M.D. Mustafa Demir

I'm a 78-year-old retired teacher who had been struggling with increasingly blurred vision for years. Cataracts had made reading my beloved books impossible. Dr. Demir didn't just see me as another elderly patient; he spent an hour explaining the femtosecond laser cataract procedure in terms I could understand, even drawing diagrams. The surgery at Acibadem Atakent was painless, and when he removed the bandage the next day, I cried seeing the vivid colors of the flowers in his office. He called me personally two nights later to check if I was comfortable with my new multifocal lens. This wasn't just medical care; it was the restoration of my favorite pastime.

Our 8-year-old son developed a sudden, severe squint overnight after a fever. Panicked, we rushed to Acibadem Atakent's emergency department. Dr. Demir met us there at 10 PM, his calm demeanor immediately settling our fears. He discovered it was a rare case of accommodative spasm, not a neurological issue. Instead of invasive tests, he used a simple diagnostic drop and prism test. He knelt to eye-level with our son, explaining the 'eye muscles just got a little too excited' and made him laugh. The treatment was conservative - just special glasses. At our follow-up, he remembered our son's soccer team name and asked about his last game. We felt cared for as a family, not just patients.

As a graphic designer, my career depended on precise vision. I developed a complex macular pucker in my dominant eye that three other surgeons called 'too risky to operate.' Dr. Demir reviewed my OCT scans for 45 minutes, then proposed a combined vitrectomy with internal limiting membrane peeling using 27-gauge micro-incisions. What impressed me was his collaborative approach - he showed me simulation videos of the procedure and discussed potential outcomes realistically. The surgery itself was meticulous; I was awake but completely comfortable. Six months later, my visual acuity improved from 20/80 to 20/25. He still emails me every few months to check if my color perception (crucial for my work) remains optimal. This was precision medicine at its finest.

I visited Dr. Demir for what I thought was a routine contact lens prescription renewal. During the examination, he noticed subtle changes in my peripheral retina that I hadn't mentioned because they seemed insignificant - occasional 'sparkles' in my left vision. He immediately performed ultra-widefield retinal imaging and discovered a lattice degeneration with early retinal thinning. 'We caught this just in time,' he explained, showing me the vulnerable areas. He performed preventive laser barricade treatment the same week. What could have become a retinal detachment requiring emergency surgery was prevented in a 20-minute procedure. His thoroughness turned a routine checkup into vision-saving intervention. He didn't just write a prescription; he truly examined me.