StemCell Therapy

Dr Bright, who voluntarily surrendered his registration on August 31, was banned from reapplying for seven years.

He was also ordered to pay the costs of the Health Care Complaints Commission (HCCC), which filed the complaints against him in January.

Dr Bright founded Macquarie Stem Cells in Liverpool, which on its website spruiks its experimental treatments as "lead[ing] the way" and "our way of giving back to the community".

Dr Bright was referred to the HCCC by deputy state coroner Hugh Dillon in 2016 over the "preventable" and "unnecessary" death of an elderly patient after an experimental liposuction stem cell procedure to treat her dementia.

The coroner found the 75-year old died due to a "cluster of errors", including a failure to stop taking blood thinning medication prior to surgery, resulting in uncontrolled blood loss.

The tribunal agreed with Coroner Dillon that the treatment bore the hallmarks of "quack medicine".

It also accepted the evidence of Professor Colin Masters from the University of Melbourne, who said there was no evidence stem cell therapy for dementia patients was safe and it was "completely inappropriate and unethical" on a person who was frail, in poor health and in an advanced stage of dementia.

The tribunal found no proper therapeutic basis for Dr Bright administering the same stem cell treatment on a "very vulnerable" patient suffering bilateral vestibular deficiency, a condition where there is difficulty maintaining balance.

The tribunal accepted the patient - who was allegedly told by Dr Bright the procedure was "100 per cent safe" - has been adversely impacted.

The other complaints upheld related to Dr Bright's prescribing of peptides to three patients, including a woman with terminal motor neurone disease.

The tribunal found Dr Bright did not conduct a proper assessment on a patient before prescribing peptides and failed to take adequate steps to obtain informed consent, including an acknowledgement of the lack of clinical data proving the effectiveness of peptides and potential side effects.

Dr Bright's extensive self-prescribing of peptides was "improper and unethical", the tribunal found.

Dr Bright denied the allegations through his lawyers earlier in the year, but instructed his legal team to cease acting for him in August.

He did not attend the tribunal's hearing and did not respond to the orders it handed down.

Carrie Fellner is an investigative reporter for The Sydney Morning Herald.

See the original post:
Surgeon banned over 'quack' procedures and 'reckless disregard' for safety - Sydney Morning Herald

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