M.D. Oktay Şahin

My 8-year-old son, Ali, was complaining of strange chest flutters during soccer practice. Most pediatricians dismissed it as 'growing pains,' but Dr. Şahin at Kent Medical Center Bayraklı took it seriously from the moment we walked in. He has this incredible way with children—he showed Ali the ultrasound screen, calling his heart 'a little superhero engine.' He diagnosed a minor but significant arrhythmia that others had missed. His treatment plan involved careful monitoring and adjusted activity, not just medication. Ali now calls him 'the heart wizard.' We traveled from Antalya for this consultation, and it was worth every kilometer.

I'm a 42-year-old marathon runner, and during a routine checkup, Dr. Şahin noticed an anomaly in my ECG that my previous cardiologist had labeled an 'athlete's heart variant.' He wasn't satisfied. He ordered a specific, advanced stress echocardiogram that revealed early-stage hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, a condition I had no symptoms for. His approach was a masterclass in proactive care. He didn't just say 'stop running.' He collaborated with a sports physician to design a new, safe training regimen for me. He explained the complex electrophysiology using simple analogies about electrical circuits. He didn't just save my life; he saved my passion with careful, scientific precision.

My 91-year-old mother, Gülseren, was admitted through the emergency department with severe fluid retention and breathlessness. Other doctors saw a frail, elderly woman with a long list of medications. Dr. Şahin saw a person. In the emergency room, amidst the chaos, he knelt by her gurney, held her hand, and spoke directly to her. He untangled her complex medication list like a detective, identifying a harmful interaction between drugs prescribed by different specialists. He didn't just adjust her heart failure meds; he became her care coordinator. His follow-up is relentless—his assistant calls us weekly to check her weight. He treats her with a respect that has given her a new will to fight. It's not just cardiology; it's profound humanity.

I was the 'complex surgery' case. A rare congenital defect in my coronary artery required a high-risk, hybrid procedure—part catheterization, part minimally invasive surgery. Dr. Şahin didn't just present the option; he spent an hour with me and my wife drawing the anatomy on a whiteboard, explaining the risks of surgery versus the risks of doing nothing in stark, honest detail. He assembled the team himself, bringing in a specific vascular surgeon from another city he trusted. The day of the procedure, his calm was contagious. My follow-up visits are meticulous; he reviews every data point from my implantable monitor. He doesn't say 'the surgery was a success, goodbye.' He says, 'Now we enter the most important phase: monitoring and optimizing your new pathway.' He is an architect, building a long-term plan, not just a technician fixing a pipe.