| 64 year-old Professor Sir Magdi Yacoub has saved thousands of lives and his achievements in heart surgery, particularly as a pioneer in heart transplantation, have spanned a lifetime. He has been key to the development of heart surgery. Early life and career:
Magdi Yacoub was born in Egypt in 1935 and wanted to be a "heart doctor" ever since he was a small boy. When he was seven, his 21-year-old (youngest) aunt died of a mitral stenosis (a narrowing of the heart valve), a curable heart condition...
"She was very young, in her twenties, and I was left with the impression that she didn't need to die. This motivated me to become a heart surgeon," he says.
From that moment on Magdi Yacoub’s ambition was to do whatever he could do to alleviate the pain and misery of people with heart disease. The son of a surgeon, Sir Magdi studied at Cairo University and qualified as a doctor in 1957. He moved to Britain in 1962, and taught at Chicago University. He became a consultant cardiothoracic surgeon at Harefield Hospital in 1973. Under his leadership, Harefield Hospital became the country's leading transplant centre, performing over 200 operations a year. Magdi specialized in working with children with congenital heart defects and performed complex operations on the tiny hearts of babies in their first days of life. During this period there was an increase in post operative survival rates, a reduction in the recovery periods spent in isolation and in the financial cost of each procedure. In order to remove donor hearts he would travel thousands of miles each year in small aircraft or helicopters. Most of his patients received treatment under the National Health Service, but some private foreign patients were also treated. He was appointed professor at the National Heart and Lung Institute in 1986, and was involved in the development of the techniques of heart and heart-lung transplantation In a career spanning over four Decades, Magdi has been involved in a number of firsts. He was involved in the first UK heart transplant, performed the first UK live lobe lung transplant and the first ever domino operation, in 1986, in which one patient with failing lungs is given a new heart and lungs, with a second patient receiving the first patients fully functioning heart, in an adjoining theatre.
A 1980 patient Derrick Morris was Europe's longest surviving heart transplant recipient until his death in July 2005. Sir Magdi has always combined surgical work with scientific research, which he sees it as the key to improving patient care and ultimately eliminating heart disease. He has conducted research looking into organ rejection after transplantation and is working to produce a tissue-engineered aortic heart valve.
"Operating on patients with heart disease leads you to ask, why did this organ go wrong in the first place and what can we learn about the basic mechanisms of the heart that can help us understand heart failure better," says Magdi. "There is a massive amount of heart disease in this country and elsewhere - we are almost flooded - wouldn't it be great if we could abolish it completely or, at least, reduce the numbers of people affected. My research is driven by the search to find answers to patient's problems. The more you look into a problem, like heart failure, the more you find. Heart transplants were regarded as pie in the sky when I started out in medicine. Research is a chance to help treat the patients of the future." Sir Magdi Yacoubs work is all about helping people live longer and more fulfilling lives and describes "seeing people who are not well getting so much better" as the most satisfying part of his job. His strong sense of social responsibility led him to establish the Chain of Hope charity, which sends teams of medics to the developing world to treat children suffering from heart disease free of charge. "With all the knowledge we have scientifically, we have a responsibility to help," he says. Magdi is personally involved in the charity's missions and had just returned from Mozambique. In Prof Yacoub’s words: "Without doubt, there is no feeling in the world like seeing a child who was crippled and in pain get back on his feet, smiling, fit, playing football and going to school…Children are remarkable, they just spring back to life."
As well as treating children, the charity works to build up developing countries capacity to do operations and carry out research themselves. It helped to establish Maputo Heart Institute in Mozambique, which is training doctors and investigating how to treat EMS, a neglected heart disease. This disease affects up to 15% of children and young adults and leads to premature death. The charity also brings promising doctors from Mozambique to the UK for further training. Similarly 2 or 3 children from the developing world come to London for operations each month.
"The charity is called a Chain of Hope, because of the chain of people involved in the work we do - people donating money, people acting as host families for children and people donating their medical expertise," Magdi says. Magdi's team of 75 scientists is looking at new ways they can improve heart transplantation and repair damaged hearts. One emerging area is stem cell research. Stem cells are the master cells of the body and have the ability to develop into specific kinds of cells, such as heart cells. Magdi hopes that they can be used to help the damaged heart regenerate itself and repair its own function. Currently, his team is creating heart cells in the lab. Clinical trials will be needed before stem cells can be a part of everyday patient care, but nevertheless believes that the future for this technology "could be near".
He is also researching techniques to improve the treatment of valvular heart disease. Valves guard the entrances and exits of the two pumping chambers of the heart and a disease or damaged valve can affect the flow of blood and put extra strain on the heart. Magdi is exploring whether tissue engineering can be used to restore valve function.
Some work is also being carried out on xenotransplantation. However, Magdi has reservations about this area. "There are still ethical problems about the risk of introducing new infections, which could be very dangerous to mankind," he says. "There is a type of virus in the genome of the pig that could have a devastating impact if it crossed over to humans." Magdi is chairing a Royal Society project looking at how effective role models are in changing young people's view about science and engineering. The aim of project is to produce best practice guidelines and advice for organizations working in science education.
"I got involved in this project because I'm conscious of the fact there is massive amount of intellect that we need to look after. I know from interacting with young researchers in my own lab, how excited and enthused young people can be about science. This enthusiasm needs to be encouraged as it contributes to the intellectual power in the community." Recent work: Having retired from performing surgery in 2001 at the age of 65, Sir Magdi continues to act as a high profile consultant and ambassador for the benefits of transplant surgery. In 2006 he briefly came out of retirement to advise on a complicated procedure which required removing a transplant heart from a patient whose own heart had recovered. The patient's original heart had not been removed during transplant surgery nearly a decade earlier in the off chance it might recover. In April 2007, it was reported that a British medical research team led by Sir Magdi had grown part of a human heart valve, from stem cells, a first.
Indeed, Magdi knows first-hand how experiences early in life can make a lasting impression. He decided to become a heart surgeon as a young boy. His father was a general surgeon in Egypt and he was fascinated by the work he did.
His greatest admirers are the patients that have placed their life in his hands. In the words of one whose husband had life-saving surgery 14 years ago."Professor Yacoub and his team was the best thing that happened to us. How can we ever thank you?"
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. · Among celebrities whose lives he extended was the comedian, Eric Morecambe. · 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. Honors and awards: · 1992 knighted by HM Queen Elizabeth II · 1998 Texas Heart Institute Ray C. Fish Award for Scientific Achievement in Cardiovascular Disease · 1999 Lifetime outstanding achievement award in recognition of contribution to medicine, Secretary of State for Health (UK) · 2001 The Cleveland Clinic Foundation Heart Failure Summit : Kaufman Awardee · 2003 Golden Hippocrates International Award for Excellence in Cardiac Surgery (Moscow) · 2007 Pride of Britain - Lifetime Achievement Award · WHO Prize for Humanitarian Services · 2004 International Society for Heart & Lung Transplantation Lifetime Achievement Award · 2006 European Society of Cardiology Gold Medal · 2007 Daily Mirror Pride of Britain Lifetime Achievement Award Fellowship:Sir Magdi was made a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1999. He is currently Chair of the Role Models Project. Resources: http://www.amcoptic.com/Vita/dr_magdi_yakoub.htm http://royalsociety.org/page.asp?id=1573 www.wikipedia.com |