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Professor Chris Heyns

1949 - 2014

Obituary by Mark Speakman, Consultant Urological Surgeon & Past-President of BAUS

It was with great sadness that BAUS has heard of the sudden death on 2 August 2014 of Professor Chris Heyns, President of the South African Urological Association, and an overseas member of BAUS.


Chris Heyns was Head of the Department of Urology at Stellenbosch University and Tygerberg Hospital, where he had worked since 1982. He was a Past-President of the College of Urologists of South Africa, the Pan-African Urological Surgeons’ Association (PAUSA) and the Société Internationale d’Urologie (SIU) and was currently President of the South African Urological Association (SAUA).

Born on 2 January 1949, he studied medicine and specialised in Urology at Stellenbosch University and obtained the MB ChB degrees in 1973, the MMed(Urol) in 1986, Fellowship of the College of Surgeons of South Africa in 1987 and a PhD in 1990. He received the Storz prize for the most outstanding young urologist in South Africa, delivered the prestigious JN de Klerk Memorial Lecture of the SAUA in 1999 and, in 2010, was awarded the Sanofi-Aventis prize for Urological excellence and outstanding service in furthering the practice of Urology in South Africa.

His fields of interest were in urological trauma, urethral strictures and urological oncology. He had published 167 papers and 20 chapters in books and has presented or co-authored multiple papers at international congresses.

He leaves a wife, Isabel and three children, Marianka, Christiaan and Larissa, who all live and work in Cape Town, South Africa.

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