In a video posted on the AHPRA website this week, the Darwin surgeon says he wasn’t entirely surprised the patient’s family had complained after the operation but still became depressed as the investigation went on.

“Certainly as the process went on my anxiety levels rose considerably; in fact, a lot,” he says in the video.

“I would wake up early in the morning with this churning over in my mind and I couldn’t get to sleep at night.”

“Some depression kicked in and underlying that there was this guilt both for the clinical outcome for the patient, but also this whole process just made me second guess myself and constantly question myself and my adequacy as a doctor.”