Sir Magdi Habib Yacoub ( ar, د/مجدى حبيب يعقوب ; born 16 November 1935), is an

Egyptian Egyptian describes something of, from, or related to Egypt. Egyptian or Egyptians may refer to: Nations and ethnic groups * Egyptians, a national group in North Africa ** Egyptian culture, a complex and stable culture with thousands of years of ...

retired professor of

cardiothoracic surgery Cardiothoracic surgery is the field of medicine involved in surgical treatment of organs inside the thoracic cavity — generally treatment of conditions of the heart (heart disease), lungs ( lung disease), and other pleural or mediastinal str ...

Imperial College London Imperial College London (legally Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine) is a public research university in London, United Kingdom. Its history began with Prince Albert, consort of Queen Victoria, who developed his vision for a cu ...

, best known for his early work in repairing heart valves with surgeon Donald Ross, adapting the

Ross procedure The Ross procedure, also known as pulmonary autograft, is a heart valve replacement operation to treat severe aortic valve disease, such as in children and young adults with a bicuspid aortic valve. It involves removing the diseased aortic valv ...

, where the diseased

aortic valve The aortic valve is a valve in the heart of humans and most other animals, located between the left ventricle and the aorta. It is one of the four valves of the heart and one of the two semilunar valves, the other being the pulmonary valve. Th ...

is replaced with the person's own

pulmonary valve The pulmonary valve (sometimes referred to as the pulmonic valve) is a valve of the heart that lies between the right ventricle and the pulmonary artery and has three cusps. It is one of the four valves of the heart and one of the two semilunar v ...

, devising the

arterial switch operation Arterial switch operation (ASO) or arterial switch, is an open heart surgical procedure used to correct dextro-transposition of the great arteries (d-TGA). Its development was pioneered by Canadian cardiac surgeon William Mustard and it was na ...

(ASO) in

transposition of the great arteries Transposition of the great vessels (TGV) is a group of congenital heart defects involving an abnormal spatial arrangement of any of the great vessels: superior and/or inferior venae cavae, pulmonary artery, pulmonary veins, and aorta. Congenital ...

, and establishing the heart transplantation centre at

Harefield Hospital Harefield Hospital is a health institution in Harefield, London Borough of Hillingdon, England. It is managed by the Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust. History The first hospital on the site was the No. 1 Australian Auxiliary Hospital ...

in 1980 with a

heart transplant A heart transplant, or a cardiac transplant, is a surgical transplant procedure performed on patients with end-stage heart failure or severe coronary artery disease when other medical or surgical treatments have failed. , the most common procedu ...

for Derrick Morris, who at the time of his death was Europe's longest-surviving heart transplant recipient. Yacoub subsequently performed the UK's first combined heart and lung transplant in 1983. From 1986 to 2006, he held the position of

British Heart Foundation The British Heart Foundation (BHF) is a cardiovascular research charity in the United Kingdom. It funds medical research related to heart and circulatory diseases and their risk factors, and runs influencing work aimed at shaping public policy ...

Professor of Cardiothoracic Surgery at the National Heart and Lung Institute, Imperial College Faculty of Medicine. He is the founding editor of the journal ''

Disease Models & Mechanisms ''Disease Models & Mechanisms'' (DMM) is a monthly peer-reviewed Open Access biomedical journal published by The Company of Biologists that launched in 2008. DMM is partnered with Publons, is part of the Review Commons initiative and has two-way i ...

''. His honours and awards include the

Bradshaw Lecture The Bradshaw Lectures are prestigious lectureships given at the invitation of the Royal College of Physicians and the Royal College of Surgeons of England. List of past lecturers at Royal College of Physicians List of past lecturers at Royal Co ...

from the

Royal College of Physicians The Royal College of Physicians (RCP) is a British professional membership body dedicated to improving the practice of medicine, chiefly through the accreditation of physicians by examination. Founded by royal charter from King Henry VIII in 1 ...

in 1988, a

knighthood A knight is a person granted an honorary title of knighthood by a head of state (including the Pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the church or the country, especially in a military capacity. Knighthood finds origins in the ...

in the

1992 New Year Honours The New Year Honours 1992 were appointments by most of the Commonwealth realms of Queen Elizabeth II to various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by citizens of those countries, and honorary ones to citizens of other countri ...

, the Texas Heart Institute's Ray C. Fish Award for Scientific Achievement in Cardiovascular Disease in 1998, the International Society for Heart and Lung Transplantation Lifetime Achievement Award in 2004, the

European Society of Cardiology The European Society of Cardiology (ESC) is an independent non-profit, non-governmental professional association that works to advance the prevention, diagnosis and management of diseases of the heart and blood vessels, and improve scientific un ...

's gold medal in 2006, the Order of Merit in 2014, the

Lister Medal __NOTOC__ The Lister Medal is an award presented by the Royal College of Surgeons of England in recognition of contributions to surgical science. It is named after the English surgeon Joseph Lister (1827-1912), whose work on antiseptics establi ...

from the

Royal College of Surgeons The Royal College of Surgeons is an ancient college (a form of corporation) established in England to regulate the activity of surgeons. Derivative organisations survive in many present and former members of the Commonwealth. These organisations a ...

in 2015 and the Khalaf Ahmad Al Habtoor Achievement Award (KAHAA) in 2019. Following retirement from the

National Health Service The National Health Service (NHS) is the umbrella term for the publicly funded healthcare systems of the United Kingdom (UK). Since 1948, they have been funded out of general taxation. There are three systems which are referred to using the " ...

(NHS), he continued to operate on children through his charity, Chain of Hope. In 2008, he co-founded the Magdi Yacoub heart foundation, which launched the Aswan Heart project.

Early life and education

Magdi Habib Yacoub was born on the 16th of November in 1935Yacoub, Magdi
Curriculum Vitae: Magdi Yacoub
in

Bilbeis Belbeis ( ar, بلبيس ; Bohairic cop, Ⲫⲉⲗⲃⲉⲥ/Ⲫⲉⲗⲃⲏⲥ ' is an ancient fortress city on the eastern edge of the southern Nile delta in Egypt, the site of the Ancient city and former bishopric of Phelbes and a Lat ...

, El Sharqia,

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Medit ...

Coptic Christian Copts ( cop, ⲛⲓⲣⲉⲙⲛ̀ⲭⲏⲙⲓ ; ar, الْقِبْط ) are a Christian ethnoreligious group indigenous to North Africa who have primarily inhabited the area of modern Egypt and Sudan since antiquity. Most ethnic Copts ar ...

family, and spent his childhood moving around a number of different small towns. His father was a surgeon, who later worked in

public health Public health is "the science and art of preventing disease, prolonging life and promoting health through the organized efforts and informed choices of society, organizations, public and private, communities and individuals". Analyzing the det ...

. He died in 1958. Yacoub later recalled that both his father and the death of his youngest aunt at age 22 years from an uncorrected

mitral stenosis Mitral stenosis is a valvular heart disease characterized by the narrowing of the opening of the mitral valve of the heart. It is almost always caused by rheumatic valvular heart disease. Normally, the mitral valve is about 5 cm2 during d ...

during childbirth inspired him to study medicine and cardiology, saying that “this young woman would not have died if we had had access to facilities which were then available in a few centres around the world”. At the age of 15, he entered the University of Cairo College of Medicine with a

scholarship A scholarship is a form of financial aid awarded to students for further education. Generally, scholarships are awarded based on a set of criteria such as academic merit, diversity and inclusion, athletic skill, and financial need. Scholars ...

Early surgical career

In 1957, Yacoub graduated in medicine from Cairo University and completed two years of residencies in surgery. In 1961 or 1962 he moved to Britain to study for his fellowship while working under Sir Russell Brock, consultant surgeon at

Guy's Hospital Guy's Hospital is an NHS hospital in the borough of Southwark in central London. It is part of Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust and one of the institutions that comprise the King's Health Partners, an academic health science centre. ...

Heart valve surgery

In 1964, he was appointed rotating surgical senior registrar to the National Heart and Chest Hospitals, where he worked with cardiothoracic surgeon Donald Ross. Here, they worked on repairing heart valves in people with severe

valvular heart disease Valvular heart disease is any cardiovascular disease process involving one or more of the four valves of the heart (the aortic and mitral valves on the left side of heart and the pulmonic and tricuspid valves on the right side of heart). These ...

and heart failure. Four of their cases, operated on between December 1965 and October 1967, were reported on in the '' British Medical Journal'' (1968) in an article titled "Too ill for cardiac surgery?". Three had severe aortic valve disease and one had

rheumatic heart disease Rheumatic fever (RF) is an inflammatory disease that can involve the heart, joints, skin, and brain. The disease typically develops two to four weeks after a streptococcal throat infection. Signs and symptoms include fever, multiple painful jo ...

with multiple affected valves. All four had a poor prognosis with death expected within a few days and all four survived surgery. He carried out a number of

s, where the diseased

is replaced with the person's own

, particularly in growing children. It became a popular alternative to the surgical treatment of aortic valve disease in young adults and avoided the need for

anticoagulation Anticoagulants, commonly known as blood thinners, are chemical substances that prevent or reduce coagulation of blood, prolonging the clotting time. Some of them occur naturally in blood-eating animals such as leeches and mosquitoes, where the ...

and repeated operations. Yacoub modified the operation by planning remodelling of the autograft root, the Ross-Yacoub procedure,Mark Ruzmetov, Karl F. Welke, Dale M. Geiss, Klay Buckley and Randall S. Fortuna (2014)
“Failed Autograft After the Ross Procedure in Children: Management and Outcome”
'' The Annals of Thoracic Surgery''. The Society of Thoracic Surgeons.

Elsevier Elsevier () is a Dutch academic publishing company specializing in scientific, technical, and medical content. Its products include journals such as '' The Lancet'', ''Cell'', the ScienceDirect collection of electronic journals, '' Trends'', ...

. performed in carefully selected people. At a time when cardiologists may have been reluctant to refer for surgery, Yacoub's search for operable people earned him the name "Magdi's midnight stars". Later, his application for a job at the

Royal Brompton Hospital Royal Brompton Hospital is the largest specialist heart and lung medical centre in the United Kingdom. It is managed by Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust. History Consumption in the 19th Century In the 19th century, consumption was a c ...

was turned down. In 1968, he moved to the United States and the following year he became Instructor and then Assistant Professor at the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chic ...

Harefield Hospital

In 1973, he became a consultant cardiothoracic surgeon at

, West London, opened in 1921 as a TB

sanatorium A sanatorium (from Latin '' sānāre'' 'to heal, make healthy'), also sanitarium or sanitorium, are antiquated names for specialised hospitals, for the treatment of specific diseases, related ailments and convalescence. Sanatoriums are often ...

of single storey pavilions typical for such a hospital. He later recalled that "I was tempted to stay in Chicago, as I was interested in the research they were doing there, but I had already accepted the position at Harefield before going to the US, so I was honour bound to return". At Harefield, he worked closely with Rosemary Radley-Smith, consultant in paediatric cardiology. As a visiting professor to the

University of Nigeria, Nsukka The University of Nigeria, commonly referred to as UNN, is a federal university located in Nsukka, Enugu State, Eastern part of Nigeria. Founded by Nnamdi Azikiwe in 1955 and formally opened on 7 October 1960, the University of Nigeria has th ...

, Yacoub,

Fabian Udekwu Fabian Anene Ositadimma Udekwu (1928 – 17 November 2006) born in Enugwu Agidi, Anambra State was a Medical Doctor, Cardiac surgeon. He was a distinguished Professor of Surgery at the University of Nigeria Nsukka, and a pioneer of open heart s ...

, C. H Anyanwu, and others formed part of the team that performed the first open heart surgery in Nigeria in 1974.John C. Eze, Ndubueze Ezemba
Open-Heart Surgery in Nigeria Indications and Challenges
Tex. Heart Inst. J. 2007; 34(1): 8–10.

Arterial Switch

In 1977, he devised a two-stage approach for an

(ASO) in older people with

with an intact

ventricular septum The interventricular septum (IVS, or ventricular septum, or during development septum inferius) is the stout wall separating the ventricles, the lower chambers of the heart, from one another. The ventricular septum is directed obliquely backwar ...

(IVS).

Harefield Hospital transplant unit

Yacoub began the transplant programme at

in 1980 with a heart transplant for Derrick Morris, who became Europe's longest surviving heart transplant recipient until his death in July 2005. Two years later, he performed a heart transplant on John McCafferty, who survived for more than 33 years, until 10 February 2016 and became recognised as the world's longest surviving heart transplant patient by the Guinness World Records in 2013, surpassing the previous Guinness World Record of 30 years, 11 months and 10 days set by an American man who died in 2009. In December 1983 Yacoub performed the UK's first combined heart and lung transplant at Harefield. From 1986 to 2006, he held the position of British Heart Foundation Professor of Cardiothoracic Surgery at the National Heart and Lung Institute, Imperial College Faculty of Medicine. In 1988, he became a member of the Royal Colleges of Physicians, twenty years after qualifying in surgery. He is the founding editor of the journal ''

''. He treated a number of politicians and celebrities throughout his surgical career, including comedian

Eric Morecambe John Eric Bartholomew, (14 May 1926 – 28 May 1984), known by his stage name Eric Morecambe, was an English comedian who together with Ernie Wise formed the double act Morecambe and Wise. The partnership lasted from 1941 until Morecambe's d ...

in 1979, Greek Prime Minister

Andreas Papandreou Andreas Georgiou Papandreou ( el, Ανδρέας Γεωργίου Παπανδρέου, ; 5 February 1919 – 23 June 1996) was a Greek economist, politician and a dominant figure in Greek politics, known for founding the political party PASOK, ...

in 1988, and actor Omar Sharif in 1993.

Later career

He retired from the National Health Service in 2001 at the age of 65. In 2006 he led a complex operation which required removing a transplant heart from a person whose own heart had recovered. The original heart had not been removed during transplant surgery nearly a decade earlier, in the hope it might recover. In April 2007, it was reported that a British medical research team led by Yacoub had grown part of a human

heart valve A heart valve is a one-way valve that allows blood to flow in one direction through the chambers of the heart. Four valves are usually present in a mammalian heart and together they determine the pathway of blood flow through the heart. A heart ...

from stem cells.

Charities

In 1995, Yacoub founded the charity Of Ahmed Sherif "Chain of Hope", through which he continued to operate on children, and through which the provision of heart surgery for correctable heart defects are made possible in areas without specialist cardiac surgery units. He is also the head of the Magdi Yacoub Global Heart Foundation, co-founded with

Ahmed Zewail Ahmed Hassan Zewail ( ar, أحمد حسن زويل, ; February 26, 1946 – August 2, 2016) was an Egyptian-American chemist, known as the "father of femtochemistry". He was awarded the 1999 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work on femtochemistr ...

and Ambassador

Mohamed Shaker Dr. Mohamed Ibrahim Shaker ( ar, محمد ابراهيم شاكر; 16 October 1933 – 29 March 2018), was an Egyptian diplomat and political scientist. Born in Egypt capital city, Cairo in 1933, he graduated in Cairo University in 1955 and ...

in 2008, which launched the Aswan Heart project and founded the Aswan Heart Centre the following year.

Honours and awards

Order of Merit Dorothy Hodgkin (cropped)

*1988:

, Royal College of Physicians. It was held in

Sheffield Sheffield is a city in South Yorkshire, England, whose name derives from the River Sheaf which runs through it. The city serves as the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire a ...

. *1998: Texas Heart Institute Ray C. Fish Award for Scientific Achievement in Cardiovascular Disease. *1998: Elected Fellow of the

Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...

. *1999: Lifetime outstanding achievement award in recognition of contribution to medicine, Secretary of State for Health (UK). *2003: Golden Hippocrates International Award for Excellence in Cardiac Surgery (Moscow). *WHO Prize for Humanitarian Services. *2004: International Society for Heart and Lung Transplantation Lifetime Achievement Award, at the 24th annual meeting in San Francisco. *2006:

Gold Medal. *2007: Pride of Britain Award. *2007: Honorary citizenships of the city of Bergamo, Italy *2007: Medal of Merit, President, International Academy of Cardiovascular Sciences. *2011:

Order of the Nile The Order of the Nile (''Kiladat El Nil'') was established in 1915 and was one of the Kingdom of Egypt's principal orders until the monarchy was abolished in 1953. It was then reconstituted as the Republic of Egypt's highest state honor. Sultana ...

for science and humanity. *2012:

American College of Cardiology The American College of Cardiology (ACC), based in Washington, D.C., is a nonprofit medical association established in 1949. It bestows credentials upon cardiovascular specialists who meet its qualifications. Education is a core component of the ...

Legend of Cardiovascular Medicine. *2015:

for contributions to surgical science, presented by Clare Marx, President of the Royal College of Surgeons. *2019: Khalaf Ahmad Al Habtoor Achievement Award (KAHAA). Yacoub was knighted in the

Presentation speech for Sir Magdi Yacoub for the honorary degree of Doctor of Medicine of the University honoris causa

University of Buckingham , mottoeng = Flying on Our Own Wings , established = 1973; as university college1983; as university , type = Private , endowment = , administrative_staff = 97 academic, 103 support , chanc ...

. Graduation 2015. Prfessor Mike `Cawthorne. and awarded the Order of Merit in the

2014 New Year Honours The New Year Honours 2014 were appointments by some of the 16 Commonwealth realms to various orders and honours to recognise and reward good works by citizens of those countries. The New Year Honours are awarded as part of the New Year celebrati ...

Personal and family

He is married to Marianne and they have three children and a number of grandchildren. Yacoub enjoys swimming, listening to classical music and growing

orchids Orchids are plants that belong to the family Orchidaceae (), a diverse and widespread group of flowering plants with blooms that are often colourful and fragrant. Along with the Asteraceae, they are one of the two largest families of flowering ...

Selected publications

Books

*''Annual of Cardiac Surgery''. ''

Current Science ''Current Science'' is an English-language peer-reviewed multidisciplinary scientific journal. It was established in 1932 and is published by the Current Science Association along with the Indian Academy of Sciences. According to the ''Journal C ...

'' (1994). . J. Pepper (Ed)
''Cardiac Valve Allografts : Science and Practice''
Steinkopff-Verlag Heidelberg (1997). . With A. C. Yankah and R. Hetzer

Articles

"Vagotomy through mediastinoscopy for pulmonary osteoarthropathy
'' British Journal of Diseases of the Chest''. Vol. 60, Issue 3 (July 1966), p. 144-147. , .
"Homograft replacement of the aortic valve. A critical review"
'' Progress in Cardiovascular Diseases''. Vol. 11, Issue 4 (January 1969), pp. 275–293. , . With Donald Ross
"Two-stage operation for anatomical correction of transposition of the great arteries with intact interventricular septum"
''

The Lancet ''The Lancet'' is a weekly peer-reviewed general medical journal and one of the oldest of its kind. It is also the world's highest-impact academic journal. It was founded in England in 1823. The journal publishes original research articles, ...

''. Vol. 1, Issue 8025 (June 1977), pp. 1275–8. , . Co-authored with R. Radley-Smith and R. Maclaurin.
"Fourteen-year experience with homovital homografts for aortic valve replacement"
''

The Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery ''The Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery'' is a monthly peer-reviewed medical journal covering cardiothoracic surgery, cardiology, pulmonary medicine, and vascular disease published by Elsevier. It is the official journal of the A ...

''. Vol. 110, Issue 1 (July 1995), pp. 186–194. Yacoub ''et al''
"Two Hearts that Beat as One"
'' Circulation''. Vol. 92, Issue 2 (15 July 1995), pp. 156–157. .
"An evaluation of the Ross operation in adults"
''Journal of Heart Valve Disease''. Vol. 15, No. 4 (July 2006), pp. 531–9. . Yacoub ''et al''.
"Is there a risk in avoiding risk for younger patients with aortic valve disease?"
''British Medical Journal''. Vol. 342, 26 May 2011. . Co-authored with Tom Treasure and Asif Hasan
"The Ross operation in infants and children, when and how?"
''

Heart The heart is a muscular organ in most animals. This organ pumps blood through the blood vessels of the circulatory system. The pumped blood carries oxygen and nutrients to the body, while carrying metabolic waste such as carbon dioxide to t ...

''. Vol. 100, Issue 24 (16 October 2014), pp. 1905–1906. . Co-authored with Ismail El-Hamamsy

References

External links

Profile from the Coptic Medical Society UKChain of Hope websiteMagdi Yacoub Heart Foundation
Founded 2008 {{DEFAULTSORT:Yacoub, Magdi 1935 births Living people Knights Bachelor Members of the Order of Merit Egyptian transplant surgeons Fellows of the Royal Society Members of the French Academy of Sciences Egyptian emigrants to the United Kingdom Coptic Christians Egyptian Christians People from Sharqia Governorate Naturalised citizens of the United Kingdom British transplant surgeons 20th-century British medical doctors 21st-century British medical doctors British cardiologists Egyptian cardiologists 20th-century surgeons United Arab Emirates Health Foundation Prize laureates