Transplant patient visited by mother

ANTALYA - Doğan News Agency

The mother of Turkey’s fourth face transplant patient paid a visit to her son at Akdeniz University Hospital in the Mediterranean province of Antalya yesterday, and expressed her feelings of joy and appreciation.

“It looks gorgeous. May God please both the donor and the maker,” said Necibe Çolak, who has difficulty remaining on her feet due to illness. Çolak burst into tears after seeing her son Turan Çolak’s new face for the first time and spending about 15 minutes in the intensive care unit with him, and said she was very happy.

Doctor speaks

“It was quite a brief meeting because our patient is under intensive care. He is currently attached to machines. Everything is progressing very well. It is indeed a truly beautiful and very different face when you consider [Çolak’s] original face. The family liked it very much. They were ecstatic. The mother could not hold back her tears of joy,” Assistant Professor Özlenen Özkan said.

“It is too early to say [anything]. Anything could happen at any moment. The intensive care team will decide. Everything is going very smoothly. It would be prudent to keep monitoring [the patient] and exercise caution,” Özkan said.

Meanwhile, the Health Ministry’s Composite Tissue Transplant Scientific Advisory Council concluded during a meeting yesterday that the death of Atilla Kavdır, Turkey’s first triple limb transplant patient, was the consequence of a complication arising from the transplant process. “No medical shortcomings or any negligence were identified in the patient’s treatment and monitoring,” said the council.