Fake doctor arrested after one year on duty

TEKİRDAĞ

A woman who introduced herself as a practicing physician in a state hospital in the northwestern province of Tekirdağ for about a year has been arrested after it was revealed that she was a fake doctor.

Ayşe Özkiraz, who is understood to have practiced medicine with a fake diploma, was arrested after other doctors in the hospital suspected and complained.

Sharing many photos while so-called performing surgery on her social media accounts, Özkiraz lied to those around her about many issues, including her age.

In her statements to the prosecutor’s office, though she told the doctors that she was 25 years old, she was actually 20 years old.

She also told everyone that she graduated from Çapa Medicine Faculty ranking first in class.

“When I was a high school student, my parents wanted me to study in a medical school. They thought I would get a high score. But I did not get a good enough score to get into medical school,” Özkiraz explained.

In order not to shake her family’s trust in her, Özkiraz told her mother, stepfather and half-siblings that she had won the Çapa Medical School.

“When my family wanted to see the exam result document, I prepared a fake exam result document and showed it to my family,” she stated.

Özkiraz, who settled in a dormitory in Istanbul and introduced herself as a medical student, printed a fake student ID card and spent time at the faculty.

She stated that one day, her mother fell ill and was taken to a state hospital in Tekirdağ, adding that she lied to those in that hospital that she was a doctor.

Spending time in the hospital for the last one year, Özkiraz stated that she never treated patients despite wearing a gown and a stethoscope.

“Over time, I gained the love and trust of the doctors in the hospital. A chief physician, whom I said I wanted to become a pediatric surgeon, even included me in an operation. During the surgery, he told me, ‘come on, you stitch the wound,’” she stated.

During the investigations in Özkiraz’s house, fake personnel ID cards belonging to different hospitals in Ankara and Tekirdağ, fake student cards, intern doctor cards and a plaque showing that Özkiraz graduated from a medical faculty in the first place were found.