Turkey’s 150-year medical history is in this museum: The most emotional corner is ‘baby hearts’.

The Samsun Surgical Instruments and Health Museum, shedding light on Turkey’s 150-year medical history, features ‘baby hearts’ as the most emotional corner. The displayed hearts provide emotional moments for visitors and also offer opportunities for medical students’ scientific studies. Surgical instruments and health museum showcases Turkey’s 150-year medical history. The museum exhibits various medical materials such as stretchers, patient support products used in hospitals in the past, obstetrics, ENT and dental surgical tools. The baby organs in one corner of the museum are among the most striking exhibits. The hearts of babies who passed away at the age of 6-12 months due to neglect or pneumonia, fever, freezing, or metabolic disease in the 1980s and 1990s are donated to the museum by the Department of Anatomy of Ondokuz Mayıs University Faculty of Medicine for visitors to see. The tiny hearts touch some visitors emotionally.
“Real organs attract serious attention” Providing information about the museum, Ahmet Alp Doğru, the President of the Medical Industry Innovation Cluster Association (MEDİKÜM), said, “Our museum is a special one. It was opened in the beginning of 2022. The works in our museum belong to the Haluk Perk collection. This is a museum of health and surgical instruments. Visitors can see the approximately 150-year history and current state of medical devices and surgical instruments by visiting our museum. At the same time, very special artifacts from the War of Independence are also exhibited in our museum. We can see the medical history of Turkey in approximately a 150-year scale. In the last 6 months, around 15,000 people visited our museum.” Doğru, emphasizing that the Surgical Instruments and Health Museum is in the ‘living museum’ format, stated, “Art exhibitions are held here. Our schools present shows here. Museum concerts are held here. Especially medical companies, pharmaceutical companies, and businesses from different sectors hold monthly and weekly meetings in the meeting room here. Our museum is a popular place for both health sciences faculty students and medical faculty students. Our students find opportunities to study and socialize here. Moreover, we have the Medical Devices Anatolian Vocational High School in Samsun. It trains employees for our sector. We have a department of biomedical technician and biomedical engineering. Our students studying in these departments often visit our museum to benefit from it. Our museum attracts the interest of health sciences and medical faculty students. The artifacts and organs here also provide students with the opportunity to examine and conduct research.