The documents you must leave Istanbul with

Why it matters: This is the single document that tells your home doctor what actually happened during your stay — diagnosis, treatment given, complications (if any), and condition at discharge. Without it, your home team is working from fragments.

Where to get it: The hospital's medical-records or discharge-planning department, before you leave. Ask for it in writing, not just verbally explained.

Why it matters: The discharge summary describes the outcome; the operation note describes exactly what the surgeon did, step by step — what was found, what was removed, and any deviation from the planned procedure. Your home doctor needs both.

Where to get it: The surgical or medical-records department — this is a distinct document from the discharge summary, so ask for it by name.

Why it matters: The final pathology report (not just a preliminary one) confirms the diagnosis and staging. A release statement establishes that you're entitled to request the physical blocks or slides later, if your home team ever needs a re-review or additional testing.

Where to get it: The pathology department. See sending pathology blocks and slides abroad if a re-review is already anticipated.

Why it matters: The same DICOM-vs-written-report distinction that matters before treatment matters just as much afterward: your home radiologist needs the actual images to compare against future scans, not only the report's conclusion.

Where to get it: The imaging or radiology department — ask specifically for the DICOM files, not just a printed report.

Why it matters: Every drug, dose, and schedule you're leaving with or continuing at home — including anything your home pharmacy may not stock under the same brand name, so your home doctor can find the equivalent.

Where to get it: Your discharging physician or the hospital pharmacy, itemized rather than summarized.

Why it matters: What gets checked, and roughly when, going forward — in writing, from the team that treated you, so your home doctor has something concrete to work from rather than reconstructing a plan from memory.

Where to get it: Your treating team before discharge. See handing your records back to your home oncologist for how this plan gets used once you're home.