Surgeon Dilek Gürsoy Has Become the First Woman in Europe to Replace a Heart with an Artificial One

Cardiac surgeon Dr. med. Dilek Gürsoy is a member of the herCAREER community, participating as a speaker at the Expo and as a podcast and interview partner. Recently, Süddeutsche Zeitung (€) interviewed her.

“Dilek Gürsoy has become the first woman in Europe to replace a heart with an artificial one. She finds it anachronistic that terminally ill patients still have to wait for donor organs, as she explains at a café in the Düsseldorf clinic, where she will soon no longer be the head physician. She plans to open her own clinic.”

As a “guest worker’s child with a doctorate and one of the few women in the male-dominated field of cardiac surgery” (*SZ*), Gürsoy aims to be a “role model for young people with migrant backgrounds,” as she says herself. However, it has been particularly challenging for her as a woman: “I used to think that the glass ceiling didn’t exist. I’m good at what I do, and I’ll get ahead. But then I did encounter the glass ceiling.”

Nevertheless, she persevered. “I do something that I enjoy, something that I chose for myself, even though I knew it would be difficult. I have suffered, but I always thought: Why should I give up something that I really want to do?”

Gürsoy confirms that women are generally better surgeons. “Women are more conscientious; they make the first skin incision more carefully than men. They also open the ribs more gently after cutting through the sternum. And, above all, they ask for help when they need it. It’s all the more disheartening that many women give up in their mid-30s because they can’t advance in their careers. Yet, especially female patients need female surgeons. Their tissue is different—much finer and more delicate.”

From her experience, Gürsoy knows many physical differences and specific characteristics among various population groups that need to be considered in medicine. She emphasizes the importance of gender-sensitive medicine as well as “migrant medicine.” Because, as she states: “Medicine for everyone—it’s not that simple.”