Sydney psychiatrist Robert Hampshire was at the hospital bedside of his critically injured son on Friday after the teenager fell about 10 metres from a hotel balcony in Queenstown, New Zealand.
James Teague, 19, was fighting for his life after he plunged onto a concrete car park at The Glebe Apartments shortly before 3am on Thursday.
Police said he had been drinking with four male friends, three of them in their late teens or early 20s, with whom he was staying at the hotel.
Mr Teague, from Paddington, was taken by helicopter to Dunedin Hospital, where Dr Hampshire travelled to be with his son.
Police took statements from Mr Teague’s friends.
Another man fell to his death at The Glebe while climbing to the roof in 2008.
Senior Constable Chris Blackford told APNZ that Mr Teague was “making his way from his second-floor apartment towards the roof".
"He fell to the car park below and suffered a major head injury,” he said.
Dr Hampshire has often been described as a "society psychiatrist". Last year the Health Care Complaints Commission prosecuted him for practising without professional indemnity insurance for 18 months in 2008-09 and for breaching conditions previously imposed on his practice, including seeing a maximum of 25 patients a week.
After being fined $4950, he admitted his practice had been chaotic but blamed this on his brain swelling caused by high blood pressure.
Dr Hampshire and his former wife Sally Hampshire sold their harbour-front mansion Altona for $5.25 million in 1992. Last year that property sold for $52 million.
In 2009, English backpacker James Smith fell about 10 metres to his death from the roof of Base Backpackers in Queenstown.
