Magdi Yacoub in 25th anniversary of the transplant programme

Description: Professor Sir Magdi Yacoub talks to Mike Parry about his work at the "25th anniversary celebration of the transplant programme".

Sir Magdi Habib Yacoub FRS (born 16 November 1935 in Belbis, Egypt), is Professor of Cardiothoracic Surgery at Imperial College London. He was involved in the first UK heart transplant in 1980, carried out the first UK live lobe lung transplant and went on to perform more transplants than any other surgeon in the world. A 1980 patient Derrick Morris, was Europe's longest surviving heart transplant recipient until his death in July 2008.

The son of a surgeon, Sir Magdi studied at Cairo University and qualified as a doctor in 1957. He reportedly said he decided to specialise in heart surgery after an aunt died of heart disease in her early 20s. He moved to Britain in 1962, then taught at The University of Chicago. He became a consultant cardiothoracic surgeon at Harefield Hospital in 1973. The Harefield transplant programme. Under his leadership, the Harefield Hospital transplant programme began in 1980 and by the end of the decade he and his team had performed 1000 of the procedures and Harefield Hospital had become the leading UK transplant centre. 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.

SOURCE: WIKIPEDIA (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magdi_Yacoub)