that goes on in the medical profession and says he supports Senator Nick Xenaphon’s call for an inquiry into the industry. He hopes an inquiry will lead to a Royal Commission.

“[The bullying] is more extreme than you’ve been lead to believe. It’s Machiavellian” he said.

“I can tell you of so many cases where a neurosurgeon has been bullied — not just me but other good neurosurgeons have been bullied — one bullied to his death. After seven years of being bullied and harassed by the fraternity, he committed suicide.”

A report commissioned by the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons (RACS) last year found nearly half of all surgeons have experienced discrimination, bullying or sexual harassment.

The investigation was instigated after surgeon Dr Gabrielle McMullin spoke out about the sexual harassment in her industry and said complaining about it could ruin a trainee’s career.

Dr Teo believes the majority of doctors are good people in their profession for the right reasons

“but the trouble is the ones with the loudest voices and the ones who carry the power may not have the patient’s best interests in mind”.

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