Hans Huysmans was born into a family of doctors on 8 August 1933 in Oudenbosch, the Netherlands. He studied medicine at the State University of Utrecht from 1950 to 1957. In 1954, when he was still a medical student, he was involved in rescue work during the dreadful floods in the Netherlands and was awarded a civilian decoration for his brave efforts. After a year of military service in 1958, he proceeded to study general surgery and from 1961 to 1964 was on the staff of the St. Antonious Hospital (SAH) in Utrecht. In 1965 he did a brief locum job at St Joseph Hospital in Venlo and then returned to the SAH where he was ‘chef de clinique’ and then staff surgeon until 1979, increasingly specialising in cardiothoracic surgery. From 1973 to 1978, he was professor of cardiothoracic surgery and head of department at the State University in Utrecht and was then appointed to the same status at the State University in Leiden. In 1981 he became consultant cardiac surgeon at the Leyenburg Hospital in the Hague and in 1990 consultant thoracic surgeon at the St Elizabeth Hospital in Leiderdorp. Widely associated with numerous Dutch and European cardiothoracic surgery societies, he was a founder member and vice-president of the European Association for Cardiothoracic Surgery (EACTS). A member of the Society of Cardiothoracic Surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland, he was awarded the honorary fellowship of the college in 1993. He died on 25 August 2021 aged 88 and was survived by his wife Anne Marie née Pyckevet and their four children.