Turkish haematologist-oncologist offers free consultation to patients in Lahore

LAHORE: Turkish haematologist-oncologist, Professor Dr Muge Gundogdu has arrived in Lahore on a two-day visit and examined thalassemia and cancer patients at a local hotel, ARY News reported on Saturday.

Dr Muge Gundogdu, a paediatric haematology and oncology specialist, has visited Lahore and examined patients with thalassemia, cancer, haemophilia and sickle cell anaemia patients at PC Hotel, Lahore.

She visited Lahore to conduct free medical checkups for patients suffering from severe diseases. The Turkish specialist paid a visit to Lahore to share her medical experiences with the Pakistani doctors who are treating children suffering from thalassemia and other blood diseases.

While talking to ARY News, Dr Gündoğdu said that she is a paediatric haematologist and working in the field for 15 years. There is an exemplary friendship between Pakistan and Turkey, she added.

“Today, I have visited several patients and all of them need to undergo bone marrow transplantation. Pakistan needs to establish a bank for bone marrow transplantation for those patients who do not have donors.”

The Turkish doctor said, “We have a national bank of [bone marrow] donors in our country [Turkey]. If we face a shortage of donors, we can also contact Europe to overcome the shortage.”

“There are a large number of thalassemia major patients here and in Turkey due to cousin marriages. Pakistani government needs to formulate a policy for cousin marriages besides making it mandatory to undergo screening before marriage.”

Prof. Müge Gündoğdu is a renowned haematologist-oncologist of Memorial Bahçelievler Hospital in Istanbul who conducted more than 500 successful surgeries of paediatric bone marrow transplantation with a success rate of over 90 per cent.

Over 12,000 cases of haemophilia, thalassemia and other blood diseases are reported in Pakistan every year and the majority of them need to undergo bone marrow transplantation.