Mehmet Haberal

Mehmet Haberal
Nationality	Turkey

Mehmet Haberal, MD, FACS (Hon), FICS (Hon), FASA (Hon)

In 1975, Mehmet Haberal performed the first living-related kidney transplant in Turkey. Alongside his active career in organ transplantation and burn treatment, he was an early participant in the move to create private non-profit higher education institutions in Turkey by establishing Başkent University. Though established in Ankara, the university is known throughout the country for its medical school, hospitals, outpatient clinics, and dialysis centers.

Haberal was born on October 29, 1944, in Pazar, Rize Province, Turkey. Surgeon and professor of Surgery, he trained at Ankara University in Turkey. He completed his fellowship in burns at the Shriners Burn Institute and John Sealy Hospital in Galveston, Texas (1973) before training under Prof. Thomas Starzl at the Colorado University Medical School Transplantation Center, Denver (Jan. 1974 – June 1975). He then returned to Turkey where he inaugurated the field of organ transplantation in the country.

In addition to Turkey’s very first kidney transplant in 1975, Professor Haberal’s transplantation firsts include the following:

On being certified in general surgery in 1971, Haberal was appointed Assistant Professor at Hacettepe University in Ankara, where he also became Associate Professor in 1976 and full professor in 1982.

In 1993, under the aegis of the Turkish Organ Transplantation and Burn Foundation and the Haberal Education Foundation, he founded the non-profit Başkent University in Ankara and served as its first rector. The university has not only established hospitals and a physical therapy and rehabilitation center in various neighborhoods in Ankara, but also hospitals, outpatient clinics and dialysis centers in several other cities, including Adana, Alanya, Iskenderun, Istanbul, Izmir, Konya, Şanliurfa, Tokat, Yalova, and Zonguldak.

Başkent University Ayşe Abla Colleges (pre-school through high school) have been opened in Ankara (1999) and Adana (2000).

Haberal's scientific society participation includes:

Haberal played a prominent role in the enactment of Turkish Law 2238 (June 3, 1979), which established regulations for the harvesting, storage, grafting and transplantation of organs and tissues. Later, Law 2594 was also passed (January 21, 1982), which made the harvesting of organs from people who have died in traffic accidents or natural disasters possible, without consent in cases where the next-of-kin could not be contacted.

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