An orthopaedic surgeon who made an outrageous threat during surgery and posted online insults against fellow doctors has been found to have engaged in professional misconduct. 

Dr Stewart Proper threatened to urinate in a colleague’s mouth during an outrageous outburst, though he later apologised.

‘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 judgement. 

On Friday, the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal found the Glen Iris-based doctor’s behaviour amounted to professional misconduct after his operating theatre outburst and an equally unusual online campaign against psychiatrists.

The tribunal heard the drama unfolded on October 13, 2017, during a complex and lengthy elbow revision surgery at the end of what had already been a marathon day for Dr Proper.  

After more than 10 hours at the hospital, with an inexperienced scrub nurse stepping in 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 was complete, Dr Proper discovered the person who had caused the drapes to fall towards the open wound was the theatre technician, whom he knew. 

His vile comment left at least one team member ‘extremely uncomfortable’.

Glen Iris-based orthopaedic surgeon Dr Stewart Proper said ‘I’ll hunt you down and piss in your mouth’ during an outrageous outburst while performing surgery, a tribunal has found

While VCAT accepted the high-pressure context and Dr Proper’s quick apology afterwards, the tribunal ruled it crossed the line into unsatisfactory professional performance, unprofessional conduct and professional misconduct.

Dr Proper contended that his comment had been a ‘reflex’ action to avoid the drapes falling into the wound of his patient.

He contended that his actions were an ‘immediate reaction’ to protect the patient from harm, which he said was the first responsibility of a surgeon.

‘He said, in fact, he should be commended for his actions as they reduced the risk to the patient,’ the tribunal heard. 

Dr Proper came under more scrutiny for an alleged online vendetta against psychiatrists involved in his own involuntary mental health treatment in late 2017.

According to the VCAT decision: ‘Dr Proper maintains that he never had the mental health disorder with which he had been diagnosed; and was not suicidal at the time of his two involuntary admissions to Monash Medical Centre. He claims there was no genuine basis for those involuntary admissions. 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. 

Dr Stewart Proper expressed strong views about the transgender community 

One psychiatrist was labelled ‘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. 

‘Read and weep Psychiatrist X Psychiatrist Y and the rest of your thugs!’ he posted in 2019.

‘But my suicide was caused by dishonest, uncaring doctors,’ he wrote in another. 

‘Psychiatrist Y and Psychiatrist X went out of their way to harm me for the sole purpose of covering their own a***s.’

VCAT described the doctor’s posts as a ‘prolonged and vitriolic campaign of denigration’ that brought the profession into disrepute. 

The posts were ruled professional misconduct under the fit and proper person test, with the Tribunal noting the posts showed a sense of entitlement to publicly attack colleagues when aggrieved.

Dr Proper argued he made the posts as a patient complaining about his treatment, rather than as a doctor speaking in a professional capacity.

VCAT largely accepted that, finding the posts were not ‘professional conduct’ because they lacked a sufficient connection to his medical practice. However, it still found the posts amounted to professional misconduct because their nature and extent were inconsistent with him being a fit and proper person to hold registration.

‘The posts went out of their way to be harmful, for example by drawing an analogy between [the psychiatrist’s] conduct with that of a rapist, using slurs such as “c**t” and referring to [the psychiatrist] as fat,’ the Tribunal stated.

VCAT stressed it was not determining whether Dr Proper’s allegations about his involuntary admissions in 2017 were true, but accepted Dr Proper genuinely believed he had been misdiagnosed and mistreated.

The Tribunal also examined a series of tweets from 2019 published by the doctor on transgender issues. 

In one post, Dr Proper lashed out at transgender participation in sport.  

‘Please remember, for the sake of other participants, that transgender people are just people of their birth gender who have had surgery to appear otherwise,’ he posted.

‘A little like a wet T-shirt competition winner with breast implants.’

The doctor also took offence to a tweet about Victorians being able to change their sex on their birth certificates without gender reassignment surgery. 

‘WHAT THE?????? You cannot choose your gender or race or height or genes!!!!!!!!’ he responded. 

‘Might I suggest that those girls who need to advertise themselves as transgender or vegan are not really transgender or vegan but merely people seeking attention. They all need our support but in different ways,’ he tweeted.

The tribunal found the posts did not amount to professional misconduct. 

‘A health practitioner is entitled to their own private personal, moral or religious beliefs,’ it stated. 

‘The public is entitled to expect that contributions by registered medical practitioners to public debate will be considered, balanced and evidence-based. Dr Proper’s posts fell well short of this standard. They trivialised transgender experiences.’

While VCAT cleared Dr Proper for his tweets about transgender issues, it was not happy about them. 

‘VCAT should not be seen in any way as endorsing or excusing Dr Proper’s conduct,’ the decision stated. 

The posts were deemed not sufficiently connected to his professional practice to amount to misconduct and not enough to render him unfit overall.

‘VCAT’s decision in relation to this allegation would likely have been very different had VCAT concluded that there was a sufficient connection with practice for the posts to amount to professional conduct,’ it stated.

VCAT will hold a further hearing to decide what orders to make. 

Options include reprimand, conditions on registration, suspension, cancellation, disqualification from reapplying, or a fine.

Dr Proper has been a fellow of the Royal Australian College of Surgeons since the year 2000, and specialises in hand, elbow and shoulder surgery.

He has held senior roles with the college, including as an examiner.