Dr Charlie Teo has rubbished allegations he performed surgery on children with diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma, a tumour other surgeons consider inoperable because of the high risk of catastrophic injury.

In an interview aired on 60 Minutes on Sunday night, Prasanta Barman said the neurosurgeon had promised his four-year-old son Mikolaj could be cured with surgery.

Allegedly, this was despite two other neurosurgeons in India, where the family lived, warning that the boy had diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG) which many surgeons say is inoperable given its location in the pons which controls breathing. 

The boy’s family claim it had sent MRI scans to Dr Teo, who allegedly only met the child half an hour before undertaking the 2018 surgery which was carried out in a Singapore private hospital.