The 2011 Medical & Healthcare Winner - Exstent

Like most clichés, the one about necessity being the mother of invention is often overused. But in the case of Tal Golesworthy, a process engineer who designed and developed his own life-saving implant and then commercialised the device through his own start-up company, it couldn’t be more apt.

Golesworthy suffers from Marfan Syndrome, an inherited disorder affecting around 12,000 people in the UK that can cause the aorta, the main arterial conduit from the heart, to dilate and ultimately rupture. In 2000 he was told that the aortic root in his heart had expanded to 4.8cm and was in danger of splitting. He had two choices: undergo surgery to insert a mechanical valve or risk a sudden and fatal heart attack.

The traditional treatment for the condition – Bentall surgery – involves removing the damaged section of the valve and replacing it with a graft and a mechanical valve. The procedure takes around five hours, involves a heart-lung bypass and requires the patient to be placed on a life-long course of the blood-thinning drug Warfarin.