In memoriam
It is with deep regret and profound sadness that we report the death of the following BTS members. The BTS is honored to recognize these outstanding members for their dedication to the association and to the field of transplantation. Please note that this information is only that which has been volunteered to us by colleagues.
Guy Alexandre
4/7/1934 – 14/2/2024
Olivier Van Caenegem
The second of Augustus was a bad day for us but also for the transplant community:
unexpectedly our friend Olivier Van Caenegem leaves us.
Prof. Van Caenegem graduated from the UCLouvain Medical School in 1993 and
specialized in cardiology and in intensive care.
He worked since 2001 in the Cardiovascular Intensive Care Unit in the Cliniques Universitaires St. Luc
and became head of this unit since 2019.
His particular interest was advanced treatment of heart failure and cardiac shock by mechanical circulatory support devices and heart transplantation. He explored the DCD heart transplant recovery in his PhD thesis. He became a key person of the CUSL heart transplant program.
During the recent COVID pandemic he also treated numerous patients with respiratory failure by means of ECMO.
Prof Van Caenegem was appointed Full Professor of Medicine at the UCLouvain since 2016 and was Secretary of the Belgian Society for Transplantation since 2014.
He was also President of Belgian Interdisciplinay Working Group in Acute Cardiology (BIWAC) and BSC Board Member from 2019 until 2021.
Olivier was an exceptional physician and teacher, a close friend to all of us, always cheerful and friendly.
Dear Olivier, we keep the memory of you as a beautiful person in every way, your professionalism, your humanity, your kindness, your good humor, your charming smile, your gift for your different imitations as well as to tell jokes or the latest gossip of the colleagues…
We will miss you very much…
(Prof. Patrick Evrard)
Xavier Rogiers
On 20 November 2019, Prof Dr Xavier Rogiers passed away. He was department head of the Transplantation Centre at Ghent University Hospital and professor at the Department of Structure and Recovery of Man at Ghent University.Under
Prof Rogiers was not only a well-known name in the field of liver surgery, he was also passionate about the world of liver transplantation, especially in children. He was a leader for his team in a warm, human and charismatic way. He felt very committed to his patients and taught his younger colleagues the skills of the trade.
Under his leadership new transplantation activities were established at Ghent University Hospital, from the first face transplant to the more recent uterus transplant.
After his training at KU Leuven, he enjoyed further training through fellowships in Paris, Glasgow, London and Chicago. He then became medical director of the Hamburg-Eppendorf liver transplant centre in Germany and professor ordinarius at the University of Hamburg. Since 2006, he was head of service of the Transplantation Centre at Ghent University Hospital.
Xavier Rogiers was active in many national and international organisations such as Eurotransplant, ELITA, ESOT, ESA, ISG, UEMS and the European Regional Association of the International Hepato-Pancreatic-Biliary Association (E-AHBPA).
He was awarded doctor honoris causa at the University Götenborg, in Sweden and membre associé étranger de l’Académie Française de Chirurgie.
He also proudly functioned as Reserve Officer Physician at the Paracommando Unit of the Belgian Army.
Xavier Rogiers showed himself to be a strong leader, at Ghent University Hospital and as vice-president of Eurotransplant, but above all a fine human being. We still miss him
Ypres 1/11/1956 – Sint-Martens-Latem 20/11/2019
(Eric Hoste)