Former patients of neurosurgeon Greg Malham describe 'arrogant' and 'dehumanising' behaviour

Australia Broadcast Center

2 days ago

The controversial Melbourne neurosurgeon at the centre of a Four Corners investigation will be referred to the medical regulator by his former hospital over complaints by a patient about his care.
The patient said surgeon Greg Malham's behaviour went beyond "simply poor bedside manner".
"It is a sustained display of arrogance [and] neglect," she wrote to the hospital.
She is one of many former patients and colleagues of Mr Malham who have contacted Four Corners, following the program God Complex, to describe their own dealings with the neurosurgeon and what they say was inappropriate care and follow-up.
Melbourne's Warringal Private Hospital, owned by Australia's largest private hospital provider Ramsay Health Care, terminated Greg Malham's temporary credentialing to operate at the facility after the program went to air.
Warringal CEO Maree Mendola told staff in an email that the allegations raised in the Four Corners story about Mr Malham's workplace conduct "are serious and do not align with Ramsay's values".
This was the second hospital to part company with Greg Malham.
Mr Malham resigned from Melbourne's Epworth Private Hospital in May after a video emerged of him tearing down an election corflute for independent MP Monique Ryan and referring to "burying the body under concrete".
The video was described by Epworth CEO Andrew Stripp in a statement as "abhorrent".
Greg Malham was recommended to Emma Pursey as a "spinal wizard", but she said his treatment of her extreme pain after an operation in 2013 was "not only dismissive but dehumanising".
Ms Pursey wrote to Epworth Hospital's CEO, Andrew Stripp, when the corflute story broke, telling him "women deserve better".
"I sincerely hope Epworth's leadership will commit to real cultural and systemic change," she wrote.
Ms Pursey, an actor, producer and writer from Melbourne, underwent major fusion surgery to address the ongoing effects of childhood scoliosis.
But she said that after the operation, she was beside herself with pain and unable to sleep the entire duration of her rehabilitation stay.
"Despite repeatedly reporting my symptoms and spiralling into sleep-deprived distress, I was discharged without appropriate pain management," Ms Pursey wrote to the Epworth CEO.
"For weeks I pleaded for help. It wasn't until I broke down on the phone in tears that Malham finally took my call and prescribed Lyrica, which brought immediate relief.
"The delay was entirely avoidable."
Four Corners is not suggesting that the operation itself was negligent. Ms Pursey's complaint is about Mr Malham's response to her pain.
Ms Pursey wrote to the CEO that at a six-week follow-up appointment, she was dismayed when she asked Mr Malham if she could resume activities such as dancing.
She said he responded by saying: "You already know the answer to this question, so I'm not going to sit here and answer stupid questions."
"When I sought further clarity, he instead went to show me YouTube videos of his own dancing (which I declined to watch) and spoke at length about his black belt in karate," Ms Pursey wrote.
"My questions were disregarded, and I was made to feel humiliated and irrelevant in the conversation about my own body.
"His behaviour toward me — an experienced, informed patient with complex chronic health issues — was not only dismissive but dehumanising.
"The power imbalance was palpable, and I have carried the trauma of that post-operative period for years."
Ms Pursey said in her letter that she was writing to Professor Stripp because it was clear from the corflute video that "I will not be alone".
"What has come to light is clearly not an isolated incident — it is part of a deeply troubling pattern of behaviour that deserves thorough scrutiny," she wrote.
Ms Pursey did not hear back from Professor Stripp until he was contacted by Four Corners.
In his reply to her on Tuesday — which she provided to Four Corners — he apologised and said that he would, with her consent, refer her complaint to the medical regulator, the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA).
"The way you described your experience with clarity and courage was powerful," Professor Stripp wrote to Ms Pursey.
"Your disappointment, frustration and the impact it had on you came through clearly, and I am sorry that your experience of care was not what we aspire to provide."
Ms Pursey's letter was passed on to an external investigator employed by the hospital when the corflute video went public.
Greg Malham resigned from Epworth before the external investigation commissioned by Epworth had completed.
"I'm also grateful for your willingness to assist us in the work we're doing to improve how we respond to concerns raised by patients," Professor Stripp wrote to Ms Pursey.
Professor Stripp said in a statement that he could not discuss individual cases, but Epworth recognised "the serious concerns raised with ABC Four Corners" and understood "how distressing such experiences can be".
"When things don't go as they should, we want to listen, learn and act," Professor Stripp said.
He encouraged any patients who wanted to raise similar matters to contact the hospital through its patient feedback service.
Orthopaedic foot surgeon Andrew Kingsford was troubled by Greg Malham's lack of explanation when he emerged from an operation with the neurosurgeon with a paralysed arm.
He had been admitted to Epworth in 2019 with a strained back from years of bending over in an operating theatre. Mr Malham told him that he needed to have his neck fused because his arthritis was placing pressure on his spinal cord.
Mr Kingsford woke from the operation unable to move one of his arms.
"I said, 'why can't I move my left arm?' And [Greg Malham] said 'it should be temporary ― have some physio and you'll be fine.'"
But after many months of therapy, it did not improve significantly — Mr Kingsford was not able to perform his own surgery, nor to fly his plane to Albury on the NSW border, where he did monthly operations.
Eventually, Greg Malham offered to operate again and did multiple procedures to open up and relieve pressure on the nerves, but Mr Kingsford said that paralysis worsened.
Mr Kingsford said Mr Malham never told him why the surgery left him the way it did, and when he pushed him for a reason, he did not give one.
"At my last review consultation with Greg Malham, he said there was nothing more he could do and he asked me to leave," Mr Kingsford said.
Mr Kingsford acknowledged that all surgeons have complications in their surgery, and Four Corners does not suggest that Mr Malham was negligent.
"Compassion and empathy expressed to the patients and their families [is vital] when these events occur.
"I was very emotional when I watched your story as it rekindled my emotional distress that I had been experiencing and coming to terms with over several years," he said.
He was forced to retire early, had to sell his farm and abandoned his post-retirement plan to pilot Angel Flights, flying sick country children and their families to city hospitals.
"I was only 62 when he operated," he said.
"My retirement looks very different than it would have otherwise been."
Alexandra Clemens, who had back surgery with Greg Malham in 2006, also found the surgeon's behaviour after her operations extremely troubling.
Ms Clemens kept contemporaneous notes (which she has provided to Four Corners) and subsequently wrote a letter of complaint.
In them, she detailed how Mr Malham called her "sweets", minimised the pain she was experiencing after surgery, and blamed her for being unfit and slow to heal.
Kristy, a nurse working in recovery at the time of Ms Clemens's operation, told Four Corners she was always on high alert when she heard Mr Malham speaking to patients because "he had very little sympathy for anyone".
She said "arrogant surgeons" often did not want to know about the pain patients were in after operations because "they think they've done such a great job".
Ms Clemens's notes describe the surgeon as "very offhand, aggressive, rude, patronising, dismissive and generally unprofessional".
"On one of his ward visits following the first surgery, he did kiss me on the forehead, which I thought was a tad odd," Ms Clemens said.
And in her letter dated June 4, 2006 and addressed to Mr Malham, she told the surgeon:
"Greg, in 2006 fifty-one-year-old women are not little girls who should be patronised and growled at because they are asking their surgeon questions.
"I am your patient and my concerns deserve to be acknowledged.
"Also and perhaps more importantly, I am a human being and I have a right to be treated with dignity and respect."
Ms Clemens said she did not receive a reply from Greg Malham.
All three of these patients said they were speaking out in the hopes of broader institutional change in the surgical culture.
"I hope that the Epworth begins, through this case, a change of culture that will then extend across the nation," Ms Pursey told Four Corners.
"It will take a long time, but bringing light to such darkness is where we can hopefully begin to change the world of medical misogyny."
Greg Malham has not responded to any of the many questions Four Corners has sent him, including those about these three patients.