Father defends controversial neurosurgeon who operated on his late daughter

A man whose daughter was treated by neurosurgeon Charlie Teo has defended the controversial surgeon and lashed out at the public system.

Dr Teo, who is currently banned in Australia from performing high-risk surgery, was the spotlight of a 60 Minutes episode which aired last night looking into some families who had to pay large amounts of money for surgeries which turned out unsuccessful, addressing the idea of ‘false hope’.

Christian De Haas, whose daughter Lily was treated five years ago by Dr Teo for a brain tumor which was given a zero per cent chance at survival, claims the neurosurgeon was an exceptional human being and treated his daughter with respect and care.

“What I saw last night left a bad taste in my mouth,” Mr De Haas told Neil Mitchell referring to the 60 Minutes episode.

“The public system isn’t as good as what it cracks itself up to be, without naming names, there’s a lot of short falls in that industry too so they shouldn’t be pointing the finger at Charlie Teo.”

“There is no such thing as false hope, when you have a zero per cent chance, you’re going to hold on to everything that you can do.”

Press PLAY to hear the father defend Charlie Teo 

Picture: (Don Arnold/WireImage)