Years ago, a young girl died during what was supposed to be a routine surgery performed by prominent paediatric surgeon Dr Peter Beale.

Beale told the girl’s mother, Lisa Strydom, that he had “cut a vein” and that her daughter had lost a lot of blood. He also said that she would wake up shortly.

She didn’t wake up, and Strydom had to wait three years for any information from the Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA) about the circumstances surrounding her daughter’s death.

Strydom’s case is back in the spotlight following the death of 10-year-old Zayyaan Sayed, also while on Dr Beale’s table, reports The Citizen.

The death of 10-year-old Zayyaan Sayed has stirred a controversy that is centred on paediatric surgeon Dr Peter Beale and anaesthetist Dr Abdulhay Munshi.

Zayyaan underwent a nissen fundoplication procedure at Netcare Park Lane Clinic earlier this month, but never made it out of the hospital.

Nissen fundoplication, also referred to as a Lap Nissen, is a laparoscopic procedure performed for patients with gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD).

It’s a routine procedure that’s minimally invasive and doesn’t usually result in death.

He died post-op, leading the hospital to suspend both doctors from all Netcare facilities.

The family now intends to pursue criminal charges against the two as well as applying to the Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA) to have them suspended pending a hearing to revoke their licences.

Following the reports of the investigation into Beale (far right, below) and Munshi, more parents have come forward to tell their stories.

Thuso Mokoena’s six-month-old child allegedly died after Beale replaced his gastronomy tube, a feeding tube inserted through the stomach, with a mickey button.

He said he was shocked to find that the procedure took no more than 10 minutes.

“He just pulled out the feeding tube and then he just left,” Mokoena claimed. “He pulled it and not even gently, he just pulled it and left, and the baby cried … he cried until he was exhausted.”

When Mokoena and his wife took their baby home the same day, he was still crying until he died later that day.

Mokoena described Beale as a “very bad-mannered doctor”, prone to anger and outbursts.

Then there’s the story of Rene Moorcroft and her 12-year-old daughter, Monique, who went in for surgery with Beale last month:

Moorcroft said: “I don’t know what went wrong because she was fine the whole morning after the surgery, even out of sleep, and just after 16:00 she had difficulty breathing and then she passed away.”

She says that no one was able to tell her what happened, and the family is still waiting to find out the official cause of death.

Beale is also under investigation for gross negligence after he removed something that was not supposed to be removed during a biopsy.

Iqbal Allie, another parent who lost his child, said his daughter was supposed to go to Beale for a biopsy on her thyroid to examine the tissue.

It was only a few months down the line when he noticed his daughter becoming “cretin” when another doctor pointed out that there was no activity in her thyroid, which Beale had removed, Allie said.

A biopsy generally doesn’t involve removing the entire gland and then leaving the patient without any way to produce growth hormones.

Perhaps the most terrifying thing about this story is that Allie and his family sued the doctor and won, which means that not only is his gross negligence on record, but for some reason, Beale was allowed to continue practising as a surgeon – in some theatres.

He was initially suspended from practising at Mediclinic hospitals in 2016 and, only now, is he barred from Netcare theatres, too.

I’m sure the parents of those lost children will agree that it’s too little too late.

[source:citizen]