Surgeon Banned After Threatening Colleague, Then Abusing Psychiatrists Online

An orthopaedic surgeon who threatened to "piss in the mouth" of a colleague during an operation has had his medical registration cancelled. Dr. Stewart Proper made the threat after an accidental mishap during surgery saw a drape fall towards a patient's wound. "What the f*** are you doing? If this lady gets an infection I'll hunt you down and piss in your mouth," he said, according to a judgment.

Dr. Proper later apologized for the outburst but then launched a series of foul-mouthed social media attacks on three psychiatrists treating him in the wake of the incident. In July, the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT) found the Glen Iris-based doctor's behavior amounted to professional misconduct following his operating theatre outburst and the online campaign against the psychiatrists.

In a further ruling on Monday, the tribunal found Dr. Proper had shown "a persistent lack of insight" and was "focused on externalizing blame," noting his only suggestion for controlling his own behavior was that he might "chew gum." VCAT accepted the outburst was an isolated incident, issuing a reprimand and suspending him until January 9, 2025. However, the posts targeting the psychiatrists led to the cancellation of his registration until at least October 2025.

The tribunal heard Dr. Proper came under scrutiny for an alleged online vendetta against psychiatrists involved in his own involuntary mental health treatment in late 2017. Dr. Proper insisted to the tribunal that he never had the diagnosed mental health disorder and was not suicidal when he was twice admitted to Monash Medical Centre. "He claims there was no genuine basis for those involuntary admissions," the tribunal said in its findings. "He claims that his admissions were based on lies told by his ex-wife."

Between August 2018 and November 2019, while under investigation by the Medical Board, he unleashed a torrent of posts on Facebook, Twitter, Google reviews, and RateMDs. In a series of "denigrating" posts, the doctor called a psychiatrist a "lying c***" and accused them of "bashing" and humiliating him and destroying his life. One psychiatrist was labeled "fat, lazy and dishonest" and a "horrible man with no empathy" who "smirked" at his distress. Another was compared to a rapist getting away scot-free.

VCAT described the doctor's posts as a "prolonged and vitriolic campaign of denigration" that brought the profession into disrepute. The tribunal heard Dr. Proper's operating theatre outburst came after a particularly hectic day on October 13, 2017, during a complex elbow revision surgery. After more than ten hours at the hospital, with an inexperienced scrub nurse and complications arising, Dr. Proper spotted unsterile drapes threatening to fall into the open wound. The tribunal heard he lashed out in the heat of the moment.

After the surgery, Dr. Proper discovered the theatre technician, whom he knew, had caused the drapes to fall. His threat left at least one team member "extremely uncomfortable." While VCAT accepted the high-pressure context and Dr. Proper's quick apology, the tribunal ruled it crossed the line into unsatisfactory professional performance, unprofessional conduct, and professional misconduct.

Dr. Proper defended his behavior in the operating theatre, stating his comment was a "reflex" action to avoid the drapes falling into the patient's wound and was an "immediate reaction" to protect the patient from harm. He contended that his actions should be commended as they reduced the risk to the patient. The Medical Board of Australia took both matters to VCAT, which found professional misconduct on each count.

The tribunal found the surgeon's threat "had the capacity to impact on patient safety," warning that an abused team may feel anxious and unsafe about raising concerns. "The public would rightly be horrified that language such as the 13 October comment would be used, in a workplace, by an orthopaedic surgeon, during surgery," the tribunal stated. When asked if he could reassure the tribunal it would not happen again, Dr. Proper replied, "I can't give you that reassurance because it was a reflex reaction."