An elderly brain tumour patient who thought controversial neurosurgeon Charlie Teo was "God" ended up in a vegetative state after the surgeon operated on her, a disciplinary hearing has been told.
The Sydney brain surgeon is facing a week-long New South Wales Medical Council Professional Standards Committee hearing over a series of complaints made by the families of two former patients, who both died following their surgery.
He is seeking to have restrictions on his medical licence removed, while the Health Care Complaints Commission is alleging Dr Teo should not have conducted the surgeries.
The committee has heard an elderly woman, who cannot be identified, never recovered after Dr Teo operated on her brain tumour in February 2019.
The woman's husband, who also cannot be identified, told the hearing his wife was determined to have the surgery with Dr Teo to give her a chance at a slightly longer life.
"My wife every single day watched videos of Charlie on YouTube," he said.
"She actually thought he was 'God' to be quite honest. She said that a couple of times."
The man said while an oncologist and another surgeon in Geelong advised the couple her tumour was inoperable, Dr Teo told them he could operate straight away.
"(Dr Teo) said if she didn't have the operation on Tuesday that she would be dead by Friday," the man told the committee.
"He wasn't pulling any punches."
The woman was left in a vegetative state after the surgery and died in March 2019.
On Monday, the woman's daughter told the hearing after surgery, her mother could not be roused and she saw Dr Teo trying to wake her.
She told the hearing that Dr Teo directed a nearby nurse to "put her in the bloody chair, tie her there with sheets if you have to".
Both she and the woman's husband gave evidence that Dr Teo had only warned them the surgery may cause left-side paralysis, and memory loss.
"We never had a discussion it could go badly. We never had that," the woman's husband said.
During their pre-surgery consultation, the couple also spoke to Christopher Profyris, one of Dr Teo's surgical fellows.
Dr Profyris disputes the husband's evidence that he was not warned about the possible severe outcomes of surgery and told the hearing both he and Dr Teo explained it involved "complex" surgery.
His witness statement, shown to the hearing, said there were risks associated with all brain surgery, and they include death and coma.
Outside the hearing, Dr Teo denied telling the family she had days to live without surgery.
"They say you only remember about a third of everything said in a doctor’s office," he said.
"When you put emotion into that as well … he really believes that I said that."
Asked outside the hearing if he spoke crudely to patients' families, Dr Teo said he could be considered crude, but was always honest.
Earlier, Dr Teo on his way into the hearing, said he was "depressed" by the evidence.
"I'm the first to admit these aren't good," he said.
"These aren't good cases, they were bad outcomes.
"But, I only do them because there are all these good outcomes and I just want to give people hope.
"Anyway, I'm a little bit depressed today."
The hearing continues.
