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Charlie Teo last night held an exclusive party for his most loyal supporters just hours after being grilled at a medical inquiry and revealed that, without their backing, he would be suffering ‘very dark days’.
Daily Mail Australia attended the event in a small room at the back of the Royal Oaks Hotel in Sydney’s Double Bay on Monday evening.
The gathering was organised by Dr Teo with the help of ex-patient Monica Lopresti to thank his supporters for backing him through the five-day inquiry into two failed surgeries.
The Health Care Complaints Commission hearing is now expected to run another three days, but that didn’t dampen the mood for the dozens of family, friends and ex-patients who turned up to show their support for the embattled surgeon.
Despite most of the discussion surrounding the cancer battle many attendees had faced and the allegations against Dr Teo, the mood inside the venue was vibrant.
Among Dr Teo’s most high-profile guests was model and fashion designer Jodhi Meares, who has stuck by his side during the turmoil.
Hours after being grilled by a medical watchdog at an inquiry into two failed operations, brain surgeon Charlie Teo (pictured with fiancée Traci Griffiths) arrived at an exclusive party for his most loyal supporters who have helped him through his darkest days
The event was held on Monday evening in a small room out the back of the Royal Oaks Hotel in Sydney’s Double Bay. Pictured are Charlie Teo and his fiancée Traci Griffiths
Among Dr Teo’s most high-profile guests was model and fashion designer Jodhi Meares (pictured), who has stuck by his side during the turmoil
The neurosurgeon wrote a glowing character reference for the 51-year-old nine years ago when she landed in court on a drink driving charge.
Many attendees had come from the medical inquiry earlier that day and were more than happy to continue their support into the evening.
Dr Teo arrived with his model girlfriend and former patient Traci Griffiths and made an effort to introduce himself to every attendee and offer his thanks.
While he would not comment on the ongoing inquiry, he happily responded to most questions put to him by Daily Mail Australia.
However, not everyone within his inner circle were so forthcoming and security eventually ordered Daily Mail Australia to leave the venue.
One man left the pub at about 8.30pm and, as he walked past this reporter, said: ‘You’re a f***ing low-life piece of s**t.’
‘I’d smash your f***ing face in if you were a bloke.’
Dr Teo, on the other hand, was happy to speak, to dismissing any suggestion he was ‘money-hungry’ or had a ‘God complex’.
The neurosurgeon nine years ago had written a glowing character reference for Jodhi Meares (pictured left leaving the event) after she landed in court on a drink driving charge
The 51-year-old (pictured, left) was once married to billionaire James Packer
‘If I’m so money-hungry, where’s the money?’ he asked.
‘Do I have an expensive house in the eastern suburbs? No. Do I have a car? No. Do I travel first class when I go overseas?
‘No. I’ve been doing this for 40 years, so where’s all the money I have? That’s not why I do this.’
Dr Teo spoke enthusiastically about some of his current patients – including a toddler at the event with her father – and explained the importance of giving people hope.
‘If you wake up in the morning and you don’t have hope, you wouldn’t get out of bed because there’s no point,’ he said.
‘People need hope. They need to hope they’ll survive. There’s no such thing as false hope, but there is such thing as false promises. I don’t make false promises.’
He revealed there were many ‘dark days’ in the lead up to the gruelling hearing, and confessed it was those who publicly offered their support who helped him through.
‘If my supporters were not here, I would have some very dark days. It’s so heartwarming that they’re all here supporting me,’ he said.
Dr Teo also railed against suggestions he has a ‘God complex’ because of his ability to perform operations on tumours that other surgeons have said is impossible.
He conceded it would be ‘easy’ to develop such a complex, but maintained he does not see himself in that way.
The surgeon (pictured in white) arrived with his model girlfriend and former patient Traci Griffiths, and made an effort to introduce himself to every attendee and thank them
Dr Teo is pictured greeting a family and kissing a baby at the function
Dr Teo introduced strangers to one another and made sure no one was left out of the conversation
‘It would be easy to have a God-like complex because you’re dealing with life and death, but I keep myself grounded,’ he said.
‘My kids keep me grounded – they’re always telling me about the things I do terribly, and I have other people in my life who ground me.
‘My failures keep me grounded.’
Another supporter at the exclusive party was the older sister of Milli Lucas, who was just 14 when she lost her battle with cancer in 2021.
Tess Lucas, whose family live in Perth, has since moved to Sydney and has been inside for every day of Dr Teo’s hearing.
‘Charlie gave my sister three more years to live,’ she told Daily Mail Australia.
‘That’s three more years than anyone else gave her – other surgeons told us to take her home and make her comfortable, but he gave her years that she wouldn’t have had.’
Ms Lucas said all Dr Teo’s patients are informed of the risks associated with brain surgery.
‘Everyone is told about the risks when they go into a surgery like that, and it’s so frustrating that they come out after and say they weren’t warned.’
‘That makes me so frustrated.’
Milli Lucas (left) pictured with sister Tess won hearts across Australia with her brave cancer battle
During the hearing earlier on Monday, Dr Teo admitted he was potentially ‘too radical’ with an operation he performed that left a woman with brain damage.
The world-renowned surgeon said that in hindsight he would do the two surgeries that are now the focus of the disciplinary inquiry differently.
In the case of another female patient who was left in an essentially vegetative state, Dr Teo told the hearing it was plain from the outcome that he removed too much of her brain.
‘I did the wrong thing. I obviously did the wrong thing by the patient,’ he said.
‘Clearly I have taken out a part of the right frontal lobe that has caused a deficit.
‘Did I intend to hurt her? Absolutely not.’
When asked what he would do differently Dr Teo replied: ‘Pull my punches. Try to leave a little more tumour behind. Maybe a different approach.’
‘That’s the $6million question. ‘What did you do wrong? What can you learn from it?,’ he said.
Throughout the hearing process the 65-year-old has maintained he was acting in what he believed at the time to be the patient’s best interests and denied any wrongdoing or being negligent.
‘The word negligent, I find that offensive,’ Dr Teo said.
‘It wasn’t negligent. Maybe ignorant on my behalf, but it wasn’t negligence.’
The high-profile star was greeted at Monday’s hearing by a large group of supporters who said Dr Teo had saved or improved their lives through surgery for conditions that in some cases had been deemed by others as untreatable.
Dr Teo was at odds with expert opinion given during the hearing regarding both surgeries, over his decisions to operate when other neurosurgeons likely would not have.
Differences stemmed from, among other things, the difficulty of discerning from brain scans what is a tumour and what is cerebral edema, or swelling of the brain.
‘There are just two different ways to look at it,’ Dr Teo said.
The hearing has run into overtime and will resume with a cross examination of Dr Teo in March.
During that time he is continuing to operate on patients under additional oversight imposed by the commission, including surgery on another malignant brain stem glioma next week.
‘I’m doing one next week. It’s the same story and I hope I’m going to get a good outcome by learning from all the past outcomes,’ he said.
During Monday’s hearing, Dr Teo was accused of lying under oath about the risks involved with the surgeries and how he conveyed that to the patients.
Lawyer for the commission Kate Richardson SC put it to Dr Teo that he changed his evidence to protect himself after proceeding with the high-risk surgery.
Dr Charlie Teo’s ‘miracle girl’ Milli Lucas was laid to rest with a public service after the 14-year-old died from brain cancer
Dr Teo firmly denied he had deliberately altered his evidence in order to mislead the committee.
‘I want to suggest to you that you deliberately gave untruthful evidence to the committee for that reason. Do you accept that?’ she asked.
‘No,’ Dr Teo replied.
Dr Teo told the committee the husband of one of the patients was ‘genuinely destroyed’ by the outcome and had initially blamed himself, before deciding to make an official complaint.
‘I think he has been hoodwinked into thinking my intentions were not honourable,’ Dr Teo said.
‘We had a good relationship and that seems to have soured. I made the assumption that he had been ‘got to’ by my enemies.
‘He’s been suggested to that it’s Dr Teo’s fault, nobody else’s fault, not the tumour.’
In August 2021, the NSW Medical Council restrained Dr Teo from operating without the approval of another doctor after an investigation by the commission.
THE LIFE AND TIMES OF CELEBRITY SURGEON CHARLIE TEO
December 24, 1957 – Charlie Teo born in Sydney, the son of Chinese- Singaporean immigrants
1981 – Graduates from University of Sydney with a bachelor of medicine and a bachelor of Sydney following his education at Sydney’s elite Scots College
1982 onwards – works in general neurosurgery at Sydney Royal Prince Alfred Hospital before moving to the US for 10 years where works in Dallas, Texas and Arkansas, where he becomes Associate Professor of Neurosurgery and Chief of Pediatric Neurosurgery
1990s – Teo returns to Australia to work in Sydney’s Prince of Wales Hospital and founds the Cure Brain Cancer Foundation and the Charlie Teo Foundation
2000s – His fame spreads and he becomes a regular on TV and on the social pages of newspapers
2011 – He is awarded the Member of the Order of Australia for services to medicine as a neurosurgeon
Charlie Teo returned to Australia in the 90s to work in Sydney’s Prince of Wales Hospital and founded the Cure Brain Cancer Foundation and the Charlie Teo Foundation
2019 – Urologist Henry Woo goes public with concerns about Mr Teo’s work and the number of Gofundme campaigns raising cash to fund surgery by him, sparking a series of newspaper articles, TV investigations and complaints.
2021 – NSW Medical Council conducted a special hearing into Mr Teo which banned him from conducting operations with special written approval from an experienced neurosurgeon, which he says he’s been unable to get because of the onerous restrictions on the approving surgeon
August 2021 – The Health Care Complaints Commission launch an investigation over two more complaints
September 2022 – HCCC hearing due to take place but is postponed.
October 2022 – Three new complaints against Mr Teo are made to the HCCC
February 13, 2023 – Mr Teo will face the HCCC over five complaints
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