A series of medical struggles — and the discovery of an undiagnosed genetic disorder — led a North Carolina woman to learn that she had been secretly fathered by her mother’s fertility doctor.
Summer McKesson, 43, told CNN that DNA testing revealed she and 11 others were half-siblings, all born to mothers treated by Dr. Charles Peete at Duke University Hospital.
One of those mothers, Laurie Kruppa, explained to CNN that Peete had been her doctor for all three of her pregnancies. Because her husband had undergone a vasectomy in a previous marriage, Kruppa conceived through intrauterine insemination and was told the donor sperm would come from medical residents at the university hospital.
“He seemed nice enough and concerned, but we didn’t have a lot of interaction,” Kruppa recalled.
McKesson’s revelation came after she underwent DNA testing following years of health challenges — including emergency open-heart surgery at age 40 — that ultimately led doctors to diagnose her with Marfan syndrome, a genetic disorder that can cause serious cardiovascular complications if untreated, according to the National Institute of Health.
Weeks later, while scrolling through her ancestry results on her couch, McKesson noticed something unusual. At first, there was nothing remarkable — until she checked for relatives and found seven half-siblings.
“I just remember being shocked and my mind just swirling,” she told CNN. “I’m like, how is this possible? … Did my dad have another family or something?”
McKesson reached out to the strangers, and about a month later received a cryptic reply from one of them:
“I don’t want to cause any conflict, but if you want to dig into this, I’d ask your parents if they went to see Dr. Peete,”
the email read, according to CNN.
Further investigation revealed that one more half-sibling had been identified — and both her sister and brother were also fathered by Peete.
Kruppa said she felt a mix of emotions when she learned the truth.
“I was really glad they were all true siblings,” she said, noting that her initial relief quickly turned to anger and disbelief as she considered the ethical implications. Peete had been in his 50s during all three of her pregnancies.
“This is like getting raped by your father,” Kruppa said.
A spokesperson for Duke Health said in a statement:
“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.”
Dr. Peete died in 2013, leaving uncertain what, if any, legal recourse McKesson and her half-siblings may have.
McKesson said she chose to share her story partly because of her Marfan syndrome diagnosis and the risks it poses. She has urged her half-siblings to get tested for the condition, which she believes may have been passed down due to Peete’s advanced age at the time of conception.
While her medical issues have been daunting, McKesson said they pale compared to the emotional toll of her discovery.
“Ultimately, the hardest thing to process once you started putting the pieces together was that I was a product of a crime — that I was the product of medical rape,” she said.
If you or someone you know has been a victim of sexual abuse, text “STRENGTH” to the Crisis Text Line at 741-741 to be connected to a certified crisis counselor.
