"Fate & Release": Driver Has Heart Attack, Doctor Miraculously Right Behind Him, in Istanbul

türkçe links to original Turkish article

(Hürriyet Newspaper, 12 October 2024)

                    Sometimes you just gotta get lucky.

Selahattin Demirel (68), who lives in Istanbul, has had 4 heart

attacks but has resisted pleas to have a bypass operation out of

a fear of operations phobia.  

However (!),  when Demirel had a heart attack while driving

his car, miraculously, Dr. Şamil Gerek was driving the car 

behind him.  Dr. Gerek, who is the head doctor at Adana 

Kadirli State Hospital, just happened to be in Istanbul for a

few days.  He gave Selahattin bey a heart massage and got

him to a hospital quickly, saving his life.

Dr. Gerek persuaded Selahattin bey to have an operation.

Then, without entering the rib cage, the source of Selahattin

bey's fright, the operation was made through the underarm

by Prof. Dr. Cengiz Köksal, who explained that "with some

patients it is possible to perform a heart bypass operation

by entering the chest cavity through the underarm, rather

than by opening the rib cage, with the infection risk less

and the hospital stay reduced, as well.  Perhaps the most

important aspect is that the patient doesn't see a scar and

feels better psychologically."  

Selahattin bey is feeling pretty good these days.