Celebrity neurosurgeon Charlie Teo has made a series of admissions in a complaints hearing, saying he took "full responsibility" for "going too far" in a brain surgery that left a woman in a vegetative state.
Dr Teo resumed his evidence in front of a New South Wales Medical Council panel, which is hearing two complaints made against the surgeon to the Health Care Complaints Commission.
The complaints were lodged by the families of two women who received complex surgery to remove late-stage brain stem tumours but never recovered.
The Health Care Complaints Commission is arguing Dr Teo did not properly communicate the high risks of operating and has already placed him under practising restrictions in Australia.
Last month, the panel was told Dr Teo attempted to remove a high-grade brain tumour in October 2018 from one of the women who was from Western Australia, but she never woke and died about six months later.
Under questioning by barrister Kate Richardson, Dr Teo made a series of admissions, declaring he made an "error" in the woman's surgery.
"I did something wrong; clearly, I damaged this lady," Dr Teo said.
"I went too far into normal brain.
"Whatever happened, I take full responsibility. It was my hands, my technique, my doing that she didn't wake up.
"I made an error, a surgical error. I went too far, and I damaged this lady."
Dr Teo told the panel that after reviewing the post-operative MRIs taken the day after the woman's surgery, he now recognised he "strayed' too far into the mid-brain.
"I wanted to stick to the enhancing portion [of the tumour], but sometimes you stray into the non-enhancing portion," he said.
"That can be tolerated in some parts of the brain, but clearly wasn't tolerated in this patient."
Earlier in the hearings, the woman's husband gave evidence about what Dr Teo had told him in the pre-surgery consultation.
He said Dr Teo said he would "pull his punches" and not go across his wife's brain mid-line to avoid a "terrible outcome".
Asked why he crossed that mid-line during surgery, Dr Teo said he was trying to remove the whole tumour.
Last month, two neurosurgeons who were called as expert witnesses in the inquiry agreed that operating on the woman carried perhaps a 60 per cent risk of death or profound neurological loss.
Dr Teo is under practising restrictions in Australia and cannot operate unless he has the written approval of two other approved neurosurgeons.
Outside the hearing, Dr Teo said he had been overseas to "help" in other surgeries in the time between February's hearings and Monday's.
Dr Teo has also been questioned about the second complaint, concerning a woman in her 60s from Victoria who died a few weeks following surgery with the neurosurgeon.
The woman's husband complained to the Health Care Complaints Commission, alleging that he "paid $35,000 for my wife to die", and he was only warned she may have partial paralysis and memory loss following a brain tumour removal.
Dr Teo told the hearing he believes the woman's husband was coerced into making a complaint by another doctor at the hospital where she died.
"I am hated by so many doctors," he said.
"That to me smells of malevolence.
"My judgement was he was a good chap and if he had questions like that he would have asked me before escalating a complaint."
Dr Teo has also defended allegations made earlier in the hearings that he slapped the woman across the face to try and rouse her post-surgery, in front of her family.
"It was like this," he said while making light clapping noises with his hands.
"As opposed to a Will Smith-type slap," he said, referring to last year's infamous Academy Awards incident where actor Will Smith hit comedian Chris Rock across the face on stage.
He said causing pain was a normal way to wake an unconscious person, and he would never be disrespectful.
Dr Teo told media last month he thought the husband of the West Australian woman had also been encouraged to make a complaint about him by "enemy" doctors.
The surgeon has reiterated that belief but told the hearings he, "should shut my big mouth and not talk to media".
The hearings are due to continue on Tuesday and Wednesday.
