Local doctor passes away
“Dad didn’t have a retirement. He told us if he retired he would have nothing to do all day! He served the Southern Suburbs of Johannesburg as the family doctor for 43 years!” said his daughter Tracy.
MUCH loved doctor, Colin Hyams from Eastcliffe Medical Centre, Eastcliffe, lost his battle with cancer and passed away peacefully on April 21.
He was 70 years old.
Colin Anthony Hyams was born on January 23, 1947, in South Africa. The family then moved to Rhodesia, as it was known back then, and later to Lusaka in Zambia. He was the eldest child with seven siblings. Colin went to boarding school in South Africa and was an avid sportsman.
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On finishing matric he decided to study medicine and went to College of Surgeons in Dublin, Ireland. Here he met a veterinary student Dawn, and on midsummers day in 1969 they were married. It was in Ireland that he was introduced to what later became his passion – horseracing.
When both Dawn and Colin were qualified, their first daughter Tracy was born in Dublin. The family then moved back to Lusaka where their second daughter Julie was born.
Then in 1973 the entire Hyams family (parents, sisters, brothers etc) all moved back to SA. Colin went to work in the mining town of Orkney in the local hospital where one of the highlights of his early career was going down a mineshaft to rescue trapped miners. Very exciting for a young doctor. He even made front page news for his rescue efforts.
In 1975 Colin moved to Johannesburg and joined a general practice in Rosettenville, together with Dr Alec Khoury and Dr Stan Brown. He so enjoyed meeting the patients from all walks of life. Colin always said that his work was his sanity! His patients knew that he rarely took leave and that they could count on him to be there at any time of day or night, public holiday and even Christmas. He was known to be sitting at his desk seeing patients as early as 6.30am so that they could fit in a doctor’s visit before work.
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When the practice opened up consulting rooms in Eastcliffe, Colin moved up to them and spent many happy years there working alongside Dr Boscia and Dr Ghirlando. He has families of patients that have been seeing him for three generations.
His relationship with his patients was personal and many became good friends over the years. He loved to chat to them about cars and football and of course, horseracing. He was known as the straight talking, no nonsense doctor. Patients either loved this and remained fiercely loyal to him over the years, or didn’t and saw one of the other doctors in the practice.
Meanwhile his interest in horseracing grew. Colin and some friends owned a few race horses – of varying ability! There were wins and losses but throughout it all he loved going to the races. He even served as the racecourse doctor and later as a race steward for many years.
Colin was a private person. Friends, family and patients knew him as a man who didn’t mince his words. He had a brilliant sense of humour and loved playing pranks. His generosity was limitless. He was a tough task master and a perfectionist but very loyal, honest and always true to his word.
He had an incredible general knowledge, loved doing crosswords and read the newspaper religiously every day. He loved fast cars, fast (and some not so fast) horses and in the early days, played a mean game of golf. He was always dressed impeccably and in his adulthood, never went a day unshaven!
“Dad didn’t have a retirement. He told us if he retired he would have nothing to do all day. He served the Southern Suburbs of Johannesburg as the family doctor for 43 years,” said his daughter Tracy.
He was dedicated to his patients. During his battle with cancer he would come into work after a session of chemo and resume consulting, never complaining. Most patients weren’t even aware he had spent the past few hours hooked up to a chemo drip! He worked right up to the day before he went into hospital.
“Rest In Peace Colin, our beloved father, husband, brother, uncle, granddad and cornerstone of the Hyams family, respected doctor and loved friend. You will be sorely missed by us all.”
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