Sadie Purdy (UK), who was born in 1924 with a hole in her heart, had open heart surgery on 4 December 1941, aged 17. The six-hour operation of tying a valve, performed by Oswald Tubbs (UK) of St Bartholomew’s Hospital, London, UK, was still in its experimental stage, yet she took the record on 7 January 2004, 62 years 34 days later.

Oswald Tubbs developed the transventricular ‘Tubbs’ dilator.