Article content

Toronto’s Hospital for Sick Children laid out the red carpet when it lured Dr. Agostino Pierro from the U.K., offering the world-renowned surgeon almost $700,000 in compensation, thousands in research funding and leadership of a major department.

Now, barely three years later, the hospital and its star physician are embroiled in a bitter dispute over alleged workplace harassment.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or ‘Hero’ surgeon in bitter fight with Toronto children's hospital over alleged workplace harassment Back to video

Neither side is speaking publicly, but court documents reveal that staff have accused Pierro of throwing objects in anger, screaming at colleagues, bullying people into breaching hospital rules and publicly threatening to fire staff who disobeyed him.

The Italian-born specialist has fired back, charging in an affidavit the division of general and thoracic surgery he leads is “highly dysfunctional,” and that the hospital’s surgeon-in-chief is trying to get him fired.

When the hospital ordered Pierro suspended as department head pending an independent investigation it was planning, he appealed the suspension in court, arguing it would be poison to his professional reputation.