Magdi Yacoub Explained

Honorific Prefix:Sir
Magdi Yacoub
Birth Date:16 November 1935
Birth Place:Bilbeis, Sharqia, Kingdom of Egypt
Profession:Surgeon
Specialism:Cardiothoracic surgery
Heart transplantation
Known For:
Education:Cairo University
Work Institutions:University of Chicago
Harefield Hospital of Imperial College London
Prizes:Order of Merit
Knight Bachelor
Order of the Nile
Spouse:Marianne Yacoub
Children:3
Citizenship:United Kingdom
Egypt

Sir Magdi Habib Yacoub (Arabic: د/مجدى حبيب يعقوب pronounced as /ˈmæɡdi ħæˈbiːb jæʕˈʔuːb/; 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.

Following retirement from the National Health Service (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 1935[1] in Bilbeis, El Sharqia, Egypt to a Coptic Christian family,[2] [3] and spent his childhood moving around a number of different small towns.[4] His father was a surgeon, who later worked in public health. 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 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”.[5] [6]

At the age of 15, he entered the University of Cairo College of Medicine with a scholarship.[4]

Early surgical career

In 1957, Yacoub graduated in medicine from Cairo University and completed two years of residencies in surgery.[4] In 1961[7] or 1962[5] he moved to Britain to study for his fellowship while working under Sir Russell Brock, consultant surgeon at Guy's Hospital.[5]

Heart valve surgery

In 1964, he was appointed rotating surgical senior registrar to the National Heart and Chest Hospitals,[8] 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.[8] [9] [10] 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.[8] [9] 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.[11] [12] 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,[12] [13] [14] [15] performed in carefully selected people.[16] 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".[8]

Later, his application for a job at the Royal Brompton Hospital was turned down.[17] In 1968, he moved to the United States[5] and the following year he became Instructor and then Assistant Professor at the University of Chicago.[4]

Harefield Hospital

In 1973, he became a consultant cardiothoracic surgeon at Harefield Hospital,[5] West London, opened in 1921 as a TB sanatorium of single storey pavilions typical for such a hospital.[18] [17] 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".[5] At Harefield, he worked closely with Rosemary Radley-Smith, consultant in paediatric cardiology.[17]

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.[19]

Arterial Switch

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).[20]

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. 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.[21]

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.[17] [22] 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 Disease Models & Mechanisms.[23]

He treated a number of politicians and celebrities throughout his surgical career, including comedian Eric Morecambe in 1979,[24] [25] Greek Prime Minister Andreas Papandreou in 1988,[26] [27] and actor Omar Sharif in 1993.[28] [29]

Later career

He retired from the National Health Service in 2001 at the age of 65.[2]

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.[30]

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.[31]

Charities

In 1995, Yacoub founded the charity Of Ahmed Sherif "Chain of Hope",[32] [33] through which he continued to operate on children,[34] and through which the provision of heart surgery for correctable heart defects are made possible in areas without specialist cardiac surgery units.[35]

He is also the head of the Magdi Yacoub Global Heart Foundation, co-founded with Ahmed Zewail and Ambassador Mohamed Shaker in 2008,[36] [37] [38] which launched the Aswan Heart project and founded the Aswan Heart Centre the following year.[39]

Honours and awards

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.[5] [57]

Selected publications

Books

Articles

External links

Notes and References

  1. Yacoub, Magdi. Curriculum Vitae: Magdi Yacoub.
  2. Web site: BAU - Beirut Arab University Honorary Doctorates. 2019. www.bau.edu.lb. Beirut Arab University. 13 November 2019.
  3. Bibi-Aisha . Wadvalla . 28 April 2011. Religious bias in Egypt's universities . Nature Middle East . 10.1038/nmiddleeast.2011.51 .
  4. 2004-01-15. Professor Sir Magdi Habib Yacoub, FRS, FRCS, FRCP, DS: a conversation with the editor *. American Journal of Cardiology. en. 93. 2. 176–192. 10.1016/j.amjcard.2003.10.003. 0002-9149. 14715343. Yacoub. M. H..
  5. Baines. Emma. 28 March 2006. Circulation: European Perspectives. Circulation. 113. 12. f45–f48. 10.1161/circ.113.12.f45. free.
  6. Bonn . D. . Magdi Yacoub: A surgeon and a scientist . 10.1016/S0140-6736(00)82027-9 . . 355 . 9202 . 474–475 . 2000 . 10841138 . 7108760 .
  7. Web site: Yacoub: Surgeon and scientist. Nainggolan. Lisa. 27 March 2003. Medscape. 3 December 2019. subscription.
  8. Tansey. EM. Reynolds. LA. September 1999. Early Heart Transplant Surgery in the UK. Wellcome Witnesses to Twentieth Century Medicine. 28. Queen Mary, University of London.
  9. Emanuel. R.. 18 May 1968. Too ill for cardiac surgery?. British Medical Journal. 2. 5602. 400–402. 0007-1447. 1985988. 5649000. 10.1136/bmj.2.5602.400.
  10. Web site: Ross procedure boosts survival for younger valve replacement candidates. Allar. Daniel. 28 August 2018. Cardiovascular Business. en. 29 November 2019.
  11. Yacoub. Magdi. El-Hamamsy. Ismail. 15 December 2014. The Ross operation in infants and children, when and how?. Heart. en. 100. 24. 1905–1906. 10.1136/heartjnl-2014-306453. 1355-6037. 25324536. 4251164.
  12. Torres. Enrique Garcia. 11 July 2012. Ross Procedure With Pulmonary Autograft Reinforcement. CTSNet. en.
  13. 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.
  14. Luciani. Giovanni Battista. Viscardi. Francesca. Pilati. Mara. Prioli. Antonia Maria. Faggian. Giuseppe. Mazzucco. Alessandro. March 2010. The Ross-Yacoub procedure for aneurysmal autograft roots: a strategy to preserve autologous pulmonary valves. The Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery. 139. 3. 536–542. 10.1016/j.jtcvs.2009.08.019. 1097-685X. 19846123. free.
  15. Book: Johns Hopkins Manual of Cardiothoracic Surgery. Yuh. David Daiho. Vricella. Luca A.. Baumgartner. William. 2012. McGraw Hill Professional. 978-0-07-181158-3. en.
  16. Book: Acton, Q. Ashton. https://books.google.com/books?id=nmqc-vVkLqkC&q=remodelling+yacoub&pg=PA107. Heart Valves—Advances in Research and Application: 2012 Edition. 2012. ScholarlyEditions. 978-1-4649-9868-3. 107. en. 1. Aortic Valve.
  17. Alivizatos. Peter A.. 24 January 2019. Sir Magdi H. Yacoub, the Leonardo da Vinci of cardiac surgery. Proceedings (Baylor University. Medical Center). 32. 1. 146–151. 10.1080/08998280.2018.1532247. 0899-8280. 6442908. 30956614.
  18. Web site: Hospitals in England and Wales: Buildings, equipment and staff. Photographs, 194- .
  19. John C. Eze, Ndubueze Ezemba, Open-Heart Surgery in Nigeria Indications and Challenges, Tex. Heart Inst. J. 2007; 34(1): 8–10.
  20. Sarris. George E.. Balmer. Christian. Bonou. Pipina. Comas. Juan V.. da Cruz. Eduardo. Chiara. Luca Di. Di Donato. Roberto M.. Fragata. José. Jokinen. Tuula Eero. Kirvassilis. George. Lytrivi. Irene. 1 January 2017. Clinical guidelines for the management of patients with transposition of the great arteries with intact ventricular septum. European Journal of Cardio-Thoracic Surgery. en. 51. 1. e1–e32. 10.1093/ejcts/ezw360. 28077506. 1010-7940. free.
  21. News: Brit sets new record for longest surviving heart transplant patient. https://web.archive.org/web/20131224231003/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/10537129/Brit-sets-new-record-for-longest-surviving-heart-transplant-patient.html. dead. 24 December 2013. Prynne. Miranda. 24 December 2013. The Daily Telegraph. 19 September 2014. United Kingdom.
  22. Burke . K. . Overseas talent can help us build a better NHS, says Magdi Yacoub . British Medical Journal (Clinical Research Ed.) . 324 . 7337 . 565c–565 . 2002 . 11884312 . 1122503. 10.1136/bmj.324.7337.565/c.
  23. Rosenthal . N. . Taking translational research to heart: An interview with Sir Magdi Yacoub . 10.1242/dmm.004176 . . 2 . 9–10 . 433–435 . 2009 . 19726801 . free .
  24. Web site: Eric Morecambe Biography . Biography Online. en-GB. 30 November 2019.
  25. Web site: Bob Golding's life as Eric Morecambe. Young. Graham. 2010-05-21. birminghampost. 30 November 2019.
  26. News: Nation waits as Papandreou weakens. 29 November 1995. The Independent. 24 November 2019. en-GB.
  27. Web site: Surgeon in bid to save ailing leader British doctor says Papandreou still has chance. HeraldScotland. December 1995 . en. 24 November 2019.
  28. Web site: What we do. Chain of Hope. en. 2018-03-17.
  29. Web site: How we met: Omar Sharif & Magdi Yacoub. Greenhalgh. Victoria. 19 December 1999. The Independent. en. 29 November 2019.
  30. News: Revolutionary heart op for girl. 13 April 2006. Health. 23 November 2007. BBC News.
  31. News: British team grows human heart valve from stem cells. Jha. Alok. 2 April 2007. The Guardian. 23 November 2007. London.
  32. Dunning. Joel. 3 January 2012. Professor Sir Magdi Yacoub. CTSNet. en.
  33. Kirby. Tony. 2010-08-14. ESC tackles child congenital heart disease in poor countries. The Lancet. en. 376. 9740. 501–502. 10.1016/S0140-6736(10)61236-6. 0140-6736. 20722098. 35352013.
  34. Web site: Magdi Yacoub on his life at the cutting edge of heart surgery. www.bhf.org.uk. en. 14 November 2019.
  35. Web site: Andrew Fisher on Magdi Yacoub: The icon at the heart of UK organ transplantation. Fisher. Andrew. 6 June 2018. British Medical Journal. en-US. 7 December 2019.
  36. Web site: Home - Aswan Heart Center. aswanheartcentre.com. en-gb. 18 November 2019.
  37. Yacoub. Magdi. Ferrari. Roberto. October 2013. The Aswan Heart Centre project. European Heart Journal. 34. 37. 2857–2858. 1522-9645. 24224187.
  38. Web site: Magdi Yacoub Heart Foundation. Magdi Yacoub Heart Foundation. 29 November 2019.
  39. Web site: Magdi Yacoub Global Heart Foundation Advanced Cardiac Care to all people in need. Magdi Yacoub Global Heart Foundation. en-US. 30 November 2019.
  40. Book: Pyke, David. Pyke's Notes. 1992. Royal College of Physicians. 1873240465. Location. 193. en.
  41. 2008. Texas Heart Institute Medal and the Ray C. Fish Award for Scientific Achievement in Cardiovascular Diseases. Texas Heart Institute Journal. 35. 4. 383–384. 0730-2347. 2607096. 19156228.
  42. Group. British Medical Journal Publishing. 29 January 2009. Lifetime Achievement Award shortlist: Professor Sir Magdi Habib Yacoub. British Medical Journal. en. 338. b282. 10.1136/bmj.b282. 220110110. 0959-8138.
  43. Web site: Telemed foundation, Telemed Foundation News and Events. telemedfoundation.org. 2019-11-27.
  44. Web site: Sir Magdi Yacoub: Egypt's king of hearts - Health - Life & Style. Deif. Ingy. 11 March 2018. Ahram Online. en. 2019-12-03.
  45. Web site: ISHLT: The International Society for Heart & Lung Transplantation - 2004 Recipient. ishlt.org. 23 November 2019.
  46. Web site: Top recognition for cardiology experts at World Congress of Cardiology Imperial News Imperial College London. 13 October 2006. Imperial News. en. 24 November 2019. SW7 2AZ. London.
  47. Web site: Sir Magdi Yacoub - Pride of Britain Awards. www.prideofbritain.com. 28 November 2019.
  48. http://www.comune.bergamo.it/upload/bergamo_ecm8/gestionedocumentale/cittadinanzeonorarie_5912.xls From the municipality of Bergamo website
  49. April 2008. IACS Medal of Merit. The Canadian Journal of Cardiology. 24. 4. 256. 0828-282X. 2644028.
  50. Web site: Opening Ceremony. World Heart Federation Congress. 3 December 2019.
  51. Web site: ACCEL: In Search of Excellence. O’Gara. Patrick T.. 15 November 2012. American College of Cardiology. 21 November 2019.
  52. Web site: Professor Sir Magdi Yacoub wins prestigious Lister Medal. 17 June 2015. Royal College of Surgeons. en. 21 November 2019.
  53. Web site: Khalaf Ahmad Al Habtoor Honours Professor Sir Magdi Yacoub with The Khalaf Ahmad Al Habtoor Achievement Award. 30 May 2019. www.habtoor.com. en-US. 24 November 2019.
  54. Web site: Khalaf Ahmad Al Habtoor Achievement Award (KAHAA) honoured Professor Sir Magdi Yacoub (full video). 29 May 2019. www.khalafalhabtoor.net. en-US.
  55. Web site: Khalaf Ahmad Al Habtoor honors Egyptian surgeon Magdi Yacoub . 2 June 2019. www.arabnews.com. en-US.
  56. http://www.buckingham.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/Sir-Magdi-Yacoub.pdf Presentation speech for Sir Magdi Yacoub for the honorary degree of Doctor of Medicine of the University honoris causa
  57. News: 'Can't we fit in another patient?'. Jardine. Cassandra. Daily Telegraph. 17 November 2005. 26 November 2019. en-GB. 0307-1235.

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