TRAGIC LOSS
Beloved heart specialist Mayosi dies
It is impossible to count the ways in which professor Bongani Mayosi – Mthatha-born cardiologist‚ researcher‚ and dean of the health sciences faculty at the University of Cape Town – was a role model.
A loving husband and father‚ a pioneering researcher who discovered the gene that causes heart attacks‚ a brilliant and much-loved dean . . . the list goes on.
Mayosi took his own life on Friday‚ aged 51‚ and a family statement on Saturday said he had been struggling with depression.
He made his name as one of the world’s top cardiology researchers when he discovered the gene that causes heart failure‚ and by the time he was awarded the Order of Mapungubwe in 2009‚ he had spent years working tirelessly to improve the health of people in developing countries.
Last year‚ when the National Academy of Medicine in the US elected him among its 80 new members in Washington‚ DC‚ he was the only African on the highly prestigious list.
Since 2011‚ Mayosi had been advising health minister Aaron Motsoaledi on the policy and strategy for health research in his capacity as the National Health Research Committee chair. And for the past two years‚ he led the faculty of health sciences at UCT.
Mayosi was inspired by his father‚ also a doctor.
He studied at what is now the Nelson Mandela School of Medicine at the University of KwaZulu-Natal‚ and it was there that he met his dermatologist wife‚ Nonhlanhla Khumalo.
The pair made their way to Port Elizabeth in 1990‚ where they worked at the Livingstone Hospital before leaving for Cape Town.
After a stint as a registrar in the mid-90s‚ Mayosi took up a fellowship at Oxford University in the UK to complete a PhD.
In 2006‚ at the age of 38‚ Mayosi became the first black person to be made professor and head of the department of medicine at Groote Schuur Hospital and UCT.
When he and a team of researchers discovered the gene that causes heart failure‚ he said: “This is only the beginning. The recognition [of the discovery] means we are still at base camp, but with a licence to climb Everest.”
Mayosi was also highly regarded for his work on preventing rheumatic fever and on TB of the heart.