M.D. İsmail Demirel

My 82-year-old father was admitted to Acibadem Maslak after a severe sepsis episode following pneumonia. Dr. Demirel's approach was unlike any we'd seen. Instead of just aggressive protocols, he spent 20 minutes explaining the 'why' behind each treatment, drawing diagrams of cytokine storms on a whiteboard for our family. He created a personalized sedation holiday schedule that allowed Dad to communicate with us daily, which was crucial for his mental state. When Dad developed an atypical reaction to an antibiotic, Dr. Demirel recognized it immediately—said the pattern 'didn't fit the puzzle'—and switched course. His team's 24/7 monitoring felt like having a guardian angel at the bedside. Dad walked out after 17 days, calling Dr. Demirel 'the professor who teaches your body how to heal.'

Our 8-year-old daughter was transferred to Dr. Demirel's unit after complications from an appendectomy turned into acute respiratory distress syndrome. What struck us was how he transformed for a child patient. He wore cartoon-themed scrubs under his white coat, brought a stuffed animal to explain how her lungs were 'taking a deep rest,' and invented a game where she 'helped' the monitors by breathing in certain patterns. When she was scared of the BiPAP mask, he didn't force it—he spent an hour letting her decorate it with stickers and demonstrating on her doll. His night nurse told us he researches pediatric critical care developments weekly despite being an adult intensivist. She recovered completely, and six months later, she still draws pictures of 'Dr. İsmail's breathing machine helpers.'

I'm a 45-year-old mountaineer who developed high-altitude cerebral edema during an expedition in the Caucasus. Evacuated to Istanbul, I woke up in Dr. Demirel's ICU disoriented and aggressive. His response was extraordinary: he recognized my delirium wasn't just medical but trauma-based. He secured permission to have my climbing gear placed where I could see it, used altitude charts instead of standard medical charts to explain my treatment, and even consulted with a specialist in wilderness medicine abroad. When I struggled with ICU psychosis, he prescribed 'viewing therapy'—ensuring my bed faced the window with a distant view of hills. His physiological explanations used climbing metaphors ('your blood is like a team without enough oxygen tanks'). This wasn't just critical care; it was critical care rebuilt around who I was as a person.

My wife's double lung transplant recovery at Acibadem Maslak took a dangerous turn when she developed graft-versus-host disease affecting multiple organs. Dr. Demirel managed what he called 'the most complex immunological puzzle' of his career. He created a color-coded, hour-by-hour intervention map that coordinated five specialties, holding 7 AM 'war room' briefings with all teams. What was unique was his transparency: he gave us access to a secure portal with daily lab trends, explained every fluctuation, and when things looked darkest, he was brutally honest yet never hopeless. He discovered a rare drug interaction that three other specialists had missed by personally reviewing every medication log back to transplant day. His innovation was a 'reverse weaning' protocol for immunosuppressants that became a case study. She survived when statistics said she wouldn't, and Dr. Demirel still checks in monthly, two years later, saying 'transplant patients are family for life.'