A controversial doctor accused of dropping his scrubs during surgery, among other outlandish allegations, has claimed his pants were around his ankles because he has “no hips.”
Urologist Dr Daryl Stephens, who was suspended last month by the Mackay Hospital and Health Service, has tried to clear his name after he was accused of blowing his nose on a curtain during surgery and ‘mutilating’ a patient’s penis .
Pictured: Urologist Dr. Daryl Stephens
The Queensland doctor claimed that several photos of him wearing his scrub pants around his ankles had been taken by colleagues and sent to his boss in an attempt to discredit him.
He said one of the photos was “taken from the Internet” showing a man with hairy legs, while the doctor claimed he didn’t have “any hair” on his legs.
“This was clearly someone who wanted to get me in trouble,” the surgeon told the… Sunday Post.
“You may have noticed I don’t have hips. Everyone has their moments when their pants fall down during surgery.
“There is a color version (of the fake photo). It has blue socks, I only wear black, I am single. I get up at five in the morning.
“It has hairy legs and I have no hair on my legs.”
Last week, the surgeon’s suspension from Mackay Base Hospital and Mackay Mater Private Hospital was extended for another month.
Doctor Daryl Stephens, who was suspended last month by the Mackay Hospital and Health Service, has tried to clear his name after he was accused of blowing his nose on a curtain during surgery and ‘mutilating’ a patient’s penis (stock photo of an operating room)
dr. Stephens, who continues to be paid in full, said he feared patients needing specialist care after he was suspended over patient safety allegations.
The surgeon is said to have caught his nose on a sheet that was covering a patient during surgery and threw a hospital gown into bodily fluids.
While admitting that he can be “theatrical” at times and get out of hand, the urologist denied having any problems with hygiene and blowing his nose halfway through surgery – his explanation being that he doesn’t like to blow his nose in public.
On the claim that he blew his nose on a sheet covering a patient, he said: ‘I believe I was leaning over the patient’s leg and I don’t know what the person saw’.
In 2018, a tribunal ruled that Dr. Stephens, then working in Western Australia, had shown ‘incompetence’ at the most serious level in caring for a cancer patient.
The Medical Board of Australia concluded that Dr. Stephens was found guilty of professional misconduct after failing to check the patient’s pathology results for three months.
However, the medical authorities concluded that “the protection of the public” was not required and noted that the urologist had been monitoring for 12 months.
He was fined $30,000 for professional misconduct and $2,000 for failing to disclose that he had lost his accreditation to practice at Peel Health Campus in 2014.
dr. Stephens continued to operate on patients in Queensland due to a shortage of doctors. He practiced in Mackay, a town about 970 km north of Brisbane.
Last week, the full-salary surgeon’s suspension of Mackay Base Hospital (pictured) and Mackay Mater Private Hospital was extended for another month
In 2019, the surgeon was accused of screwing up surgery on a Queensland father of two who was undergoing a procedure to fix a bed in his penis.
The man told the Sunday Mail that he had complications a few days after surgery.
“It’s been a nightmare,” the patient said.
“It gave me a sexual dysfunction and my penis had to be shortened. The procedure was to repair a bend in the penis caused by calcification.
‘I ended up with the foreskin at the end of the penis. I had a second surgery to correct the problem, but the complications persisted and I chose to pay for the corrective surgery privately.”
dr. Stephens said he was unaware that the father of two had received compensation from Mackay Base Hospital.
He said he has yet to discuss his suspension with the hospital – where he is the only public urology specialist – because staff have “a lot” on their minds.
The urologist feels he is “unemployed” after the media’s recent investigation into claims of misconduct made by a series of his former patients.
“Any employer who googles me will walk away,” he said.
dr. Stephens said he has yet to discuss his suspension with the hospital – where he is the only public specialist in urology – because staff have ‘a lot’ on their mind (stock image)
dr. Stephens, now in his 70s, is described as an experienced urologist with an interest in prostate cancer.
His name made headlines in 2001 when he became the first surgeon in Australia to be charged with intentional murder in a euthanasia case.
He was accused of giving terminally ill cancer patient Freeda Hayes a lethal dose of drugs that were not included in her treatment plan at a Hospice in Perth.
The Director of Public Prosecutions took the case to the Supreme Court, where the jury deliberated for just 10 minutes before ruling that Dr. Stephen wasn’t guilty.