Mehmet Öz visits American field hospital in Türkiye’s quake-hit Hatay province

Renowned Turkish-American heart surgeon Mehmet Öz on Saturday visited a field hospital of the U.S.-based Samaritan's Purse humanitarian aid organization in Türkiye's quake-hit Hatay province.

Öz, who was accompanied by cardiovascular surgeon Halit Yerebakan from Istanbul, toured the field hospital which has 52 beds, a pharmacy and two operating rooms.

He spoke with health professionals regarding the situation in the province and got information about the operations of the field hospital.

According to the organization, it has 93 disaster response specialists on the ground in Türkiye, with more traveling to the area in the coming days.

The field hospital, which began its operations on Monday, is located in the parking lot of a 1,100-bed Hatay Training and Research Hospital, which is no longer functional due to the earthquake.

Samaritan's Purse doctors and nurses treated dozens of patients in the first hours of the operation, the aid organization said.

Earlier, Öz and Yerebakan also visited the Mustafa Kemal University Research and Application Hospital and met with hospitalized survivors of the recent massive earthquakes.

At least 40,642 people were killed in two powerful earthquakes that rocked southern Türkiye on Feb. 6, according to the latest official figures.

The magnitude 7.7 and 7.6 earthquakes, centered in the Kahramanmaraş province, affected more than 13 million people across 11 provinces, including Adana, Adıyaman, Diyarbakır, Gaziantep, Hatay, Kilis, Malatya, Osmaniye, Elazığ and Şanlıurfa.