Charlie Teo

2022 - 10 - 23

Post cover — Image courtesy of "The Sydney Morning Herald"

Charlie Teo, the profit of hope: how neurosurgeon left families with a ... (The Sydney Morning Herald)

A year-long investigation reveals the devastating impact on families of ultimately futile procedures conducted by the renowned brain surgeon.

“What was so important that he had to get on that plane and go, rather than giving quality of care?” she posed. He didn’t have the capacity to provide consent to be interviewed. She recalled Teo saying: “the other surgeons were jealous of him because what he could achieve and … He dismissed concerns raised by the Queensland doctors that because of the position of the tumour, any attempt to remove it would leave him blind. In a written response to questions put to Teo about his DIPG operations, a spokesman said: “Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma (DIPG) /Diffuse Midline Glioma (DMG) is the most aggressive childhood brain cancer. In September, Teo was due to face a two-day disciplinary hearing after a lengthy investigation by the Health Care Complaints Commission. “They basically are going to take over the entire brain because they don’t respond to surgery, they don’t respond to radiation, and they don’t respond to any currently known chemotherapy. He told Gene to pull over and get out of the car. Before surgery, if Teo doubted the two previous diagnoses of a DIPG, he could have done a biopsy to be certain. Bella’s grandmother Mariza Howard, who was at the consultation, recalled Teo telling them there was a tiny chance the scan might be wrong. It had the “H3K27M mutation”, which is the defining molecular marker for the devastating DIPG. There is no cure and the average life expectancy from the time of diagnosis is between six and 18 months.

The Price of Hope (9Homes)

On 60 Minutes, Sydney Morning Herald chief investigative reporter Kate McClymont looks at another side of celebrity neurosurgeon Dr Charlie Teo and reveals ...

But on 60 Minutes, Kate McClymont — the Sydney Morning Herald's chief investigative reporter — looks at another side of Teo and reveals the dreadful price some of his patients have paid for believing the hype that he can perform medical miracles. In fact, the celebrity neurosurgeon — also well known for his exorbitant fees — claims to be so brilliant, he'll operate on patients who've been told they have no hope. Teo doesn't lack confidence and a lot of people love him for it.

'I felt violated': Teo patients make new claims (NEWS.com.au)

Families of the patients of neurosurgeon Charlie Teo claim he charged large sums of money for ultimately futile operations that left patients ...

In a written response to questions from the investigation about his DIPG operations, a spokesman for the neurosurgeon said: “Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma (DIPG)/Diffuse Midline Glioma (DMG) is the most aggressive childhood brain cancer. I wasn’t ever stopping until we got that money,” said Mr Howard. Just a year after Mikolaj’s death, another family was facing a DIPG diagnosis – it concerned Gene Howard and Sarah Higginbottom‘s seven-year-old daughter, Bella. After a scan in 2014, other doctors said Dr Teo had operated on the wrong side of Ms Smith’s brain, meaning none of the tumour had been removed. This means that prognosis would be excellent,” Dr Teo’s office said in an email in 2018. For a DIPG, there is no hope. “There was no hope. Prasanta Barman’s young son Mikolaj was another of Dr Teo’s patients. One patient, Michelle Smith, was 19 years old when Dr Teo operated on her. “It was a novel approach to a tumour in a difficult location to reduce the risk of the procedure,” he said of Ms Smith’s case. When the boy was diagnosed with a diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG) – an inoperable type of tumour found on the brain stem – Mr Barman turned to the neurosurgeon for help, and was told there was a “very high likelihood of (a) cure”. “The previous operation was done on the wrong side of the brain and that’s why the normal brain tissue was removed, it was nowhere near the tumour,” Ms Smith said.