Magdi Habib Yacoub was born on 16 November 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] 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[5] 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”.

[6] In 1964, he was appointed rotating surgical senior registrar to the National Heart and Chest Hospitals,[9] where he worked with cardiothoracic surgeon Donald Ross.

[9][10][11] 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?".

[12][13] 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,[13][14][15][16] performed in carefully selected people.

[17] 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".

[27] He treated a number of politicians and celebrities throughout his surgical career, including comedian Eric Morecambe in 1979,[28][29] Greek Prime Minister Andreas Papandreou in 1988,[30][31] and actor Omar Sharif in 1993.

[2][34] 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.