Paediatric surgeon Peter Beale was acquitted on murder and fraud charges this week, bringing relief to him and the medical profession which saw the case as a test for criminal liability for healthcare professionals, writes MedicalBrief.
However, it was not good news for the parents whose children died after procedures by Beale. Five years after his 10-year-old son’s death following a routine acid reflux procedure by Beale, Mohammadh Sayed had hoped to see a murder conviction in the Gauteng High Court (Johannesburg ) on Tuesday. But with Beale being found not guilty, Sayed fears he would never find closure, he told News24.
Beale was first arrested and charged over the 10-year-old’s death in December 2019. Additional charges, linked to the deaths of a 21-month-old girl and a three-year-old boy in 2016 and 2012, were subsequently added, and his trial eventually started last year.
He was facing charges of murder, alternatively culpable homicide and fraud, being accused of “recklessly and fraudulently (undertaking) unnecessary paediatric surgeries” to “re-establish his financial position” after he lost R1.5m in the infamous Tannenbaum Ponzi scheme.
However, in his ruling, Judge Thifhelimbilu Mudau found the state had not been able to prove its case.
Criminalising errors
In a statement issued after the judgment, Dr Graham Howarth, head of Medical Protection Society SA (MPS), of which Beale is a member, said: “Healthcare professionals need to be held accountable. However, criminalising errors in challenging, complex environments helps no one."
“Families lose a loved one through tragic circumstances, doctors risk losing their career and liberty, and the fear of criminal charges may have a negative knock-on effect on patient care.”
After pressure from the likes of MPS, the South African Medical Association and others, the South African Law Reform Commission announced an investigation into the criminal liability of healthcare professionals.
Howarth said: “It is imperative that this investigation is expedited so that criminal law is appropriately applied in a healthcare setting.”
Disappointed
In the 10-year-old’s case, at the heart of the charges against Beale was the state’s contention that he had misrepresented to the child’s parents that he had intestinal metaplasia, which required surgery even though a biopsy had, in fact, shown he did not.
Beale, however, had claimed it was human error and that he misread the biopsy results but had no intention to mislead anyone. The court accepted his explanation, finding “nothing to contradict” it and that “in the absence of a financial motive”, there was no reason to doubt it.
The father of the boy, however, insisted there was “no excuse for the misreading of the report”.
“It was the basis for the procedure being done,” he said, adding that it was “a sad day for justice”.
The National Prosecuting Authority’s Gauteng spokesperson, Phindi Mjonondwane, said they were studying the judgment but were also disappointed.
She stressed, however, that the case was never intended to “scare doctors”, but was about “encouraging accountability”.
‘Denied justice’
Sinenhlanhla Mnguni, a spokesperson for the families of the children who died, told TimesLIVE they were “very disappointed at the outcome of the criminal proceedings” and felt that justice had been denied.
“They (parents) have expressed the collective view that … the court erred in arriving at the judgment handed down today, given the facts at its disposal.”
However, the families said they were proud of their efforts to ensure the matter was brought before the courts. Mnguni said the fact that the NPA took the decision to prosecute Beale was a positive step for the parents.
“The feeling is that this process has ensured no other family has to go through what they have all endured in losing their children. This prosecution has also sent a message to the medical profession in respect of how its members conduct themselves.”
He said a small consolation was that the court had referred its judgment to the Health Professions Council of SA for further consideration.
This was because of an admission Beale made that he left one of the boys under his care, despite knowing he was fighting for his life.
See more from MedicalBrief archives:
Defence in Peter Beale trial questions mother’s memory
Accused paediatric surgeon Dr Peter Beale struck from HPCSA register
State witness ‘biased’ and ‘reckless’, Beale’s lawyer claims
Beale ignored advice not to operate on children, state claims