M.D. Nurcan Göğebakan

As a 72-year-old with sudden complete hearing loss in my right ear, I arrived at Kayseri Hospital in panic thinking I was having a stroke. Dr. Göğebakan met me in the emergency ENT department at 10 PM. Within minutes, she administered intratympanic steroid injections right there in the exam room—she explained this was a 'golden hour' situation for hearing recovery. What impressed me wasn't just her technical skill with the needle (which was painless), but how she held my hand during the procedure and called my daughter to explain everything in simple terms. My hearing returned to 80% within 48 hours. She turned what felt like an ending into a treatable event.

I brought my 4-year-old son, Ali, to Dr. Göğebakan after three different pediatricians couldn't figure out why he kept getting ear infections every month. She didn't just look in his ears—she spent 20 minutes watching him play with toys in her office, asking about his swimming habits and even what position he slept in. She discovered he had unusually narrow eustachian tubes and a mild allergy to our laundry detergent that was causing inflammation. Her treatment plan wasn't just antibiotics; it involved pillow elevation techniques and changing our detergent. It's been six months with zero infections. She treated my child like a puzzle to be solved, not just another sick kid.

My case was unusual: a chronic throat irritation that seven ENTs over three years dismissed as 'stress-related.' Dr. Göğebakan requested my old CT scans from three different hospitals and spent an hour comparing them side-by-side on her computer. She found what others missed—a tiny, calcified stylohyoid ligament pressing against my throat when I swallowed. The corrective surgery was complex because of the nerve proximity, but she narrated each step during the procedure to keep me calm under local anesthesia. Six weeks post-op, the irritation vanished completely. She's the first doctor who treated my 'invisible' pain as real anatomical evidence rather than psychological.

What started as a routine sinus checkup for my seasonal allergies turned into Dr. Göğebakan noticing a subtle asymmetry in my nasal passages during the endoscopic exam. She asked if I'd ever had facial trauma—I recalled a bicycle accident 15 years prior that seemed minor. She ordered a specific cone-beam CT that revealed an old, healed fracture displacing my nasal septum slightly. Her insight was that this old injury was causing my unexplained morning headaches due to airflow disruption during sleep. The correction was minor surgery, but her diagnostic curiosity turned a 10-minute checkup into solving a 15-year mystery. She sees what other doctors glance over.