Twenty-eight years ago, Hamide Akman made history as Akdeniz University Hospital’s first recipient of a donor heart, and today, she thrives as Türkiye’s longest-surviving heart transplant recipient, leading a healthy and active life.
Akman’s journey began in 1994, when she gave birth to her daughter without knowing she had a serious heart condition.
Soon after the delivery, she began suffering from fatigue and rapid weight loss.
Tests revealed that she was in heart failure, and she was placed on the national transplant list under the supervision of cardiovascular surgeon Professor Dr. Ömer Bayezid.
In the summer of 1998, doctors found a suitable match: The heart of a 24-year-old woman who had been declared brain-dead.
Bayezid and his team performed the transplant successfully, giving Akman a second chance at life.
“I used to think, ‘I won’t even get to see my baby,’ but now I’m watching my baby’s babies grow,” said Akman, now 55.
Akman said she continues to live independently, doing housework, spending time with her grandchildren and attending regular checkups.
“Let organs become life, not turn into soil,” she said, urging more people to consider organ donation.
Bayezid said Akman’s story stands as a testament to both medical achievement and patient discipline.
“Hamide has lived not only a long life but a high-quality one,” he said. “She has become a very harmonious patient, coming for regular checkups and paying attention to everything we say. She's now like a part of our family.”
Akdeniz University remains one of Türkiye’s main heart transplant centers, Bayezid noted, with around 1,540 patients currently on the national waiting list — nearly a quarter of them registered at the Antalya-based hospital.
Professor Dr. Ömer Özkan, director of the university’s organ transplant center, said the facility has performed over 7,000 organ transplants to date, making it one of the leading centers in Europe.
So far this year, the center has completed 13 heart transplants.
