Jackie Pienaar-Brink, Die Burger
Cape Town - The wife of a member of the team that carried out the
world's first heart transplant was murdered in the early hours of
Sunday morning in Hermanus.
The body of Lulu Hewitson, 84, was found in the foyer of her house at
about 04:00. She had a stab wound to her back.
Her husband, Professor Rodney Hewitson, survived the attack as he was
in another part of the house, said police spokesperson Superintendent
André Traut. He was badly traumatised.
The elderly woman was murdered after she presumably pressed the panic button.
The suspects are believed to have gained entrance to the house through
a living room window, which they took out. They fled the same way.
'Awful and ironic'
The murdered woman's husband was Professor Chris Barnard's right-hand
man during the first heart transplant at Groote Schuur Hospital in
1967.
"That he lost his wife in this way is awful and ironic," said
Professor Johan Brink of the Chris Barnard Memorial Hospital's
Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery.
"As a doctor, he had dedicated himself to the less fortunate. Over the
years he helped hundreds of people who had been stabbed in the chest.
He was an extremely committed doctor and a mentor for heart surgery
all over the world."
One of the couple's sons, Dr John Hewitson, followed in his father's
footsteps as a heart surgeon while another, Professor Bruce Hewitson
of the University of Cape Town, is an internationally recognised
climate expert. A third son is a pilot in Mozambique.
According to Traut, the motive was presumably housebreaking with the
intention to steal possessions, though nothing valuable was missing.
No one has been arrested and the murder weapon is still missing.
Source:News24
http://www.news24.com/News24/South_Africa/News/0,,2-7-1442_2393506,00.html
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