Prof. M.D. Memet Özek

My 82-year-old mother, Ayşe, developed sudden confusion and weakness on her left side. The local hospital said it was just aging. We brought her to Acıbadem Altunizade as a last resort. Dr. Özek didn't just glance at the scans—he spent forty minutes with us, drawing the blood vessels in her brain on a notepad. He explained she had a chronic subdural hematoma that was slowly compressing her brain. He performed a minimally invasive procedure the next morning. No big incision, just a small burr hole. She was calling me by name that evening. He visited her three times daily, even adjusting her pillow himself. We didn't find a surgeon; we found a guardian.

Our 7-year-old son, Deniz, kept stumbling and complaining of 'morning headaches.' After months of pediatrician visits, an MRI revealed a posterior fossa tumor near his brainstem. The world collapsed. Dr. Özek met us in his office with a model of a child's brain. He didn't use scary medical terms; he called the tumor 'an unwelcome guest' and explained his plan to 'invite it to leave' without disturbing the 'neighbors' (critical nerves). The 11-hour surgery felt like a lifetime. Dr. Özek emerged, not with triumphant pride, but with quiet focus, saying, 'The guest is gone. Now we help Deniz recover.' His follow-up has been relentless—coordinating with physiotherapists, checking on school reintegration. Deniz now draws pictures of 'Dr. Memet' with a superhero cape.

I'm a 45-year-old marathon runner. The debilitating trigeminal neuralgia started as a twinge and became electric shocks in my face. I couldn't eat or speak. Medications turned me into a zombie. Dr. Özek proposed MVD surgery—moving a blood vessel off my trigeminal nerve. What struck me was his collaborative approach. He brought in a senior vascular neurologist to map my vessels pre-op and used intraoperative neuromonitoring. He said, 'We are not just cutting; we are micro-sculpting.' Post-op, the pain was gone. At my one-month check, he was more interested in my gait and balance recovery than the surgical site. 'The brain is the conductor,' he said, 'my job is to fix the instrument so you can play your symphony again.' Profound.

Routine checkup? Not quite. I had a small, stable meningioma found incidentally 5 years ago. Every year, a different doctor would say 'just watch it.' Dr. Özek, during my first consultation, did something unprecedented. He loaded all my annual MRIs into a special fusion software, not just looking at them side-by-side. He showed me a 3D model of how the tumor's blood supply had subtly increased. 'It's whispering now,' he said. 'We should listen.' He recommended a targeted pre-operative embolization followed by surgery, reducing blood loss risk. The procedure was textbook. His detailed, almost artistic approach to a 'routine' surveillance case prevented what could have been a much more complicated surgery later. He doesn't just treat problems; he intercepts futures.