Turkey to Help Pakistani Patients Get Organ Transplants and Other Treatments

Turkey will facilitate Pakistani patients to get organs transplanted and other treatments in its hospitals.

This was revealed by two renowned doctors from Turkey’s Acibadem hospitals, which provide free consultations to Pakistani patients for congenital heart defects (CHD) and liver diseases. The doctors believed that there is huge potential for medical tourism between the two countries.

After this initiative, a large number of patients, who wanted to go to India for a number of treatments including organ transplant, have got an option to go to Turkey for the surgeries and transplants, Turkish doctors said.

According to the details shared by the doctors, “Not only patients can come to us but they can also contact us through emails and social media to get advice for the treatments and how they can mitigate their sufferings. Their reports will be thoroughly examined and they would be advised regarding different options of treatment,” said Professor of Oncology Dr Ozlem Er from Acibadem hospital in Turkey.

Acibadem healthcare is a leading group of healthcare facilities founded in 2007 and located in Istanbul, Turkey.

Dr Ozlem while talking to media, said that early detection of disease is the key for successful treatment. A session titled “Cooperation between Pakistan and Turkey” was held from 5th to 8th October in Istanbul to guide patients and doctors from Pakistan about how they would be facilitated during their stay while getting treatment.

India has been a popular destination amongst Pakistani patients looking for liver transplants and other surgeries but they have been suffering due to an unannounced ban on medical tourism by India.

Professor Dr Hamdi Karakayali, a transplantation surgeon from Acibadem hospital, said that in Turkish hospitals, 845 liver transplants have been conducted with a success rate of 90 percent.

“In 80 percent transplants a living donor had donated a part of liver to a patient. However in 20 percent cases we got the liver from dead bodies as the adeceased had already mentioned in their wills that they would donate body organs after death,” he said.