Sir. Magdy Yacoub
“I want to give all of my information to the youth, I do not want any need that I know, I can go with it when I die” Dr. Yacoub said in a documentary movie.
You’ve certainly heard of Dr. Magdi Yacoub, one of Egypt’s most well-known names, but do you know how and why he’s reached this level? As the world’s most prominent and accomplished transplant surgeon, Dr. Yacoub has saved countless lives and is truly one of Egypt’s national treasures.
A graduate of Cairo University, Dr. Yacoub – who is also a “Sir” after being knighted in 1992 by Queen Elizabeth II – officially qualified to become a doctor in 1957.
In 1964, Dr. Yacoub left Egypt and began his lauded career in Britain’s best and most cutting-edge hospitals. He also did a teaching stint at the University of Chicago early on in his career, but he remained primarily in the UK, which he has called his second home.
“I owe a lot to Egypt, because I was educated here and when I was in medical school, I witnessed a lot of people suffering from heart disease,” he said in an interview in Cairo last year.
In 1974, Dr. Yacoub became the first person to perform open heart surgery in Nigeria, assisted by a team of accomplished surgeons.
From 1980, Dr. Yacoub headed the Harefield Transplant Programme in London. Under his leadership, Dr. Yacoub and his team performed 1000 procedures.
In 1986, while still working at Harefield Hospital, he became a Consultant Cardiothoracic Surgeon at Royal Brompton Hospital. In the same year he was appointed as a professor of Cardiothoracic surgery at the National Heart & Lung Institute.
During his career, he supervised over 60 research students in the areas of tissue engineering, myocardial regeneration, stem cell biology, end stage heart failure, and transplant immunology.
In 1995, he founded the UK-based children's charity ‘Chain of Hope’ which treats children with correctible cardiac conditions from war-torn and developing countries. Chain of Hope has also established training and research programs in Egypt and other Middle Eastern countries.
As one of the world’s best cardio doctors, Yacoub is also known for pioneering surgical techniques that have advanced the field of medicine as a whole, including a complicated procedure for switching the heart vessels of babies born with a particular congenital heart defect.
And recently in 2007, he was part of the team which made new heart parts from human cells – a remarkable achievement.
“When I finished my training, I used to go out to Egypt with colleagues I met during my training and help them treat children with heart conditions. Heart surgery was just starting then but it was not available across the world. Then we went to South America and to Africa as a group of two of three. We realised we needed a sustainable organisation, which will survive me and so I established Chain of Hope UK”. Sir.Yacoub said in an interview.
In 2008, he established the Magdi Yacoub Heart Foundaition. The foundation was able to establish the Aswan Heart Centre in 2009 to provide free medical services for those in need.
Magdy Yacoub Heart Foundation in Aswan.
The "Magdy Yacoub Heart Foundation" in Aswan, southern Egypt, is a major breakthrough for serving heart patients, given the presence of senior doctors and researchers from different countries of the world, in addition to the task of preparing modern scientific research in heart surgeries.
Since the inauguration of the Heart Research Center in 2016, contributions of humanitarian community initiatives and support for major Egyptian and Arab companies and institutions have gone to the Magdi Yaqoub Foundation.
No doubt, Everyone wants Dr. Magdi Yacoub to be his hero because he worked hard to be a surgeon as he wanted when he was a young. He took the title of Sir and he's the first Egyptian to receive the Order of Merit. I hope for everyone to have a hero and to be in future like their hero.
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