The culpability of Dr Beale: ‘No amount of time heals you from the loss of a child’

Paediatric surgeon and Wits University professor emeritus Peter Beale has been stripped of his right to operate, pending the investigation of more than two dozen complaints against him.

Parents speak out

Dhiyana Thumbiran’s mother watched her die

More than 10 years have passed since she lost her daughter but the pain in Aarthi Thumbiran’s voice is still raw.

“People tell you time will heal you. But it doesn’t. No amount of time heals you from the loss of a child. It creates a hole in your heart that never closes.”

Thumbiran’s third daughter, Dhiyana, was born at Netcare Park Lane Clinic on 14 October 2010, at just 28 weeks.

Three weeks after birth, Dhiyana picked up a hospital infection, which resulted in her suffering a perforated bowel which required surgery.

A few days afterwards, her mother said that Beale – who performed the surgery – came in to insert a central line in Dhiyana’s chest.

“He starts poking the needle in her chest and she starts grabbing his hands and screaming. Nevertheless, he continued.

“I ended up moving away while he was doing it; I couldn’t stand to watch. I came back afterwards and comforted her before I went home,” Thumbiran recalled.

She was told the procedure had been unsuccessful when she returned the next day. A short while later Dhiyana’s lungs collapsed, her mother says, and she was bagged and intubated.

The cause had appeared to be holes in her thoracic duct caused by Beale when he tried to insert the central line.

She ended up requiring two surgeries – the second, alleged Thumbiran, after the first had been performed on the wrong side.

It was after the second surgery that Dhiyana’s heart eventually failed.

“They kept bagging her but her heart couldn’t cope, and I eventually watched the heart monitor drop all the way down,” she said.

Her complaint to the HPCSA resulted in a finding that Beale had done “everything medically possible to help the patient” and that there was “no evidence of unprofessional conduct”.

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Thapelo, 8, died in his mother’s arms

Thapelo Mokoena, was born on 8 November 2015, at Genesis Maternity Clinic in Saxonwold – the same day he was moved to Life Brenthurst Hospital where Professor Beale would see him the following day.

Thapelo’s father, Thuso Mokoena, said Beale’s diagnosis was that Thapelo had a tracheoesophageal fistula and required surgery to help him breathe properly.

The surgery was a success, but because Thapelo could not swallow, he had to be fitted with a feeding tube.

In May, the Mokoenas returned to Professor Beale to have Thapelo’s tube replaced with a button.

Mokoena says on the day the parents were met at Park Lane Clinic by a woman who had the kit and Beale, and were ushered into a procedure room.

“I went to the counter to put away the cup I used for tea. On my way to the room, Beale was coming out and I just heard my child crying.

“When I asked what was wrong, why my baby was crying and where Beale was going, I was told that he [the doctor] was done,” he said.

The parents were sent home but the baby continued to cry, eventually becoming weak and exhausted.

While his mother comforted him, little Thapelo died in her arms.

Mokoena said Thapelo had bruising at the site where the button had been inserted. Paramedics advised them it appeared he had suffered internal bleeding.

Mokoena said he and his wife then notified the HPCSA but decided not to forge ahead with their case – until they learnt of Zayyaan’s death.

After they followed up, though, Beale was found guilty of negligence in that he “used [an] unregistered person to use a device in a child without proper precaution and ignored child crying”.

He was fined R20,000 for each transgression.

Neither Beale nor the HPCSA responded to a request for comment.