Magdi Yacoub

Subject: Magdi Yacoub 30/10/2010, 9:53 pm

Magdi Yacoub

Sir Magdi HabibYacoub, FRS (Arabic:مجدى حبيب يعقوب‎, IPA: [ˈmæɡdi ħæˈbiːb jæʕˈʔuːb];born 16 November 1935 in Bilbeis, Sharqia Governorate, Egypt), is Professor of Cardiothoracic Surgery at Imperial College London.
He was involvedin the restart of UK heart transplantion in 1980 (there had been moratoriumfollowing the series of three performed by Donald Ross in 1968), carried outthe first UK live lobe lung transplant and went on to perform more transplantsthan any other surgeon in the world. A 1980 patient DerrickMorris, was Europe's longest surviving hearttransplant recipient until his death in July 2005.
Early life and career
The son of asurgeon, Sir Magdi studied at CairoUniversity and qualified as a doctor in 1957. He reportedly said hedecided to specialise in heart surgery after an aunt died of heart disease inher early 20s. He moved to Britain in 1962, then taught at The University of Chicago. He became aconsultant cardiothoracic surgeon at Harefield Hospital in 1973. The Harefield transplant programme

Under hisleadership, the Harefield Hospital transplant programme beganin 1980 and by the end of the decade he and his team had performed 1000 of theprocedures and Harefield Hospital had become the leading UK transplant centre.During this period there was an increase in post operative survival rates, areduction in the recovery periods spent in isolation and in the financial costof each procedure. In order to remove donor hearts he would travel thousands ofmiles each year in small aircraft or helicopters. Most of his patients receivedtreatment under the National Health Service, but some privateforeign patients were also treated.
He wasappointed professor at the National Heart and Lung Institutein 1986, and was involved in the development of the techniques of heart andheart-lung transplantation. Recentwork

Having retiredfrom performing surgery for the National Health Service in 2001 at the age of65, Sir Magdi continues to act as a high profile consultant and ambassador forthe benefits of transplant surgery. He continues to operate on needy childrenthrough his charity, The Chain of Hope.
In 2006 hebriefly came out of retirement to advise on a complicated procedure whichrequired removing a transplant heart from a patient whose own heart hadrecovered. The patient's original heart had not been removed during transplantsurgery nearly a decade earlier in the off chance it might recover.^[1]
In April 2007,it was reported that a British medical research team led by Sir Magdi had grownpart of a human heart valve, from stem cells,a first. Other activities and achievements

He is also notable for saving many lives by pioneering a technique for 'switching' the heart vessels of babies born with a congenital heart defect, which means they are the wrong way round.

In 1995 he founded the charity Chain of Hope in the UK. This charity aims to provide children suffering from life-threatening disease with the corrective surgery and treatment to which they do not have access.

Among celebrities whose lives he extended was the comedian, Eric Morecambe. He was also known to have treated the famous Egyptian actor Omar Sharif, urging the latter to give up the cigarettes that had led to his heart attack.

In 2002 he was selected to spearhead a government recruitment drive for overseas doctors.

He has had a house named after him at The Petchey Academy which opened in September 2006.

He is one of few masters and teachers in the world of the highly technically demanding "Ross Procedure" (or pulmonary autograft)

Honours and awards

 1992 knighted by HM Queen Elizabeth II
 1998 Texas Heart Institute Ray C. Fish Award for Scientific Achievementin Cardiovascular Disease
 1999 Lifetime outstanding achievement award in recognition ofcontribution to medicine, Secretary of State for Health (UK)
 2001 The Cleveland Clinic Foundation Heart Failure Summit : KaufmanAwardee
 2003 Golden Hippocrates International Award for Excellence in CardiacSurgery (Moscow)
 WHO Prize for Humanitarian Services
 2004 International Society for Heart & Lung Transplantation LifetimeAchievement Award
 2006 European Society of Cardiology Gold Medal
 2007 Daily Mirror Pride of Britain Lifetime Achievement Award
 2007 Honorary citizenships of the city of Curriculum vitae

1957 Medical Bachelor, Cairo (Egypt)
1964-1968 Rotating Senior Surgical Registrar, National Heart and Chest Hospitals, London
1969 Instructor and Assistant Professor, University of Chicago (USA)
1973-2001 Consultant Cardiac Surgeon, National Heart Hospital-Royal Brompton and Harefield National Health Service (NHS) Trust, London
1986-2006 British Heart Foundation Professor of Cardiothoracic Surgery
1986–present Professor of Cardiothoracic Surgery, National Heart and Lung Institute, Imperial College Faculty of Medicine
2001–present Founder and Director of Research of the Magdi Yacoub Research Institute, Harefield