M.D. Rasim Farajov

I'm a 72-year-old retired teacher who had been living with a painful inguinal hernia for nearly a year, terrified of surgery at my age. Dr. Farajov didn't just see me as another case; he spent 40 minutes with my daughter and me, drawing diagrams on his notepad to explain the laparoscopic procedure in simple Turkish. What struck me was how he asked about my daily walks by the Kordon—he tailored the surgery plan to get me back to my seaside routine faster. The surgery was seamless, and his follow-up call the next evening made me feel like his only patient. At Acibadem Izmir, he turned my fear into confidence.

Our 8-year-old son, Deniz, needed an emergency appendectomy during our family vacation in Izmir. As panicked parents from Ankara, we were lost in an unfamiliar city. Dr. Rasim Farajov met us in the ER at 11 PM with astonishing calm. He knelt to talk directly to Deniz about 'removing the tiny troublemaker' and showed him the surgical robot on a tablet. His ability to blend cutting-edge technology with profound human warmth was extraordinary. Deniz now says he wants to be a surgeon 'like Dr. Rasim.' This wasn't just medical care; it was a traumatic experience transformed into a story of bravery for our child.

As a 45-year-old chef, my gallbladder attacks were destroying my career—the pain would strike right during dinner service. Dr. Farajov proposed a single-incision laparoscopic surgery I'd never heard of. He was brutally honest about the technical challenges given my previous abdominal surgery, but his confidence was grounded in precision, not ego. The result? A scar hidden in my navel and a return to my kitchen in 5 days. At my follow-up, he asked detailed questions about my ability to handle heavy pots and stand for long hours. He treats the whole life, not just the organ.

I presented with what seemed like routine reflux, but Dr. Farajov's meticulous palpation during a checkup detected a subtle mass others had missed. The subsequent diagnosis of a rare GIST tumor was devastating. He constructed a multidisciplinary plan involving oncology and gastroenterology, but remained the unwavering captain of my care. Before my complex resection surgery, he said, 'We will be careful like archaeologists preserving history,' acknowledging my fear of losing part of my stomach. Two years later, I'm cancer-free. His genius lies in combining a detective's intuition with an artist's skill in the operating room.