Anthony Promnitz

Douglas Anthony Promnitz was part of a long line of medical doctors. His father, Douglas Noel Promnitz, qualified as a medical doctor from Witwatersrand University just after the second world war (having been at university with the anatomist and anthropologist Professor P V Tobias). Gregory, Anthony’s older brother, followed their father, and he then became a specialist physician. He is still practising in Johannesburg with his son, Geoffrey, who qualified from the same university. Michael, Anthony’s younger brother, also qualified from the same university, and is a practising paediatrician in Canada.

Anthony was he was an exemplary student and won several additional awards and prizes. After his internship, he spent a short time in haematology, but he soon settled on a career in internal medicine, qualifying as a specialist physician from the College of Medicine of South Africa in 1985. Thereafter he subspecialised in respiratory medicine and worked as a consultant pulmonologist and intensive care physician at J G Strijdom and Hillbrow hospitals in Johannesburg. After a year as senior specialist and clinical head of the respiratory and intensive care units at Hillbrow Hospital, he was appointed principal specialist and head of the division of pulmonology at Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital in 1991. This academic hospital is the largest hospital in the southern …