Prof. M.D. Ülkü Tuncer

My 82-year-old father, who has dementia, developed a severe ear infection that made him agitated and withdrawn. Dr. Ülkü Tuncer didn't just treat his ears—she treated him with extraordinary patience. She spoke slowly, showed him her instruments, and even hummed a familiar tune to calm him during examination. Her diagnosis revealed an unusual fungal complication from his hearing aids. She created a simple pictorial care sheet for his nurses. Two weeks later, she called our home personally to check on him. This wasn't just ENT care; it was compassionate geriatric medicine.

Our 5-year-old daughter had recurring tonsillitis for months. Other doctors immediately recommended surgery. Dr. Tuncer took a completely different approach. She spent 40 minutes asking about her diet, daycare environment, and even her stuffed animal's name to build trust. She discovered our daughter was secretly swallowing toothpaste instead of spitting it out, causing chronic irritation. She prescribed a simple behavioral change and a probiotic. No surgery needed. Six months later, our daughter calls her 'the princess doctor who saved my throat.' Her child-centric method was revolutionary.

I'm a professional oud player and developed sudden unilateral hearing loss before a major concert. This wasn't just a medical emergency—it was a career crisis. Dr. Tuncer, understanding the urgency, saw me within hours. What impressed me was her artistic approach: she had me play scales while she performed different examinations, noting how pitch perception changed with pressure changes. She diagnosed a rare perilymphatic fistula aggravated by instrument vibration. Her surgical repair used a graft technique she modified for musicians. Post-op, she tested my hearing with microtonal intervals specific to Turkish music. She saved both my ear and my livelihood.

As a beekeeper, I inhaled a bee that became lodged deep in my sinus cavity—a bizarre emergency. The ER called Dr. Tuncer at midnight. Instead of standard extraction, she considered the venom sac still potentially intact. Using endoscopic guidance with a custom protective sheath she devised on the spot, she removed the bee intact without rupture. But her care continued: she researched apitoxin effects on sinus tissue and monitored me for atypical inflammatory responses for weeks. She even asked thoughtful questions about my beekeeping practices for prevention. This wasn't textbook medicine; this was innovative problem-solving for the most unusual ENT case I could imagine.