Celebrity neurosurgeon Charlie Teo compared his shattered reputation to a falsely accused pedophile in a podcast days before a medical tribunal in Australia effectively ended his career.
On Thursday, a day after the tribunal’s decision was handed down, Dr Teo was spotted at Sydney Airport with his fiancee Tracy Griffith dressed in black and wearing a hat that read: ‘Psycho (eyes open).’
Dr. Teo has a reputation for performing risky surgeries on brain tumors deemed inoperable by other doctors, but has come under constant criticism from the medical establishment for his controversial practice.
He is now expected to continue working in Spain where he is still allowed to work.
Celebrity neurosurgeon Charlie Teo spotted at Sydney airport with fiancée Tracy Griffith
Dr Teo was spotted at Sydney Airport with his fiancee Tracy Griffith wearing black and sporting a cat that read: PSYCHO (eyes open)
The two major complaints saw the Healthcare Complaints Commission (HCCC) hold hearings in March into two surgeries carried out in 2018 and 2019, which left female patients aged 41 and 61 with catastrophic brain injuries.
Dr Teo spent an emotional two months fighting the allegations on the stand – telling a medical panel why he cut too far into one patient’s brain and why he removed more than nine centimeters from another.
On Wednesday, the HCCC found him guilty of unsatisfactory professional conduct. The ruling means he is barred from working unless a credentialing committee approves him.
Many of his supporters across Australia were outraged by the decision – taking to social media to condemn the HCCC and express their anger that patients will have to pay thousands more to travel to Spain, where he is still allowed to operate.
During the podcast he compared the professionals who filed complaints against him to false pedophile accusers, whose complaints tarnish reputations.
‘The only reason they accuse that person of pedophilia is because they want to destroy their reputation and their life, and they know full well that’s not true,’ he told host Bradley Dryberg.
‘Once you identify that person as a pedophile and it’s spread across media channels and the internet, you can’t erase it from your book – it’s always there.’
Dr. Teo (pictured with fiancee Tracy Griffiths) has a reputation for his willingness to perform risky brain tumor surgeries deemed inoperable by other doctors, but has come under constant criticism from the medical establishment for his controversial practice.
Dr Teo (pictured with fiancee Tracy Griffiths) has spent an emotional two months fighting the allegations on the stand – telling a medical panel why he cut too much into one patient’s brain and why he removed more than nine centimeters from another patient.
He then targeted Sydney Morning Herald reporter Kate McClymont for publishing an article in 2021 claiming she had operated on the ‘wrong side’ of a patient’s brain.
He said, ‘It was completely reprehensible and completely defamatory and journalists had to make a phone call to understand that it was defamatory.’
Dr Teo explained that he was removed from the case because ‘it was the radiology department’s fault for mis-labelling the X-rays’.
“A phone call would have done it, but that journalist didn’t make that phone call.”
He spoke openly about his medical colleagues and explained that, in his view, they had been trying to destroy him since he returned to Australia from the US in 1999.
During the podcast he compares the professionals who filed complaints against him to false pedophile accusers, whose complaints tarnish reputations.
‘I knew my colleagues were behind me, I was making more enemies than friends. And one day they will trick me down,’ he said, adding that he was ‘proud’ to have survived 25 years without persecution.
‘The fact that I survived when they got me when I was 65, it’s not so bad to be ashamed that they finally won.’
After the decision was handed down on Wednesday, his fans and former patients were outraged and pointed out that future patients with life-threatening tumors would have to save hundreds of thousands of dollars to travel to Spain.
Although Dr Teo is effectively banned from working in Australia, medical professionals have allowed him to carry out risky surgeries at two hospitals in Spain.
So far, it is understood that he has undergone surgery at Hospital Quiron de Torrevieja in Alicante in southeastern Spain and Hospital Universitario Fundación Jiménez DÃaz in Madrid.