June 24 Lowveld

shelter for the night. They laughed
with me and cried with me. We
experienced harrowing things
involving war and all its ugliness. I
learnt to pray under threat of death,
and I learnt that politicians are a lying,
deceiving lot. Up until then, I had no
real political ideology. All I knew was
that there was a worldwide battle
going on between communism and
capitalism, and by virtue of my birth, I
had ended up on the capitalist side.”
Eventually all of this ended, and Pieter
reapplied for admission to med school.
Those days having been a lieutenant
and being part of a fighting unit in the
SADF were seen as a sign of at least
Pieter and his wife Karin
some degree of grit, and with these
bonus points Pieter was selected for
medical studies. “To my amazement,
I passed my first year at Tuks with a
distinction,” he says. “It dawned on
me that I might actually be able to
make it! Commune life was wild and
wonderful, but between the partying
and swotting like a madman when
needed, time flew by, and eventually I
was a young, qualified doctor.”
Working as a doctor in a public
hospital is very similar to combat,
Pieter explains, with lots of sights,
sounds, smells, fear and desperation,
and an all-pervasive sense of sadness.
“I loved it, and realised I could do it
well and make a huge difference in
people’s lives,” he says. “The labour ward
really overwhelms most med students
when they enter it for the first time,
but I thrived there despite the mindnumbing
hours and the total physical
exhaustion that comes from being on
call for 36 hours.” Pieter got better and
better at managing a busy labour unit,
feeling at home in the gynaecology
outpatients as well as doing theatre
work. “Surgery was very challenging,”
he adds, “but as time went on, I
realised I had steady hands and
could perform difficult procedures
exceptionally well. Specialising was just
the next logical step, and I took to it
like a duck to water.”
Pieter met his wife Karen in the busy
labour ward in Kalafong Hospital, and
says the minute he saw her, he knew
they should get married and have
children together. “It was a stormy
affair, and after some pushing and
shoving, we eventually settled down
and realised we were meant to write
our story together.” In 1995, after
having graduated as a gynaecologist
and Karen as a general practitioner,
they decided to open a private
consulting service in Nelspruit. “Karen
and I worked like demons in those first
few years,” says Pieter. “Permanently
on call with lots of after-hours and
weekend emergencies made for a
stressful life, and it certainly took its toll
on both of us. Somehow we managed
to hold on and build something,
including a home and a family with
three boys.”
June 2024 Get It Lowveld 11