WHO can still remember “Dr” André Esterhuizen from the 1980s?
This high school drop out posed as a paediatrician at the now abandoned Kempton Park Hospital, treating several babies who died.
He received an 18-year prison sentence in May 1992.
”This must surely be the mother of all frauds,” Judge Eugene van Rensburg said announcing the sentence against Esterhuizen, who was 41 at the time.
Esterhuizen was convicted of three counts of culpable homicide, impersonating a doctor and defrauding patients.
At his trial, he admitted posing as a paediatrician from 1982 to 1990, treating thousands of patients.
Esterhuizen had an extremely high IQ and said he studied medical books for years. He told a paediatrician he was a doctor and began working with the man. Later, Esterhuizen established his own practice.
During his trial in Kempton Park Regional Court, Beeld reported on the sad stories of babies who deteriorated daily and eventually died while under his care.
One mother told the court her baby ended up with cerebral palsy after Esterhuizen did four lumber punches on the child while she was only four months old.
Another mother who testified against him said her daughter was born in April 1988. She was normal but a month later the baby fell ill.
A doctor diagnosed meningitis and referred her to “Dr” Esterhuizen. He confirmed the diagnosis and the girl was placed in an oxygen tank at Kempton Park Hospital.
He later put up a drip by making a small incision in the baby’s chest as he could not find a vein. Her lungs collapsed.
Two days later the baby girl was transferred to Johannesburg Hospital. It was later discovered she had suffered brain damage. She eventually died in Johannesburg as a result of kidney failure.
Esterhuizen also diagnosed meningitis in another four-month-old girl in 1988. He did a lumber punch and prescribed medicine. As she deteriorated, he changed her medication and a brain scan was done. Thereafter two more lumber punches were done by him after which a further scan revealed she had suffered brain damage.
The baby was admitted to a home for cerebral palsy sufferers.
A baby girl born in July 1988 at Kempton Park Hospital was very tiny at birth. Esterhuizen treated her. At first the baby did well but was then put in an oxygen tent because “a problem occurred”. She died the same day.
