If you have come to this page, it is more than likely that you have read or heard the publicity about my successful civil action for workplace sexual harassment in the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT) in 2007. At the time, the VCAT result was published in newspapers around the country but overall caused only a small ripple in the media before being forgotten. What happened to me after was a story that only emerged when Sydney vascular surgeon Gabrielle McMullin gave an interview to ABC Radio National in which she used me as an example of why women in surgery were arguably better off to give in to sexual harassment than to fight it.
I did not know that Gabrielle was going to mention me by name on national radio before it happend. In fact, it was pure coincidence that I heard the interview on the ABC on Saturday 7 March 2015 as I don’t normally listen to the ABC on weekends. A dear friend of mine happened to call me up that morning and urged me to tune in to a segment on the ABC about sexism in surgery. As I listened to the radio, I realised with astonishment and horror that I was listening to Gabrielle and she was talking about me. As the days passed, this astonishment and horror was replaced by amazement at the public response.
It is true that my VCAT success has not benefited my career at all. In fact, it impacted so negatively on my career. that it nearly destroyed me professionally and personally. I learnt to think of it as my Pyrrhic victory. I didn’t want to leave my home city of Melbourne but I was blackballed and it seemed that many people were determined that I would be run out of town, if not out of the country. It forced me to dig deep to find the courage and strength to practice my profession in spite of all the obstacles that were thrown in my path. I pounded on every door I could think of to try to get someone to do something about my victimisation- including politicians, clergymen, senior doctors, government bodies and regulatory agencies- to no avail. I used to bristle inside when people glibly said “whatever doesn’t kill you will make you stronger” but I have to say that there is truth in that. By 2011 I had reached the depths of depression and despair and I learnt who my real friends were. At that point, I decided that it was pointless to keep bleating about the injustice of my situation so I resolved to just knuckle down and make the most of what I had. It was and still is a hard slog, to try to build up and maintain a solo medical practice with very little support from ones’ colleagues and plenty of opposition from people with a lot of power. It taught me humility but also self-belief. I know I succeeded only because of the support of my patients, who entrusted their care to me and recommended me to their family and friends. Until two months ago, only one patient had mentioned that she knew about my VCAT hearing. Now I have learned that many of my patients knew but were just too polite to say anything about it to me.
So I owe my deepest thanks to my patients, who really do mean everything to me. I would also like to thank everyone who has said or written words of support to me. What I find most extraordinary is that the public outrage that Gabrielle triggered has been so vigorous that it has forced the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons to take some major steps to deal with sexual harassment within the surgical community. That is people power! If I could have one wish, it is that the College heeds Liutenant General David Morrison’s words “never waste a crisis” to create a better working environment for women who dare to aspire to be surgeons. As for myself, I may not have that big public hospital appointment and I really don’t think I will ever get it but I still have a satisfying job and I consider myself fortunate in that respect.
Dear Dr Caroline Tan,
Well done for seeking justice, which would not have been an easy step, but the right one for such a glaringly obvious wrong. Harassment of any kind relies on silence for its survival. In outing the severely diminished behaviour of your managers and exposing the neglectful institutional deficiencies that allowed it, you have helped contribute to restore the professional and civilised conduct we all rightly expect. I hope that you can now return to a happy life and a fully focused career with colleagues equal to you in integrity and inspiration. I am sure that this shadow will fade from focus in time and hope that you see that your life’s contribution so far has already been doubled. Thanks, too, to the ABC for sharing this story to inform us all. I wish you the very best.
Thank you so much Cathy. I still have not watched the show as I can’t bring myself to do so but it seems to have struck a chord with so many people. It was hard to recount what happened and talk about it but I am in a much happier place nowadays. I don’t think I will ever get that public hospital job or be embraced by my colleagues in neurosurgery but I have a growing number of patients who encourage and inspire me to continue my work.
Dear Dr Tan, I saw my male neurologist yesterday and he was singing your praises about how you stood up to the injustice. He is going to refer me to you because one I live near Hamilton and two because he says you are brilliant. So when I meet you I am going to shake your hand and say thank you for fighting for what is right. I work with victims of family violence and I always try to empower the young women. They need role models and you are one. As a family we have faced bullying by the male dominated medical fraternity preferring to think my daughters medical problem was psychiatric rather than physical. We had to stand up for her and fight and eventually got a diagnosis and appropriate treatment. Their arrogance and inability to accept they might be wrong certainly affected our trust in doctors. But then along comes a doctor or two like your good self and our faith is restored. So congratulations and thank you. I look forward to the day we meet. Best wishes.
Dear Dr. Tan,
I recently read an article about Dr. McMullin’s comments about the sexist culture and “boys club” mentality in the surgical field and have done some Google searches on your VCAT case. I am currently studying a Biomedical Science degree and aim to pursue a medical degree upon completion – honestly, the possibility of sexual harassment and gender discrimination against women kind of discouraged me a bit. However, I am very inspired by your courageous story and the risks you took and the challenges you faced as a consequence of speaking up instead of keeping silent. I hope and pray that I will be as brave and courageous as you were in your position. Congratulations on your success in your practice, despite everything that happened. You are an inspiration 🙂
Thanks Priscilla. I hope you realise your professional dreams.
This whole episode – even to a complete outsider such as myself – is a despicable one. It was “in the news” some time ago and is back in it again as I write this – thankfully because of the Lets Operate with Respect program but even that announcement has been tempered somewhat by Dr. McMullin’s counterpoint (at least according to the report on the ABC website).
The irony of this whole episode is that the way you have behaved throughout all of this is precisely the way I would have expected any reasonable person to behave yet you are the one who has suffered. We, on the other hand as layman observers don’t even know who the perpetrators are! The fact that there remains the reluctance to call these perpetrators out does a disservice to everyone in my opinion. Not least of all myself as a potential patient. On pure principal, I would simply refuse to become a patient of any surgeon who I knew had sexual harassed (or plain harassed) anyone professionally within a working or training environment.
As far as you are concerned, however, you are exactly the sort of person I would want my hospital to be filled with and are the sort of person I would pro-actively seek out as a patient.
Best wishes for the future.
Hi Dr Tan,
I would just like to say thank you, on behalf of all the future doctors that will follow you down the path not only of surgery, but any medical pathway.
As a first year medical student I feel somewhat nervous for trials and tribulations that lie ahead, but upon hearing your story I feel incredible grateful for your bravery. Even perhaps indirectly, you have started a movement (the “Let’s operate with respect” campaign) that will begin the slow movement towards change of the despicable behaviour with which you were treated. I hope that knowing you have, and will continue to, make such an impact for the future of all junior doctors (especially women) brings you a sense of fulfilment and happiness.
Caitlin
Dear Caroline,
I can only say that finding you was life saving not only physically but from the moment I had that first conversation with you and you affirmed my pain and diagnosis (one that had been overlooked for over 4 weeks by a breathtaking absence of medical acumen in the hospital system), I felt in safe hands and listened to. You made time to listen and explain my problem to me. You went to incredible lengths to operate as soon as possible given that was by then, my only option.
During my hospitalization your care, attention to detail, compassion and empathetic presence was just amazing. I did not know about the incidents of 2015 until after my surgery but on reflection nothing about this surprises me and simply reinforces by admiration of you. I see you as an inspiration to women everywhere striving to pursue their dreams in their chosen careers.
I will always be indebted.
Rosie Cuff
I am exceedingly touched by your generous praise. The practice of medicine is difficult in many respects. Most of the people who see me are in a lot of pain and have high expectations of what I can do for them. The first step is to make the correct diagnosis, which is a skill that has to be learnt from good teachers and plenty of practice. I have had good teachers but that’s not true for all doctors and corners are often cut in busy hospital emergency departments. There have been too many times when I end up frustrated that I can’t identify the diagnosis or I can’t offer a quick and easy solution but I always try to do my best. What happened to me in 2005 and was dredged up again in 2015 was and is emotionally painful but I think that it has perhaps helped me to better appreciate physical pain. I intend to continue to support you on your path to recovery.
Even though you didn’t operate on me, because I was a public patient, you made sure I was immediately handed over to someone who could help me. I feel compelled to let you my progress to date navigating the system and to thank you for changing the tide!
I am eternally grateful to you as you were the pivotal turning point in the direction of my care. I was at a point, before I met you, where I was so horrifically bullied and neglected by the Nth Qld health system and I felt my only option for relief was death. I am now back with my family GP, Dr Webb, who is very supportive and he has been pushing hard to help me get what feels like an ‘axe attached to an electric cow prod’ out of my back! I was previously told this was not possible but I am still stable on my current pain medication dose! Without need for any further dosage change for nearly three years now! Sadly I have suffered a gradual increase in nervous system damage since I saw you in early 2017 but it is what it is navigating the public health system.
I want to say I have the recent honour and blessing of meeting your past colleague, Dr Y in late 2017. Like you, he genuinely cares and is doing his very best to try to help me to achieve relief from the worst two levels of my thoracic spinal cord compression against the pressure of the intake area turf wars that is still ongoing in Qld Health, which defies belief as I am a QLD resident.
I just want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for caring enough to refer me on back in the Public Health System, even though that fell through because I live in Qld and surgery could be done here, you started the ball rolling and I now have 2 more opinions thanks to you.
Sadly no Neurosurgeon in my own intake area would agree to see me, due to the professional bullying that is endemic in this State. No Doctor dares to go against opinion. Qld Health has a LOT of issues as you are probably aware of and patients like me are being dumped without any support whatsoever and the Doctors who help them are being bullied, especially the talented ones, like poor Dr Emery. Your honesty, strength and compassion is an inspiration to so many and that is why I flew all the way from Cairns to Melbourne to see you. The turf war over intake areas here in Qld continues. You were the first Neurosurgeon I saw who genuinely cared and you were savvy enough to ensure I was armed with yet another opinion before returning home to far Nth Qld.
I am now on a waiting list at the GCU Hosp, where I have family living within 5 minutes of the hospital for support. It can’t get any better than that. I have total confidence in Dr Y and his ability. I will be happy just to stop progression Reducing the pain would be a huge bonus even if I end up in a wheel chair, it would be worth it just for the pain relief!
After seeing you, Ron proposed to me on Mother’s Day in 2017. I now have a happy life and a very good chance of future life quality to look forward to post surgery, thanks to your initial referral that turned the tide in my care.
Words cannot express how grateful, both Ron and I are to you, for turning the tide in the direction of my care..
Robyn
After suffering from neck and arm pain fir almost a year, I was referred to Caroline for possible spinal surgery. Dr Tan consulted me and recommended surgery on the C5/6 and C6/7. Was a bit concerning on spinal surgery, but something had to be done to relieve my pain. The surgery team Caroline had work on me and the surgery she performed on me was out standing. I’m now pain free and returning to life. Can’t that you enough Caroline😀top work.
Regards
Mick Coppock