Tom Spyt Obituary
27 April 2026
(Last updated: 27 Apr 2026 12:26)
Professor TJ Spyt, MD, FRCS (Eng,Glas), FRCS CTh, FETCS
Professor Tomasz Spyt sadly passed away on Monday 13th April 2026.
Tomasz Spyt worked as a Consultant Cardiothoracic Surgeon in the University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust from July 1988 when he joined the team at Groby Road Hospital. He moved with the cardiothoracic services to Glenfield Hospital in 1994, where he was a senior member of the Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery until he retired in 2016.
During his time at Glenfield, Tom was hardworking and enthusiastic about his clinical and academic activities. He spent many hours in the hospital involved in patient care, and was loved and respected by his patients.
Prof Spyt gained extensive experience in cardiothoracic surgery over the years, including the fields of coronary artery bypass grafting and mitral valve surgery. During that time he was driving innovation in many of the new exciting fields of cardiothoracic surgery, like off-pump coronary artery surgery, minimally invasive “keyhole” cardiac surgery, and the fasttracking of cardiothoracic patients to help improve their outcomes. He was always focussed on driving the long surgical waiting lists and improving patient throughput. His main personal cardiac surgical interest was repair of the mitral valve, a field where he was certainly one of the well-recognised pioneers in the UK and Europe at the time. He organised many hands-on mitral valve repair courses/workshops and symposia. He taught many cardiac surgical trainees, and was invited lecturer/speaker to many meetings and congresses all over the world.
Tom was also the first surgeon to perform Lung Volume Reduction surgery in Leicester in 1995 and was a founding member of the Leicester LVRS MDT when he practiced thoracic surgery.
Tom always loved research, innovation and new developments in the field of cardiothoracic medicine. He was a co-founder member, together with cardiology and anaesthesia colleagues to initiate the “Interventional Heart Team” concept in the UHL. Together with Drs Jan Kovac, Derek Chin, and Johan Bence he was part of the Heart Team who implanted the first human TAVI (percutaneous transfemoral aortic valve implantation) in the UK, at the Glenfield Hospital. That program certainly had major impact on the national profile and international standing of our hospital and Trust. Together with co-workers from Loughborough University, Tom found the “Da Vinci Biomedical Engineering Working group”, which led to many innovations and research projects and published papers. He subsequently became an Honorary Professor at Loughborough University, and in February 2007 he was also appointed as Professor of Cardiovascular Sciences to the University of Leicester.
He was the Training Programme Director of the Trent Cardiothoracic Training Programme which was one of the sought after programmes in Cardiothoracic Surgery. He was always proud of his role in the Royal College of Surgeons and his participation in the Intercollegiate Exam Board as examiner.
Tomasz Spyt has certainly contributed widely to his discipline and was involved in the healing of many sick patients with heart disease in the UHL.
Tom always showed appreciation towards the admin and nursing staff.
It is with great sadness that we say goodbye. Rest in peace Tom.
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