The Australian Women's Register

1 hour 47 minutes Dr Susan Beal was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) in the Queen’s Birthday honours list, 1997, for service to medicine, particularly in the fields of paediatrics and sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) research. Susan Beal, nee Ross, grew up in Sydney, New South Wales. She studied medicine at Sydney University and specialised in paediatrics. She married in 1959 and had five children between 1960 and 1970. The family moved to South Australia in the early 60s. Dr Beal began working at the Adelaide Children’s Hospital as research registrar in neurosurgery and then running the Cerebral Palsy Clinic. In 1970 she was asked to investigate the incidence of SIDS in South Australia. Since then Dr Beal has been involved in research and public awareness campaigns that have led to a dramatic decrease in deaths. Her work included home visits following every death between 1973 and 1989. At the time of the interview, she was working for the Crippled Children’s Association with a caseload of over 50 families.