Prof. MD. Kursat Karadayi

I was a terrified 72-year-old with a strangulated umbilical hernia that three other surgeons deemed too risky due to my COPD and heart history. Prof. Karadayi didn't see a risk; he saw a person in agony. He spent an hour with my family, explaining a modified laparoscopic approach he'd pioneered for high-risk cases. The surgery was flawless. But what stays with me is his post-op ritual: every morning for a week, he personally checked my incision at 7 AM, not a nurse. He'd sit and ask about my life in the village I grew up in. He didn't just fix my hernia; he treated my fear. At ISU Medical Park, they have a technician of rare human skill.

Our 8-year-old son, Ali, had a mysterious abdominal mass that appeared overnight. The pediatricians were baffled. Prof. Karadayi met us in the ER, still in his street clothes, he'd been called from home. He got on the floor with Ali, showed him cartoons on his phone, and palpated his belly while Ali was distracted. His diagnosis of an omental cyst was instantaneous. He scheduled surgery for the next morning but first, he took Ali to the hospital playroom and explained the procedure using teddy bears and a marker. The scar is tiny, hidden. Ali now says he wants to be 'a fixer like the bear doctor.' For turning our nightmare into a story of courage, we are forever indebted.

Mine was not a dramatic emergency, but a decade of silent suffering from gallstones. I'd seen many doctors for the intermittent pain. Prof. Karadayi, during a routine consultation for a different matter, noticed me wince. He asked three precise questions, then said, 'We are scheduling surgery next Thursday. Your gallbladder is a time bomb.' His certainty was unnerving. The surgery was robotic, and I was home in 24 hours. The follow-up was what shocked me: a video call two days later, then a handwritten note in the mail a week after that, asking if my recovery was comfortable. He treats routine cases with the vigilance of emergencies. It’s a profound respect for patient comfort that is now extinct.

As a 45-year-old chef, my hands are my life. A necrotizing fasciitis infection in my forearm after a minor burn at work spread horrifically fast. In the ICU, Prof. Karadayi laid out the brutal truth: extensive debridement, possible amputation. His eyes were grave but his voice was steady. 'We will fight for every millimeter,' he said. The surgery was a 6-hour marathon. He performed a complex flap reconstruction using tissue from my thigh, a procedure he mapped out on a tablet for me to see. For two months, he met me every other day for wound care, adjusting the plan microscopically. Today, I have full function and a scar that tells a story of salvation. He didn't just save my arm; he saved my identity. This man is an artist who works in flesh and hope.