Star neurosurgeon Charlie Teo says he doesn't regret performing two brain surgeries that led to him being investigated by health authorities.
Despite both of the patients not recovering from the surgery, Dr Teo said he was acting in their best interests by attempting the operations and suggested complaints were prompted from within the medical system.
"I did it in their best interest, thinking it was going to help them - it didn't," he told reporters on Wednesday.
Dr Teo was restrained by the NSW Medical Council in August 2021 from operating without the approval of another doctor after an investigation by the state's Health Care Complaints Commission.
The 65-year-old is famous for performing neurosurgery on cancer patients with tumours other doctors have deemed inoperable, but he has been accused of charging exorbitant fees and offering some patients false hope.
Dr Teo said he did not charge a fee for one of the operations that's being investigated and denied he was selfish to attempt the surgeries.
"They're just trying to paint me to be some sort of money-hungry, reckless, non-compassionate doctor - I'm not. I just love my work. I love my patients,"Â he said.
"I'm not trying to deny that complications happen. They do."
A week-long commission hearing in Sydney has so far heard from family members of two female patients, one from WA and another from Melbourne, who claim among other things they weren't sufficiently informed of the risks involved with the surgery.
But Dr Teo said he previously had a good relationship with the husbands of the patients and they had been "coerced" into making complaints by other doctors.
The commission heard from a man on Tuesday who said Dr Teo didn't adequately explain the risks involved with operating to remove 60 per cent of his wife's brain tumour.
Despite being told there was a risk of partial paralysis and memory loss, the woman opted to undergo the surgery, because she was already bound to a wheelchair and terminally ill.
"He never once turned around and said to my wife 'you might not come out of this'," her husband told the commission.