© Peter Rigaud/laif
Heart specialist Dr. Dilek Gürsoy
April 6, 2026
Nike Emich
Medical pioneer Dr. Dilek Gürsoy talks about healing touches, advances in artificial heart implantation, glass ceilings, and a very personal clinic.
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She was the first woman in Europe in 20212 to replace a human heart with a total artificial heart. And at the latest since Dr. Dilek Gürsoy was awarded as "Physician of the Year" in 2019, she is also by far the best-known German heart surgeon.
Gürsoy has already recounted her unusual career path from child of guest workers to the top of this royal discipline in her book "I am here because I am good". Now she wants to open a private clinic. open. And as is often the case with pioneers – especially female pioneers in male-dominated fields – there are not only glass ceilings to break through but also many prejudices to overcome, especially when it comes to financing such a venture.
"If I've learned anything from the many conversations with banks over the past months, it's that I either do it alone or not at all. I don't want to have an investor on board who ends up interfering with the medical direction."
How far along are the preparations for your clinic?
I have already found the right property in Mönchengladbach. I founded the company at the beginning of the year. The whole thing is supposed to be financed primarily through crowdfunding. I'm also in talks with several lending institutions.
But these conversations are still tough. Many can't imagine a woman as an entrepreneur of a private clinic. No surprise, since there aren't any yet. Others fear I'm planning a one-woman show, even though I've already gathered a great team of specialists around me. It's exhausting.
Maybe you just come across as too confident? After all, your biography is titled: "I'm here because I'm good." Does that scare men?
I've never participated in typical power games. Neither at the operating table, where it's about the pole position next to the professor, nor in the female variant of voluntary self-exploitation. It's a fact that women are the better surgeons – simply because they know their limits.
And fortunately, there are now also more female chief physicians in the surgical field at university hospitals. But all 78 clinics in Germany are mainly led by men. However, it's not about having a certain title or being the first everywhere. I don't need that for my ego.
But as a woman, I want to have this opportunity, and above all, I want to help patients and portrait patients to be operated on as best as possible and to be allowed to make the necessary decisions themselves. Because I love my job and have many innovative ideas.
How many hearts have you already implanted?
You have to distinguish between human hearts and total artificial hearts. These are two separate clinical areas. I am mainly at home in the artificial heart area. I have certainly implanted thirty total artificial hearts in humans.
That sounds like a small number, but it is incredibly much. With the left heart support systems, where the actual heart remains in the body and a pump is inserted into the left or right ventricle, I've done over a hundred if you count the animal experiments.
Currently, research is focusing mainly on mutated pig hearts because there are still too few organ donations. What do you think about that?
That's not entirely new. There have also been experiments with baboon hearts. For me, any type of research that deals with alternatives to organ donations is important and correct.
However, I think that artificial heart research is much further advanced – and would be even further – if we had the funding that is rightly invested in xenotransplantation. In the field of artificial heart research, we are much further along and could make great progress with the help of AI in the foreseeable future. But unfortunately, there is currently no funding for this, especially in Germany.
Could it also be because most people don't want a loudly pumping, heavy machine instead of their heart? Somehow the heart is sacred...
That's always a matter of perspective. If I'm terminally ill and there's no hope for a donor heart, most people are very happy about such an alternative. Even if it's just to bridge the time until the actual transplant.
At first, it doesn't matter that the drive weighs several kilos and the cables end outside the chest. But that's exactly what needs further scientific work to make this machine smaller and quieter, and as fully implantable as possible. The fact is, however, that at the moment only two total artificial heart systems are approved in the world.
The American and French models. For a while, there was no alternative to the human heart, just the mentioned support system of the Americans. It's a drama. That's why I'm also researching abroad in a team on sheep to develop a new total artificial heart. I firmly believe that this will advance humanity.
Why sheep in particular?
Abroad, there is a particularly large breed that brings ideal conditions. However, the investors demand that the sheep continue to live with the artificial heart for ninety days after implantation. We haven't achieved that yet, mainly because the animals have a different metabolism and cannot tolerate high doses of anesthesia.
They have to be woken up half an hour after the operation and practically walk around freshly operated, including an external pump. It's all hard to control. A human sleeps for 24 to 48 hours at first and recovers for a few days after such a major intervention. Nevertheless, I am convinced that it will work if we have the necessary financial resources.
What would be different in your clinic than in large hospitals?
For one thing, my patients would get everything from a single source – almost like family. At our place, a well-coordinated team of specialists, from the OR nurse to the anesthesiologist, from the assistant doctor to the cleaning staff, and from the initial consultation to aftercare, takes care of those affected. We would offer everything from prevention to surgical care under one roof.
It should not be divided into exclusive knowledge, hierarchies, and only partially assumed responsibility. That harms quality and healing. Above all, I personally look after my patients around the clock.
I am not a surgeon who just operates and goes home, but I stay by the bedside, observe the tubes myself, and talk to the relatives. I believe my secret to success is that I guide people back to life.
Is empathy your greatest healing power?
Empathy and the enthusiasm with which I care for my patients. It might sound like a cliché, but I really try to touch people's hearts. I notice it in personal conversations with patients who have just had a heart attack, who are insecure, who may be crying.
They benefit from the closeness I can build, and it gives them new courage. There are many good surgeons, but at the end of the day, it's about taking away the fear of those affected and gaining their trust. In return, my patients have always taken care of me, recommended me, and supported me. In the end, I am where I am today because of them too.
What role does your background play?
My mother was and still is my greatest supporter. My Turkish family always believed in me. I am a working-class child—my mother worked on the assembly line, in shifts. And yet I learned ambition and gratitude from her, to be able to achieve something myself and to want to.
That's why you probably know no class prejudices either?
Especially here, where it's a matter of life and death, only the person counts. I treat the guest worker with the same respect as the CEO. I am well aware that in a private clinic, I also rely on some patients to pay more due to their insurance than others.
Will you immediately also perform artificial heart surgeries in your facility?
No, at the beginning we offer the usual cardiological examinations, conventional heart surgeries and similar procedures. However, artificial heart research will take up a large part in our marketing, and I have already planned collaborations for the future.
Above all, we want to be state of the art in every area. I am fully committed to artificial intelligencewhen it comes to bureaucracy and contemporary treatment methods. From the digital patient record to touchscreens in every room. Also for the patients themselves, so they can get an idea of the treatment or findings.
I talk to many small start-ups in the health sector to integrate them if necessary. And I'm not afraid of Instagram either. I want to break up the crustiness of heart surgery and inform people on all platforms and via social media.
My employees are not only allowed to post, they are even expressly encouraged to do so. Of course, within a tight ethical framework. This is part of modern enlightenment. And only in this way can more people be convinced to donate their organs.
© Peter Rigaud/laif
"For a while, there was no alternative to the human heart," said Dr. Dilek Gürsoy.
