Queensland surgeon accused of leaving patient with a mutilated penis

Doctor is accused of mutilating a patient’s penis and blowing his nose in the middle of surgery after being fined for incompetence but allowed to keep working

• Surgeon accused of leaving patient with a mutilated penis after 2017 surgery
• Daryl Stephens has been suspended by the Mackay Hospital and Health service
• Complaints about the urologist’s conduct in Queensland date back to 2019
• He is accused of sneezing and the blowing his nose on a curtain mid-surgery 

A surgeon has been accused of mutilating a patient’s penis and blowing his nose on a curtain mid-surgery. 

Daryl Stephens has been suspended by the Mackay Hospital and Health Service following an investigation into hygiene concerns. 

Complaints were made against the controversial urologist, including that he sneezed and then blew his nose on a curtain during an operation and left a Queensland father-of-two with a disfigured penis. 

A tribunal in 2018 ruled Dr Stephens, who started work in Western Australia, had displayed ‘incompetence’ at the most serious level when caring for a cancer patient. 

Daryl Stephens (pictured) has been suspended by the Mackay Hospital and Health Service following an investigation into hygiene concerns

The Medical Board of Australia concluded the doctor engaged in professional misconduct after he failed to check the patient’s pathology results for three months. 

Medical authorities concluded ‘the protection of the public’ was not required in his case and noted the urologist had completed 12 months of supervision. 

He was fined $30,000 for professional misconduct and $2,000 for failing to reveal he had lost his accreditation to practice at Peel Health Campus in 2014. 

However, Dr Stephens was allowed to continue operating on patients in Queensland due to a shortage of doctors in Mackay, a city about 970km north of Brisbane. 

One of his former patients at Mackay Base Hospital has since revealed he suffered serious complications just days after he was operated on by the medico. 

‘It’s been a nightmare,’ the father of two told The Sunday Mail.

‘It has left me with sexual dysfunction and my penis had to be shortened. The procedure was supposed to fix a bend in the penis that is caused by calcification.

‘I ended up with the foreskin attached to the end of the penis. I had a second surgery to try to fix the problem but complications continued and I chose to pay for corrective surgery privately.’

The bungled surgery took place a year after the Medical Board Tribunal hearing in November 2017. 

The findings, which were handed down the following February, ruled Dr Stephens could continue work in Queensland.

Dr Stephens was suspended from Mackay Base Hospital (pictured) following an investigation into hygiene concerns 

In 2016, Dr Stephens began treating two elderly patients in Western Australia, who would both become subjects of a coronial inquest. 

The coroner ultimately found his patients, Anna Maria Winter and John Houghton died of natural causes. 

Professor Dickon Hayne, head of urology at Fiona Stanley Hospital, was asked for his opinion on Dr Stephen’s treatment of Mr Houghton, who had bladder cancer. 

He told the inquest that by performing major hip surgery on Mr Houghton and failing to investigate metastatic bladder cancer, he may have reduced his survival time. 

Ms Winter, who had vulva cancer, collapsed after being transferred to hospital by a taxi rather than an ambulance, and had to be revived. 

Another expert ruled she suffered a spontaneous rupture with the inquest finding no surgical error had been made. 

Dr Stephens, who is now aged in his 70s, is described as being an experienced urologist with an interest in prostate cancer. 

His name first became the subject of headlines in 2001, when he became the first surgeon in Australia to be charged with willful murder in a euthanasia case.

He was accused of giving terminally ill cancer patient Freeda Hayes a fatal dose of drugs that were not included in her treatment plan. 

Ms Hayes died in a hospice in Perth in February 2000. 

The Director of Public Prosecutions took the case to the Supreme Court where the jury deliberated for just 10 minutes before ruling Dr Stephen was not guilty. 

The brother and sister of Ms Hayes were also acquitted, after they were accused of assisting the urologist with the alleged murder of their sister. 

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