M.D. Yelda Başbuğ

My 82-year-old father, a retired shipyard welder with 60 years of smoking history, was admitted to Acibadem Kartal with severe COPD exacerbation and suspected lung nodules. Dr. Yelda Başbuğ approached his case like a historical detective—she didn't just look at his CT scans; she asked about the types of metals he worked with, the ventilation in the old shipyards, even the brand of cigarettes he smoked in the 1960s. Her diagnosis was astonishingly precise: she identified rare occupational lung changes superimposed on his COPD and ruled out malignancy without invasive procedures. She created a personalized pulmonary rehab plan that considered his arthritic hands for inhaler use. Six months later, he's tending his tomato plants again. She treated the whole life, not just the lungs.

Our 7-year-old daughter developed a mysterious persistent cough after what seemed like a mild cold. Three pediatricians called it 'post-viral' and prescribed endless syrups. Dr. Başbuğ did something remarkable during the consultation at Acibadem Kartal—she got down on the floor with my daughter and her stuffed rabbit, listening to her lungs while they 'played doctor.' She noticed the cough only happened when my daughter spoke in long sentences. Through gentle questioning disguised as storytelling, she discovered our daughter had been secretly swallowing small toy parts months earlier. The subsequent bronchoscopy revealed and removed a tiny plastic bead lodged near a bronchus. Her approach was so child-centric it felt like magic. The cough vanished completely.

I arrived at the emergency department at 3 AM with sudden pleuritic chest pain and breathlessness—a previously healthy 38-year-old marathon runner. The junior doctors suspected pulmonary embolism, but Dr. Başbuğ, who was called in, observed something others missed: the precise timing of my pain with breathing cycles and a subtle sound during a specific exhalation maneuver. She hypothesized spontaneous pneumothorax but ordered a unique protocol: a dynamic ultrasound rather than immediate CT. She was right. Her minimally invasive needle aspiration procedure was done with such precision I was awake the entire time, watching the screen as my lung re-expanded. She explained every step using running analogies ('We're just letting some trapped air off the course'). Back to training in three weeks with monitoring strategies she designed for athletes.

As a 54-year-old with stable sarcoidosis for years, I came for a routine follow-up expecting the usual five-minute check. Dr. Başbuğ spent forty minutes reviewing not just my lungs but my life patterns. She noticed from my previous notes that my seasonal flare-ups coincided with Istanbul's specific humidity spikes, something no one had connected. She developed a personalized 'weather-aware' medication adjustment plan and taught me breathing techniques for high-humidity days. More remarkably, she identified early signs of pulmonary hypertension through subtle changes in my exercise tolerance that I'd attributed to aging. Her early intervention with targeted therapy has preserved my lung function. She doesn't just manage disease; she reads the unique language of each patient's body over time.