You Are Great, My Türkiye

You Are Great, My Türkiye

You Are Great, My Türkiye: Born and raised in Lebanon, he took out general health insurance as a Turkish citizen and regained his health through a liver transplant without spending a single kuruş

Sevim Haj (37), who went from İzmir to Beirut, the capital of Lebanon, as a bride 18 years ago, headed straight back to her homeland when her son Samer (17) was diagnosed with liver failure. Thanks to the general health insurance that Mrs. Haj paid to the SGK as a Turkish citizen, her son Samer's liver transplant took place without paying a single kuruş. Mrs. Haj said: “My country, my state, is very great. I owe my son's recovery to my homeland, Türkiye.”
HE HAD BEATEN BLOOD CANCER
Housewife Sevim Haj, while living with her family in İzmir, went to Beirut in 1999 to marry her paternal uncle's son Semir Haj (49), to whom she had been betrothed since the cradle. Noting that her uncle's history in Beirut goes back 50 years, Sevim Haj said she had a happy marriage with her cousin Semir Haj and that they had two children. Noting that her husband works as a cook, that Samer is 17 and their daughter Sebine has turned 12, Sevim Haj said her son was diagnosed with blood cancer at the age of 6. Noting that her son received chemotherapy for 5 years and beat the disease, but that their lives were turned upside down again when he began vomiting blood in January this year, the mother, Mrs. Haj, said:
“My son had caught the blood cancer called ALL, and we got through it. But this time we faced a different illness. After he vomited blood, they discharged my son after treatment at the emergency department of the hospital we went to. They told us to bring him again if the same thing happened. But the very next day I took my son to a gastroenterology specialist. He had variceal bleeding, and he was diagnosed with liver failure. And there they said he needed a transplant. These operations are not performed in Lebanon, and we did not know what to do. On the advice of the Lebanese doctors we came to Kent Hospital in İzmir. Tests were done, and Assoc. Prof. Dr. Murat Kılıç's decision was the same as that of his Lebanese colleagues. It was determined that I could be the donor. Although I live in Lebanon, thanks to the rights I have as a Turkish citizen, the doors of healing opened for my son. Thanks to the general health insurance we had taken out, my son's transplant operation took place without paying a single kuruş. I thank the Lebanese doctors very much for guiding us in the right direction without losing time. I also thank Assoc. Prof. Dr. Murat Kılıç, who performed the transplant, and his team very much. But my greatest thanks, my gratitude, goes to my country, my state. My country, my state, is very great. I owe my son's recovery to my homeland, Türkiye. My son began a new life thanks to my homeland.”
Meanwhile, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Murat Kılıç, Head of the Liver Transplantation Department at İzmir Kent Hospital, noting that both Samer Haj, into whom they transplanted liver tissue taken from Sevim Haj, and his mother are in good health and have been discharged, said: “We had to perform a transplant on Samer because of liver cirrhosis of unknown cause, called cryptogenic. The mother being a suitable donor bought us time. Samer is also very lucky to have found the chance of a transplant under SGK coverage without paying any fee.”