I first met Keyvan Moghissi, who has died aged 98, in 1980 when I shared a flat with his son, Alexander, a close friend of mine. Keyvan was a distinguished cardiothoracic surgeon; what he really enjoyed was healing people. His kindness, care and empathy for his patients was renowned, and came through in his memoirs, Off My Chest: Tales of a Cardiothoracic Surgeon (2018), From My Heart (2024) and In My Memory (2025).
Born in Tehran in what was, he liked to remind people, still known as Persia, Keyvan was the second of six children of Monireh Rouhani, a teacher, and Ahmad Moghissi-Chirazi, a civil servant; the family were members of the progressive, pacific, often persecuted Bahá’í faith.
