Controversial neurosurgeon Dr Charlie Teo has admitted to leaving one of his patients paralysed in a scathing interview where he slammed his critics for ‘persecuting’ him. 

‘If you look at my CV, out of all the articles that I’ve published, many of them are on complications,’ Dr Teo told Mets Analin in a podcast released on Tuesday. 

‘So I don’t try and hide from my complications, I admit to them. I take it on the chin, it’s my fault, you know that person is paralysed because I went too far.

‘It wasn’t intentional of course, but it was my fault, and I’ve published on that.’

Dr Teo has continued to perform brain surgeries overseas, after a professional standards committee reprimanded him in 2023 for ‘unsatisfactory professional conduct’.

While Dr Teo is still registered to operate in Australia, he requires written support from a neurosurgeon approved by the Medical Council of NSW in order to practice, which none of his colleagues have been willing to provide. 

The finding concerned operations on two female patients at Prince of Wales Hospital in 2018 and 2019.

Neither patient regained consciousness after the surgeries and both died – one of them just 10 days afterwards. 

Dr Charlie Teo (pictured) has continued to perform brain surgeries overseas after a professional standards committee reprimanded him in 2023 

The committee found that Dr Teo didn’t exercise ‘appropriate judgment’ in operating on one of the patients, while with the other, he ‘carried out surgery which was different to that proposed to the patient, and the surgical strategy led to unwarranted and excessive removal of normal functional brain’.

Dr Teo had become ‘isolated from his peers’ and the conditions placed on him were ‘necessary to protect the health and safety of the public’, the committee said. 

Since the ruling, the surgeon has operated in countries including China, India, Germany, Switzerland, Spain, Brazil, Peru and Nepal, and claimed many Australians are flying abroad for treatment. 

He has formally requested the restrictions be lifted, claiming that jealous surgeons are out to get him and he is the victim of a smear campaign. 

‘So here’s a doctor who’s got a worldwide reputation for being very honest with their presentations getting lambasted and getting persecuted for having complications,’ he told Mr Analin in the Tuesday interview.

‘Well hang on – I will be the first to admit that I have bad outcomes.’

Mr Analin, Sydney gym owner and creator of the Elevate with Mets podcast, told Dr Teo he was a ‘massive fan’ of him because he had helped a close friend with treatment more than 20 years ago. 

In the wide-ranging interview Dr Teo, born in Australia to Singaporean parents, said he found neurosurgery daunting as a medical student because of its unforgiving nature. It was only later when he was thrust into the field that he decided he had found his calling. 

Dr Teo (pictured with partner and former patient Traci Griffiths) has often claimed that jealous colleagues are out to get him and he is the victim of a smear campaign

Dr Teo (pictured with partner and former patient Traci Griffiths) has often claimed that jealous colleagues are out to get him and he is the victim of a smear campaign

He described ‘bullying from the medical fraternity’ as his greatest challenge and insisted, ‘I don’t think I’ve done anything wrong’.

‘Now, speak to the doctors and they think I’ve done a lot of things wrong, but all I’ve done, Mets you’ve just got to believe me, all I’ve done was care for my patients.

‘These cases that my colleagues have called futile cases that I take on – well all of those people knew exactly what they were facing – they were facing death, certain death… Or a chance at living longer and maybe even being cured.

‘…My only crime is that I’ve given patients autonomy and I’ve taken on cases that everyone else says I shouldn’t take on. Your friend’s wife is exactly one of them.’ 

He said he enjoyed brain surgery so much that it was a ‘natural progression’ to continue doing it in China after he was effectively banned from Australia. 

The interview divided Aussies, with some coming to Dr Teo’s defence – arguing that his patients knew the risks of surgery – while others suggested he had preyed on distraught families.

‘The guy told people with no hope of a cure he could help them only to leave them as vegetables for the rest of their short lives,’ one said.

‘He performed surgeries on people that other surgeons wouldn’t do. Those people would have probably passed a lot sooner without surgery,’ said another. 

‘Dr Teo is a genius! A massive loss for Australia if he is still prevented from operating,’ said a third.

‘He worked outside the scope and advice of his professional body,’ a fourth said. 

‘That is ego and a recipe for him being hunted out of public hospitals. The fact that his bills were obscene of course didn’t help his image.’

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