Magdi Yacoub

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Template:Short description Template:Use British English Template:Use dmy dates Template:Infobox medical person Sir Magdy Habib Yacoub (Template:Langx {{#invoke:IPA|main}}; Template:Langx; born 16 November 1935) is an Egyptian-British retired professor of cardiothoracic surgery at Imperial College London, best known for his early work in repairing heart valves with surgeon Donald Ross, adapting the Ross procedure, where the diseased aortic valve is replaced with the person's own pulmonary valve, devising the arterial switch operation (ASO) in transposition of the great arteries, and establishing the heart transplantation centre at Harefield Hospital in 1980 with a heart transplant 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 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.

His honours and awards include the Bradshaw Lecture from the Royal College of Physicians in 1988, a knighthood in the 1992 New Year Honours, 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's gold medal in 2006, the Order of Merit in 2014, the Lister Medal from the Royal College of Surgeons in 2015 and the Khalaf Ahmad Al Habtoor Achievement Award (KAHAA) in 2019.

After retiring from the National Health Service (NHS), he continued to practice paediatric surgery through his charity, Chain of Hope. In 2008, he co-founded the Magdi Yacoub Heart Foundation, which initiated the Aswan Heart Project.

Early life and education

Magdi Habib Yacoub was born on 16 November 1935<ref name=MYCV>Yacoub, Magdi. Curriculum Vitae: Magdi Yacoub Template:Webarchive.</ref> in Bilbeis, El Sharqia, Egypt to a Coptic Christian family,<ref name="BAU">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name=Bibi-Aisha>Template:Cite journal</ref> and spent his childhood moving around a number of different small towns.<ref name=AJC2003>Template:Cite journal</ref> His father was a surgeon who later worked in public health and died in 1958.<ref name="AJC2003" /> Yacoub later recalled that both his father and the death of his youngest aunt, who was just 22 years old and died from uncorrected mitral stenosis during childbirth,<ref name="Cawthorne2015" /> inspired him to study medicine and cardiology. He recalled, "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."<ref name=Baines2006>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref name=Bonn2000>Template:Cite journal</ref>

At the age of 15, he entered the University of Cairo College of Medicine with a scholarship.<ref name=AJC2003/>

Early surgical career

File:National Heart Hospital, Westmoreland Street, W1. Wellcome S0007606.jpg
National Heart Hospital

In 1957, Yacoub graduated in medicine from Cairo University and completed two years of medical residency in surgery.<ref name=AJC2003/> In 1961<ref name=Nainggolan2003>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> or 1962,<ref name=Baines2006/> he moved to Britain to continue a fellowship under Sir Russell Brock, consultant surgeon at Guy's Hospital.<ref name=Baines2006/>

Heart valve surgery

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Ross Procedure

In 1964, he was appointed rotating surgical senior registrar to the National Heart and Chest Hospitals,<ref name="Tansey1999">Template:Cite journal</ref> where he worked with cardiothoracic surgeon Donald Ross. Here, they worked on repairing heart valves in people with severe valvular heart disease and heart failure.<ref name="Tansey1999"/><ref name=Emmanuel1968>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref name=Allar2018>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> 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 with multiple affected valves. All four had a poor prognosis with death expected within a few days and all four survived surgery.<ref name="Tansey1999"/><ref name=Emmanuel1968/> He carried out a number of Ross procedures, where the diseased aortic valve is replaced with the person's own pulmonary valve, particularly in growing children.<ref name=Yacoub2014>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref name=Torres>Template:Cite journal</ref> It became a popular alternative to the surgical treatment of aortic valve disease in young adults and avoided the need for anticoagulation and repeated operations. Yacoub modified the operation by planning remodelling of the autograft root, the Ross-Yacoub procedure,<ref name=Torres/><ref name=Ruzmetov>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref name=Luciani2010>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref name="Yuh2012">Template:Cite book</ref> performed in carefully selected people.<ref name=Acton>Template:Cite book</ref> 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".<ref name="Tansey1999"/>

Later, his application for a position at the Royal Brompton Hospital was rejected.<ref name="Alivizatos2019">Template:Cite journal</ref> In 1968, he moved to the United States,<ref name="Baines2006" /> and the following year, he became an Instructor and then an Assistant Professor at the University of Chicago.<ref name="AJC2003" />

Harefield Hospital

In 1973, he became a consultant cardiothoracic surgeon at Harefield Hospital,<ref name=Baines2006/> West London, opened in 1921 as a TB sanatorium of single storey pavilions typical for such a hospital.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name=Alivizatos2019/> He later recalled, "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".<ref name=Baines2006/> At Harefield, he worked closely with Rosemary Radley-Smith, consultant in paediatric cardiology.<ref name=Alivizatos2019/>

As a visiting professor to the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Yacoub, Fabian Udekwu, C. H Anyanwu, and others formed part of the team that performed the first open heart surgery in Nigeria in 1974.<ref name=Eze2007>Template:Cite journal</ref>

Arterial Switch

File:Blausen 0047 ArterialSwitchOperation 02.png
Arterial switch operation

In 1977, he devised a two-stage approach for an arterial switch operation (ASO) in older people with transposition of the great arteries with an intact ventricular septum (IVS).<ref name=Sarris2017>Template:Cite journal</ref>

Harefield Hospital transplant unit

Yacoub began the transplant programme at Harefield Hospital in 1980 with a heart transplant for Derrick Morris, who became Europe's longest surviving heart transplant recipient until his death in July 2005.<ref name=McCafferty>Template:Citation</ref> 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,<ref name=McCafferty/> surpassing the previous Guinness World Record of 30 years, 11 months and 10 days set by an American man who died in 2009.<ref name="d-tele-record">Template:Cite news</ref>

In December 1983, Yacoub performed the UK's first combined heart and lung transplant at Harefield.<ref>Template:Citation</ref>

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.<ref name=Alivizatos2019/><ref name=Burke2002>Template:Cite journal</ref> In 1988, he became a member of the Royal Colleges of Physicians, twenty years after qualifying in surgery.<ref name="Pyke1992" />

He is the founding editor of the journal Disease Models & Mechanisms.<ref name=Rosenthal2009>Template:Cite journal</ref>

He treated a number of politicians and celebrities throughout his surgical career, including comedian Eric Morecambe in 1979,<ref name=Morecombe>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="BusinessMorecombe">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}Template:Dead link</ref> Greek Prime Minister Andreas Papandreou in 1988,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and actor Omar Sharif in 1993.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name=Greenhalgh1999>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Later career

He retired from the National Health Service in 2001 at the age of 65.<ref name="BAU"/><ref name=Cawthorne2015/>

In 2006, he led a complex operation that involved removing a transplant heart from a patient whose own heart had recovered. The original heart had not been removed during the transplant surgery nearly a decade earlier, with the hope that it might eventually recover.<ref name="BAU" /><ref name="BBC2006">Template:Cite news</ref>

In April 2007, it was reported that a British medical research team led by Yacoub had grown part of a human heart valve from stem cells.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

In January 2025, he unveiled a revolutionary "living valve" for heart patients. The biodegradable valve would integrate with the body, allowing cells to form a fully functional, natural valve that would grow with the patient, reducing the need for future surgeries and immune rejection.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

In March 2025, he was interviewed by Jim Al-Khalili for the BBC's The Life Scientific.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Charities

In 1995, Yacoub founded the charity "Chain of Hope" in honor of Ahmed Sherif,<ref name="Dunning2012">Template:Cite journal</ref><ref name="Kirby">Template:Cite journal</ref> through which he continued to perform surgeries on children.<ref name="HeartMatters">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> This organization facilitates heart surgery for correctable heart defects in areas lacking specialist cardiac surgery units.<ref name="Fisher2018">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

He is also the head of the Magdi Yacoub Global Heart Foundation, co-founded with Ahmed Zewail and Ambassador Mohamed Shaker in 2008,<ref name=Aswan>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="YacoubAswan">Template:Cite journal</ref><ref name=MYHF>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> which launched the Aswan Heart project and founded the Aswan Heart Centre the following year.<ref name=MYGHF>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Honours and awards

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  • WHO Prize for Humanitarian Services.<ref name=Deif2018>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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  • 2006: Hamdan Award for Volunteers in Humanitarian Medical Services.
  • 2006: European Society of Cardiology Gold Medal.<ref name=ESC2006>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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  • 2007: Honorary citizenships of the city of Bergamo, Italy<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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  • 2015: Lister Medal for contributions to surgical science, presented by Clare Marx, President of the Royal College of Surgeons.<ref name=ListeRCSE>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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Personal and family

He was married to Marianne and they had three children<ref name="Greenhalgh1999" /> and several grandchildren.<ref name="HeartMatters" /> During an appearance on the BBC's The Life Scientific in March 2025, he revealed that his wife had died.<ref name="bbc.co.uk">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Marianne's family was from East Germany and escaped across the Wall to Hamburg.<ref name="bbc.co.uk"/> She later moved to the UK and worked as an auxiliary nurse at the Royal Brompton Hospital, where she met Yacoub. They were married at the University of Chicago in the USA after Marianne followed him there.<ref name="bbc.co.uk"/>

Yacoub enjoys swimming, listening to classical music and growing orchids.<ref name="Baines2006" /><ref name="Jardine2005">Template:Cite news</ref>

Selected publications

Books

Articles

References

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