For Summer McKesson, the last three years have been head spinning.
First, she was diagnosed with a pair of dangerous genetic conditions, including Marfan Syndrome. That sent her down a rabbit hole that led to the revelation - via DNA testing and ancestry results on 23andMe - that her biological father is, in fact, former Duke University Hospital Fertility Doctor Charles Peete, and that she had more than 20 other half siblings, mostly in North Carolina.
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Her mother, a Fayetteville resident, had gone to Peete for fertility treatments decades ago. The results seemed to show that Peete had used his own sperm in the procedures again and again, without permission.
“I didn't even know I was a sperm donor baby, much less finding out at the exact same time that, you know, the doctor…had used his sperm and that I was a product of a crime,” said McKesson.
Now, a year and a half after finding out about her true father, McKesson is focused on getting her story out to as many people as possible, and trying to make sure what happened to her family doesn’t happen again.
“The mothers deserve to know that this happened to them. And the children, all of the half-siblings, deserve to know their medical history,” she said. “Our intent was just to do the right thing and make a difference and try to help save a life, especially with my genetic issues.”
Dr. Charles Peete died in 2013. WRAL reached out to Duke Health, asking if the hospital system has done anything to reach out to Peete’s former patients, and what’s being done to ensure patient safety and transparency at the fertility clinic now.
Duke Health released a statement in response. Officials said they were not able to comment on individual patients, but assured Duke Health is a “premier center of excellence for reproductive healthcare and is committed to providing the best fertility care for people who are seeking to build a family.”
“We have been made aware of unacceptable actions by an individual that occurred in our program in the early days of fertility care during the late 1970s and early 1980s. The unacceptable actions could not happen today at Duke Health and should never have happened,” the statement read in part.
McKesson said she doesn’t know how big her biological family may ultimately be, but her research suggests this could be just the beginning. In other cases of so-called ‘fertility fraud, doctors have illicitly fathered dozens of children.
“There is one that [spans across] 15 years,” said McKesson, “and they have over 100 half siblings. And our story so far is 21 years that it spans across.”
Just in the last week, her family circle has gotten bigger. A new half-sibling was added to her family tree, one she hopes to talk to, to walk him through his new reality.
“I remembered how I felt on that day, and I want to be able to support anyone else who joins the same way that I was supported, and really, I mean, just guide him through it,” she said.
McKesson said she also wants to push North Carolina’s state legislature to take action - both to hold doctors like her biological father accountable, and to protect kids like her.
“We've got a couple of contacts that want to help us do that and just really push that forward,” said McKesson. “We all just shouldn’t say, ‘Oh, it'll never happen again.’ I think that we still need to do our due diligence and protect patients.”
