Charlie Teo is not just Australia's most well-known neurosurgeon. He will tell you himself, he is the best.
It's what he told a disciplinary hearing in Sydney on Thursday, after listening to four days of evidence against him from bereaved husbands and dissenting peers.
The committee wanted to know why the 65-year-old chose to operate on a brain stem tumour two other surgeons in Western Australia had ruled too risky to remove.
"I have more experience than almost everyone in the world," he told the room, his voice raised slightly in frustration.
"If you look at the literature on brain stem tumours, the largest series is written by me. Most neurosurgeons don't understand this."
Neither of the two deceased patients at the centre of the complaints against Dr Teo can be identified.
But both are women, who sought out the famous neurosurgeon to operate on highly aggressive brain tumours after other surgeons had turned them down.
One of the women approached Dr Teo in October 2018, flying from Western Australia to Sydney "desperate" for help.
When Charlie Teo looked at the MRI of the woman's tumour, he saw it as likely 'focal' or mostly contained to one side of her brain, and he told her he could remove it with a "5 per cent" risk of death.
Two neurosurgeons, who were called as expert witnesses in the inquiry, interpreted the scans very differently.
They agreed it was likely tumour cells were already on the other side of the brain, and operating carried perhaps a 60 per cent risk of death, or profound neurological loss.
Dr Teo admitted the surgery was a disaster, and conceded to the committee that he could have been wrong.
The woman never fully woke; at best she could write a couple of often nonsensical sentences on a whiteboard before she died in March 2019.
When the Western Australian surgeon was told what had happened, he told the woman's husband they'd made a "silly decision" to see Dr Teo.
"[Dr Teo] sold us a lot of hope," the husband said.
The neurosurgeon's transparency with two patients is being scrutinised after the West Australian woman's family, and the family of another deceased woman, pursued complaints with the NSW Health Care Complaints Commission.
The complaints are being heard by the Professional Standards Committee — a low-level, usually confidential disciplinary body run by the state's medical fraternity.
It will decide whether to uphold, or extend restrictions already placed on Dr Teo's medical licence, which prevent him operating in Australia without the written consent of an approved neurosurgeon.
The committee is chaired by former family court judge Jennifer Boland and is made up of two other surgeons and a layperson.
Despite the hearings being open to the public, Judge Boland has declined requests from media to provide basic details about the case, including the actual allegations against him.
Dr Teo on the other hand, has been an open book, stopping to answer questions from waiting media every morning on his way into the building.
In those pre-hearing interviews, he has claimed the complaints were coerced out of the patients' families, and that his peers are trying to "destroy" him.
And the dozens of grateful patients who have crowded to greet him, and those who have sat through hours of hearings would agree.
Former Australian cricket captain Steve Waugh and his wife Lynette Waugh were among the supporters on day one.
"I'm frustrated at the way Charlie's been treated," Mr Waugh said.
"He's done some amazing work, he's done over 11,000 operations. I can vouch, he saved my wife Lynette's life."
Lynette Waugh explained Dr Teo could do microsurgery on her brain in 2006 that no-one else could, cutting a hole the size of a 20-cent piece to remove a blood clot after a stroke.
Referring to the many patients in attendance, Dr Teo asked journalists: "Do you really think they'd do that to support a callous, cold, money hungry, reckless surgeon?"
The committee also heard alarming evidence from the widowed husband of a second woman from Victoria, who died about a month after Dr Teo operated on her brain.
The husband, who also cannot be identified, told the hearing Dr Teo slapped his wife across the face in full view of her family, while she was unconscious post-surgery.
It followed previous evidence from her daughter, who claimed Dr Teo also told a nearby nurse to "put her in the bloody chair, tie her there with sheets if you have to".
Rousing a patient with pain after surgery was quite common, the committee heard.
But the slap allegation was condemned by three neurosurgeon witnesses as totally unacceptable.
The woman's husband insisted Dr Teo only warned surgery could cause memory loss and left-side paralysis, which his wife already had.
"We never had a discussion it could go badly. We never had that," the woman's husband said.
"My wife every single day watched videos of Charlie on YouTube.
"She actually thought he was 'God' to be quite honest."
The man also said Dr Teo created a sense of urgency for his wife, whose brain tumour had already caused her health to deteriorate.
"He said if she didn't have the operation on Tuesday that she would be dead by f***ing Friday."
Outside the hearing the neurosurgeon was asked if his methods were a bit crude.
"Am I a sophisticated person? No, I'm not. Could I be considered crude? Absolutely, some people think I'm crude," Dr Teo said.
"Am I honest? Absolutely."
He will continue giving his evidence on Monday.
