No Australian neurosurgeon would provide a reference or letter of support ahead of celebrity surgeon Charlie Teo's disciplinary proceedings, a hearing has been told.
The Health Care Complaints Commission (HCC) is summing up its case against the surgeon after eight days of hearings in Sydney, before the Professional Standards Committee retires to consider its decision.
Dr Teo is fighting two complaints of unprofessional conduct from the families of two different women, who say they were not properly warned about the risk of death before consenting to surgery.
Both women failed to wake up from surgeries in 2018 and 2019, and later died.
The HCC's barrister Megan Caristo said the commission had received 10 letters and two statements of support from overseas neurosurgeons, and three emails and a letter of support from other Australian medical professionals.
But she argued the documents should not be given any weight, because the authors did not appear to know the details of the complaints Dr Teo was facing.
"None of the neurosurgeons... are based in Australia," she said.
She said in hearings last year, when Dr Teo was placed under practicing restrictions, the surgeon revealed he had tried to gather support from his peers, to no avail.
"Dr Teo explained he had asked one other neurosurgeon in Australia... and one in New Zealand to provide him with a reference... but neither replied," Ms Caristo said.
There will be 47 letters of support from former patients and their families and more than 100 pages of social media messages in support of the surgeon.
Ms Caristo told the committee those messages, while genuine, were not relevant to the two cases being examined.
"There's nothing on the face of the material to indicate that any person was aware of the complaints or particulars before this committee," she said.
Dr Teo has told the committee he believes he is "hated" by other doctors and the complaints against him were coerced by "enemies" in the medical fraternity.
He is currently banned from practicing in Australia without written permission from another neurosurgeon, and may have those restrictions extended.
Barrister Kate Richardson said evidence from the husband of one of the patients, a woman in her 60s from Victoria, suggested the surgeon took advantage of her vulnerable state in his consultation room.
She said the woman was wheelchair-bound and crying during the consultation, when Dr Teo asked her, "what are you f***ing crying about?"
He also allegedly told the woman she must have surgery by the Tuesday, or she would be "dead by f***ing Friday".
Ms Richardson said it was a "completely inappropriate way to speak to her."
Dr Teo's receptionist then allegedly told the couple the $35,000 fee for surgery had to be paid up front.
In his closing statements, Dr Teo's barrister Michael Hutchings said his client often disagreed with the expert neurosurgeon witnesses about the rationale and details of brain surgery, but this did not mean he was wrong.
"Mere disagreements with someone's best guess cannot be seen... to be a lack of insight and lack of understanding," he said.
Outside the hearing, former Socceroo Peter Katholos said Dr Teo operated on his nine-year-old-son Jason's brain tumour in 2005 when no other doctor at Westmead Hospital in Sydney would.
Jason died at age 13, four years later.
"He gave him an extra four years to live," Mr Kathalos said.
"You're a parent and you've got a young child. It's your obligation as a parent, I think, to explore every avenue.
"He is a bloke that tries to give people an opportunity to live. And ... people are shooting him down.I can't understand the logic."
The public hearings are due to wrap up today.
