Death Caused by Medical Negligence in Turkey: Rights of Foreign Families

The death of a patient following medical treatment is one of the most serious situations that can arise in healthcare.

For a foreign family, the situation can be even more difficult.

A patient may have travelled from the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Ireland, the United States, Canada, Australia, a Gulf country or another jurisdiction to receive medical treatment in Turkey.

The patient may have undergone cosmetic surgery, bariatric surgery, dental treatment, a transplant-related procedure, orthopaedic surgery, cancer treatment or another medical intervention.

A serious complication may then develop.

The patient may die in the Turkish hospital or after returning to his or her home country.

The family may be thousands of kilometres away from the healthcare institution and may have only limited information about what happened.

This naturally raises difficult questions.

Can the family sue a Turkish hospital for a patient’s death?

Can a husband, wife, child or parent claim compensation?

Can the family recover funeral expenses?

What is compensation for loss of financial support?

Can relatives claim compensation for their grief and suffering?

Does it matter whether the hospital was private or public?

Can a criminal investigation be started against the doctor?

What happens if the hospital says the death was caused by a recognised complication?

Can a foreign family obtain the deceased patient’s medical records?

Can legal proceedings be started without the relatives travelling repeatedly to Turkey?

Depending on the facts, Turkish law may provide several different remedies.

A death connected with medical negligence can potentially result in civil or administrative compensation proceedings, criminal investigation, professional or regulatory proceedings and, in some international medical tourism cases, examination of the responsibility of medical tourism intermediary companies.

However, the fact that a patient died after medical treatment does not automatically establish malpractice.

The fundamental legal issue is whether legally attributable negligence, defective treatment, inadequate monitoring, delayed diagnosis, poor complication management, inadequate informed consent or another breach caused or materially contributed to the death.

This article explains the principal rights available to foreign families following a death allegedly caused by medical negligence in Turkey.

Can a Foreign Family Sue After a Patient Dies in Turkey?

Potentially, yes.

Foreign nationality does not prevent relatives from pursuing compensation where the legal requirements of liability are satisfied.

Turkish law expressly regulates the financial consequences of death caused by a legally compensable act.

Article 53 of the Turkish Code of Obligations provides that losses resulting from death include funeral expenses, treatment expenses and working-capacity losses where death was not immediate, and losses suffered by persons who have been deprived of the deceased’s financial support.

Article 56 separately permits an appropriate award of non-material compensation to relatives of a deceased person.

Accordingly, a fatal medical malpractice case can involve several different categories of compensation rather than a single fixed “death payment.”

The value and availability of each claim depend on the family relationship, financial circumstances, medical evidence and legal responsibility.

Death After Treatment Does Not Automatically Prove Medical Malpractice

A patient can die despite receiving medically appropriate treatment.

Some diseases and procedures carry substantial unavoidable risks.

The court must therefore distinguish between:

a death resulting from the natural course of a serious illness,

an unavoidable medical complication,

and a death caused or worsened by legally attributable medical negligence.

Potential medical negligence may involve matters such as delayed diagnosis, surgical error, anaesthesia error, inadequate patient monitoring, medication error, premature discharge, failure to recognise deterioration, delayed emergency intervention or failure to manage a known complication appropriately.

The central question is normally whether the healthcare professionals and institution complied with the medical and legal standard of care and whether a breach had a causal connection with the patient’s death.

This frequently requires detailed expert medical evidence.

A “Known Complication” Does Not Automatically End the Case

Families often receive a short explanation from the hospital:

“The patient died because of a complication.”

That may be medically relevant, but it is not necessarily a complete legal answer.

The investigation should also examine whether the complication was properly anticipated, whether reasonable precautions were taken, whether warning signs were recognised, whether the patient’s deterioration was monitored correctly and whether appropriate treatment was provided quickly enough.

A complication may itself be unavoidable while the failure to diagnose or manage the complication may still constitute negligent care.

For example, postoperative bleeding may be a recognised risk.

But if the patient’s vital signs showed serious deterioration for several hours and no appropriate intervention took place, the legal question may concern the management of the bleeding rather than its original occurrence.

The same reasoning can apply to infection, embolism, leakage after gastrointestinal surgery, respiratory deterioration or other serious postoperative events.

The Right to Life Requires an Effective Examination of Alleged Medical Negligence

Fatal medical-negligence cases also have a constitutional dimension in Turkey.

Article 17 of the Turkish Constitution protects the right to life.

In recent decisions, the Constitutional Court has continued to examine cases in which relatives alleged that deaths resulted from medical negligence and that subsequent judicial proceedings failed to investigate the allegations effectively.

For example, in a decision dated 28 January 2026, the Constitutional Court found a violation of the procedural aspect of the right to life in an application concerning a full-remedy action arising from an alleged medically negligent death.

The Court reached similar procedural right-to-life violation findings in additional medical-negligence death cases during 2025 and 2026.

These decisions do not mean that every alleged malpractice death constitutes a substantive violation.

They instead underline an important principle: credible allegations that a death resulted from deficient healthcare must be examined through an effective process capable of clarifying what happened.

Foreign Patients Are Also Protected

The fact that the deceased was a foreign national does not remove these protections.

A particularly relevant Constitutional Court decision from 18 November 2025 involved the death of a Syrian national who had been brought to Turkey for medical treatment.

The application concerned allegations of medical negligence and the effectiveness of the proceedings against healthcare personnel.

This is important for international families because it demonstrates that foreign nationality does not, by itself, prevent Turkish constitutional and judicial mechanisms from examining allegations concerning a patient’s death.

What Compensation Can a Foreign Family Claim?

Turkish Code of Obligations Article 53 provides the principal statutory categories of financial loss following death.

The provision expressly includes funeral expenses, treatment expenses and working-capacity losses where death was not immediate, and losses suffered by persons deprived of the deceased’s support.

These categories should be analysed separately.

Funeral Expenses

Reasonable funeral expenses can form part of a death-related damages claim under Article 53.

For a foreign family, funeral-related costs may be more complicated than in an ordinary domestic case.

Depending on the circumstances, expenses may include costs directly connected with funeral arrangements and handling the deceased’s remains.

If the patient dies in Turkey and the body must be returned to another country, families should preserve documentation concerning any repatriation-related expenditure that they intend to include in the claim.

The recoverability of individual items depends on causation, reasonableness and proof.

Invoices and payment records should therefore be retained.

Medical Expenses Before Death

A patient may not die immediately.

There may be a period of intensive-care treatment, emergency intervention, corrective surgery or other healthcare between the negligent act and death.

Article 53 expressly includes treatment expenses where death does not occur immediately.

Accordingly, a fatal malpractice claim may include medical expenses incurred before death where the necessary causal relationship is established.

This can be particularly relevant where the patient deteriorates after returning home and receives emergency treatment in another country before dying.

The family should preserve all hospital bills, specialist reports, medication expenses and medical records from both Turkey and the patient’s home country.

What Is Loss of Support Compensation?

One of the most important heads of damages after death is known in Turkish law as destekten yoksun kalma tazminatı, or compensation for deprivation of support.

Article 53 expressly provides compensation for persons who suffer financial loss because they have been deprived of the deceased’s support.

The purpose is not to put a financial value on human life.

It is to compensate the economic loss suffered by a person who would probably have continued to receive financial or material support from the deceased if the death had not occurred.

This can be extremely important where the deceased was the principal income earner in the family.

Who Can Claim Loss of Support?

A common misconception is that only legal heirs can claim loss-of-support compensation.

That is not the rule.

Turkish Court of Cassation jurisprudence treats a support-loss claim as an independent right belonging directly to the person who has lost the support, rather than a right inherited from the deceased.

The Court of Cassation’s General Assembly of Civil Chambers reaffirmed in a 2024 decision that a legal or contractual maintenance obligation, inheritance status or even a family relationship is not necessarily required; what matters is an actual and regular relationship of material support that would probably have continued had the death not occurred.

Therefore, possible claimants can commonly include a spouse, children or parents, but entitlement must be assessed according to the actual support relationship.

In an appropriate case, a person outside the formal class of heirs might also be able to establish that he or she was genuinely and regularly supported by the deceased.

Conversely, merely being an heir does not automatically prove the amount of support loss.

How Is Loss of Support Calculated?

Loss-of-support compensation is generally calculated using financial and actuarial evidence.

The court may examine the deceased’s age, income, occupation, probable working life, the claimant’s relationship with the deceased, the degree of financial support, household circumstances and other legally relevant factors.

Article 55 of the Turkish Code of Obligations requires support-loss damages to be calculated according to the Code and general principles of liability law.

For foreign families, reliable evidence of the deceased’s income is particularly important.

A person who worked in London, Berlin, Amsterdam or Dubai may have earned considerably more than average Turkish income.

If the family seeks compensation based on the deceased’s actual foreign earnings, those earnings should be documented properly.

Useful evidence may include employment contracts, payslips, income-tax returns, company accounts, bank records and employer confirmation.

What If the Deceased Was Self-Employed?

Support-loss claims involving business owners or self-employed professionals can be more complex.

The family’s lawyer may need to distinguish between the person’s own labour income and income that would have continued to arise from ownership of assets or businesses even after death.

Tax returns, company accounts, invoices and other accounting evidence can therefore become critical.

The objective is to establish the probable financial support that the deceased would actually have provided to the claimant had the death not occurred.

What If the Deceased Was Not Working?

The absence of employment does not necessarily mean that there can never be a support claim.

Support is not always limited to formal salary payments.

Depending on the case, actual contributions to the family and reasonably expected future support may be relevant.

However, such claims require evidence and should not be assumed automatically.

Can Parents Claim for the Death of an Adult Child?

Potentially.

Parents may have a claim for non-material compensation as close relatives.

A support-loss claim is a separate question and depends upon whether actual or reasonably expected financial support from the child can be established.

Court of Cassation jurisprudence emphasises the factual character of the support relationship rather than relying exclusively on inheritance or formal legal obligations.

Can Children Claim Compensation for the Death of a Parent?

Potentially, yes.

Where a child loses a parent who would have provided continuing financial support, the child’s deprivation of support can constitute a major element of damages under Article 53.

The calculation may take into account the child’s age and probable duration of support, together with the deceased parent’s financial circumstances.

The loss may be substantial where a young parent dies leaving young children.

Moral Compensation for Grief and Suffering

Financial support is only one part of a fatal malpractice case.

Article 56 of the Turkish Code of Obligations separately allows a court to award an appropriate amount of non-material compensation to the relatives of a deceased person.

This compensation addresses the non-financial consequences of the death.

It is not calculated according to the deceased’s salary.

The court instead evaluates the circumstances of the incident and the relationship between the deceased and claimant.

Close family relationships are especially relevant.

A spouse, child or parent may therefore potentially have both:

a financial support-loss claim under Article 53, and

a separate non-material compensation claim under Article 56.

The two should not be confused.

Can a Relative Claim Moral Compensation Without Financial Dependency?

Potentially, yes.

This is one of the most important distinctions.

A person may be emotionally very close to the deceased but not financially dependent upon him or her.

Such a person may not establish a support-loss claim, but could still potentially qualify as a “relative” for non-material compensation under Article 56 depending on the circumstances.

Financial dependency and emotional closeness are therefore separate legal questions.

Private Hospital or Public Hospital: The Distinction Is Critical

One of the first questions a lawyer must ask after a fatal medical incident in Turkey is:

Was the treatment provided by a private healthcare institution or by a public hospital?

The answer can fundamentally change the procedure.

Death in a Private Hospital

Claims against private hospitals and private healthcare providers are generally handled within the civil-law system.

Depending upon the contractual relationship, consumer law may also apply.

Turkish Consumer Protection Law provides that Consumer Courts have jurisdiction over disputes arising from consumer transactions and consumer practices, and Article 73/A generally makes mediation a precondition before filing Consumer Court litigation, subject to statutory exceptions.

A fatal private-hospital case may involve responsibility of the hospital, treating doctor or other healthcare providers depending on their roles and the legal basis of liability.

The case should be structured only after reviewing the hospital’s legal entity, medical records, contractual documents and circumstances of treatment.

Death in a Public Hospital

A death allegedly caused by deficient treatment in a Turkish state hospital follows a different path.

Public healthcare claims generally fall within administrative jurisdiction and may require a full-remedy action, or tam yargı davası, against the responsible administration.

Article 13 of the Administrative Procedure Law No. 2577 requires persons whose rights have been infringed by an administrative act to make a prior application to the relevant administration within one year from learning of the act and, in any event, within five years from the act.

If the application is rejected, or no answer is received within thirty days, the judicial filing period becomes relevant.

These deadlines can be especially dangerous for foreign families who may spend months dealing with grief, repatriation arrangements and foreign medical authorities before seeking Turkish legal advice.

Do Not Assume Every University Hospital Has the Same Status

The words “university hospital” do not by themselves determine the correct court.

The legal status of the institution must be established.

A public university hospital and a healthcare institution operating within a private foundation structure can raise different jurisdictional issues.

The precise hospital entity should therefore be identified before proceedings begin.

Can There Be a Criminal Investigation?

Yes, depending on the circumstances.

A death caused by negligent conduct may potentially fall within the scope of Article 85 of the Turkish Criminal Code concerning negligent homicide.

The current provision states that causing the death of another person through negligence can constitute a criminal offence.

Medical deaths are not automatically criminal cases.

A poor medical outcome or recognised complication does not by itself prove criminal negligence.

The criminal investigation will need to determine issues such as the professional duty of care, alleged breach, causation and individual responsibility.

The family can report suspected medical negligence to the competent public prosecutor where the circumstances justify criminal investigation.

Does a Criminal Case Replace the Compensation Case?

No.

Criminal responsibility and compensation responsibility are separate issues.

Turkish Code of Obligations Article 74 expressly provides that a civil judge is not automatically bound by the criminal-law assessment of fault or by an acquittal when deciding civil liability.

Accordingly, the absence of a criminal conviction does not necessarily mean that no compensation claim can exist.

The evidentiary and legal standards differ.

A family should therefore avoid assuming:

“The doctor was not convicted, so we cannot claim damages.”

That conclusion may be incorrect.

Should an Autopsy Be Performed?

In some fatal medical cases, an autopsy can become extremely important.

The need depends on the circumstances.

Questions concerning cause of death may be difficult to answer later if no adequate post-mortem examination was performed and medical records are incomplete.

Where death is unexpected and medical negligence is suspected, the family should obtain urgent legal advice concerning preservation of evidence and the appropriate forensic process.

The family should not rely solely on a short verbal explanation from the hospital.

Medical Records Are Critical Evidence

Fatal medical negligence cases are almost impossible to evaluate properly without detailed records.

Relevant documentation can include one comprehensive collection of: admission and emergency records, consultation notes, medical history, laboratory results, CT/MRI/ultrasound records, informed-consent forms, anaesthesia documents, surgical records, nursing observations, medication charts, intensive-care records, vital-sign monitoring, consultation requests, pathology reports, discharge records, resuscitation records, death certificate, autopsy or forensic documentation, invoices, WhatsApp or email communications and any subsequent medical records created after transfer to another institution.

These records help reconstruct what happened and when.

In a fatal case, the timeline can be decisive.

For example, the difference between a complication being identified at 10:00 and at 18:00 may determine whether delayed intervention contributed to death.

What If the Hospital Does Not Provide the Records?

A refusal should not simply be accepted.

Formal steps can be taken to request and preserve medical documentation.

Missing records can themselves become significant where information that should normally have been maintained is unavailable.

The Constitutional Court has repeatedly emphasised the importance of effective investigation and adequate judicial examination in medical-negligence death cases. Recent 2025 and 2026 decisions found procedural violations of the right to life where the examination of alleged medical negligence was inadequate.

For this reason, families should request records early and preserve proof of those requests.

Informed Consent Can Matter Even in a Fatal Case

Informed consent is not relevant only to cosmetic or non-fatal malpractice.

It can also become important where a patient dies following a high-risk medical procedure.

The investigation may need to examine whether the patient was properly informed about significant risks and reasonable alternatives.

For a foreign patient, language is particularly important.

Questions may include whether the patient could understand the documents, whether an interpreter was provided, whether the risks were explained orally and whether sufficient time was provided to make a meaningful decision.

Failure to obtain adequate informed consent is legally distinct from technical surgical negligence.

International Medical Tourism Adds Another Layer of Responsibility

Since 26 April 2025, international health tourism in Turkey has been governed by the new International Health Tourism and Tourist Health Regulation, which replaced the earlier 2017 framework.

The Regulation covers healthcare institutions and intermediary organisations serving people who travel from abroad to Turkey for healthcare, subject to specified exclusions.

This means that where a foreign patient dies following treatment arranged as part of a medical-tourism package, the legal analysis should not necessarily stop with the surgeon.

The healthcare institution, medical tourism intermediary and other parties involved should be identified and their respective services examined.

Can a Medical Tourism Intermediary Be Relevant?

Potentially.

A foreign patient may have purchased an entire package through a company that arranged the doctor, hospital, transport, hotel and translation.

That company’s responsibility will depend on the role it actually assumed.

The 2025 Regulation specifically regulates both healthcare facilities and intermediary organisations and creates an authorisation and supervisory framework for international medical tourism.

Therefore, contracts, invoices, advertisements, WhatsApp communications and payment records should be examined to determine which organisation undertook which obligations.

What About Complication Insurance?

The 2025 International Health Tourism Regulation introduced a complication-insurance requirement for qualifying surgical and interventional procedures performed in an operating-room environment within international health tourism.

Existing healthcare facilities were required to comply with this requirement by 31 December 2025.

Accordingly, where a qualifying procedure was carried out during 2026 and later resulted in serious complications and death, the existence and scope of complication insurance may need to be investigated.

Insurance coverage should not be assumed.

The policy and the particular event must be examined.

How Long Does the Family Have to Bring a Claim?

There is no single limitation period for every medical-negligence death case.

The applicable deadline depends on the legal basis and healthcare provider.

For tort-based compensation claims, Article 72 of the Turkish Code of Obligations generally provides a two-year limitation period from when the claimant learns of the damage and person responsible and an ultimate ten-year period from the wrongful act. Where the conduct constitutes a criminal offence subject to a longer criminal limitation period, the longer period may apply.

Contractual claims can follow different limitation rules.

Public-hospital claims are subject to the separate administrative application framework under Article 13 of the Administrative Procedure Law.

Families should therefore avoid trying to determine the deadline merely from a general internet search.

The hospital type and legal theory must first be identified.

Does Talking to the Hospital Stop the Deadline?

Do not assume so.

A hospital may say:

“We are investigating internally.”

“Our insurance company will contact you.”

“We will make an offer.”

“Please give us another month.”

Informal discussions do not necessarily suspend or preserve all limitation periods.

Foreign families should obtain independent advice even if negotiations are continuing.

Can a Foreign Family Start Proceedings Without Coming to Turkey?

Often, substantial parts of the process may be handled through a Turkish lawyer.

Family members living abroad may generally issue an appropriate power of attorney through a Turkish consulate or, depending on the country and applicable formalities, through a local notarial procedure followed by apostille/legalisation and translation.

An authorised lawyer may then potentially obtain documents, identify healthcare entities, make formal applications, participate in mediation where required, file compensation proceedings and follow criminal or administrative processes.

Whether the family’s personal attendance is later required depends on the particular case.

What Documents Should the Family Preserve?

The family should preserve medical records and also evidence concerning the deceased’s financial and family circumstances.

Particularly important documents may include proof of the deceased’s income, employment or business records, marriage and birth records showing family relationships, proof of actual financial support, funeral and repatriation invoices, treatment expenses incurred before death and correspondence with the hospital or medical tourism company.

For foreign families, these records may need certified translation or other formal processing for use in Turkish proceedings.

Obtaining them shortly after the death is usually easier than trying to reconstruct the evidence years later.

What Should a Foreign Family Do Immediately?

The first stage should be preservation of information rather than making assumptions about liability.

The family should identify the exact healthcare institution and doctors, request the complete medical record, preserve communications and payment documents, obtain the death and forensic documentation, investigate whether an autopsy or additional forensic assessment is required, establish whether the hospital was private or public and identify the applicable legal deadlines.

Where the deceased was the family’s financial provider, income and dependency evidence should also be collected immediately.

The family should avoid signing a settlement, release or waiver before the potential support-loss claim, moral compensation and other damages have been properly assessed.

Frequently Asked Questions About Death Caused by Medical Negligence in Turkey

Can a British family sue a Turkish hospital after a relative dies?

Potentially, yes. British nationality does not prevent an appropriate Turkish compensation claim where medical liability can be established.

Can we sue after returning to the UK?

Potentially, yes. The fact that the family is outside Turkey does not automatically prevent proceedings from being initiated through authorised Turkish counsel.

What compensation can a family claim?

Depending on the circumstances, Article 53 permits claims including funeral expenses, certain treatment-related losses before death and loss-of-support damages. Article 56 allows appropriate non-material compensation to relatives.

What is loss of support compensation?

It is compensation for the financial support the claimant would probably have continued receiving from the deceased had the death not occurred.

Do I have to be an heir to claim loss of support?

Not necessarily. Court of Cassation jurisprudence treats the support-loss claim as an independent right based on actual or reasonably expected regular support rather than inheritance status alone.

Can children claim for the death of a parent?

Potentially, yes, particularly where the deceased parent would have continued financially supporting the child.

Can parents claim for an adult child’s death?

Potentially. Moral compensation and support-loss compensation must be evaluated separately.

Can the spouse claim even if he or she has a job?

Potentially. Having independent income does not by itself answer whether the deceased also provided financial support. The actual household circumstances should be examined.

Can relatives claim compensation for grief even if they were not financially dependent?

Potentially. Non-material compensation under Article 56 is distinct from financial support-loss compensation.

Can a criminal complaint be made against the doctor?

Potentially. Where negligent conduct is alleged to have caused death, Article 85 of the Turkish Criminal Code concerning negligent homicide may become relevant.

Does an acquittal automatically prevent compensation?

No. Article 74 of the Turkish Code of Obligations provides that the civil judge is not automatically bound by the criminal-law evaluation of fault or by an acquittal.

What if the hospital says the death was a complication?

That does not automatically resolve liability. The occurrence and management of the complication, informed consent and causation should still be examined.

Can we sue a state hospital?

Potentially, but the procedure normally falls within administrative law and may require a prior application under Article 13 of the Administrative Procedure Law.

Can we sue a private hospital?

Potentially. The case will generally follow civil-law procedures and may fall within the consumer-law system depending on the treatment relationship.

Is mediation required?

Where a private healthcare dispute falls within Consumer Court jurisdiction, pre-litigation mediation is generally a condition of action under Article 73/A, subject to statutory exceptions.

Can we claim funeral and repatriation expenses?

Funeral expenses are expressly recognised under Article 53. Other related costs should be evaluated individually for reasonableness and causal connection.

What if the patient died after returning home?

A claim can still potentially arise where the necessary causal link between the treatment in Turkey and the later death can be medically established.

Conclusion: Foreign Families May Have Significant Legal Rights After a Medical Negligence Death in Turkey

The death of a family member after medical treatment is not simply a medical event.

Where negligence may have contributed to the death, Turkish law can provide significant legal remedies to the deceased patient’s family.

Article 53 of the Turkish Code of Obligations expressly recognises financial losses resulting from death, including funeral expenses, relevant treatment-related losses and compensation for persons deprived of the deceased’s support.

Article 56 separately permits non-material compensation for relatives of the deceased.

These rights can be particularly important where the deceased was a young parent or the primary financial provider of the household.

Support-loss compensation is not merely an inheritance claim.

Court of Cassation jurisprudence makes clear that it is an independent right of the person who actually loses financial support, and inheritance or even formal kinship is not necessarily decisive.

At the same time, the family must establish more than the fact that death occurred after treatment.

The central legal questions are:

What caused the patient’s death?

Was the treatment medically appropriate?

Was a serious complication recognised and managed correctly?

Was there a delay in treatment?

Was the patient monitored adequately?

Was informed consent properly obtained?

Did the acts or omissions of the doctor or healthcare institution cause or materially contribute to the death?

Was the treatment provided by a private or public hospital?

Was a medical tourism intermediary involved?

Who has suffered financial loss because of the death?

Which relatives have independent claims for non-material compensation?

The distinction between private and public healthcare institutions is particularly important.

Private-hospital disputes may involve civil and consumer-law remedies, including mandatory mediation where the dispute falls within Consumer Court jurisdiction.

Public-hospital cases usually require compliance with administrative-law procedures and strict preliminary application deadlines under Article 13 of the Administrative Procedure Law.

A criminal investigation can also exist alongside the compensation proceedings where the circumstances potentially amount to negligent homicide under Article 85 of the Turkish Criminal Code.

However, criminal and compensation liability remain legally distinct.

Medical records and forensic evidence are therefore critical.

The family’s first objective should usually be to preserve the complete treatment history, reconstruct the medical timeline and obtain independent expert analysis.

Recent Constitutional Court jurisprudence reinforces the importance of effective examination of alleged medical-negligence deaths. During 2025 and 2026 the Court issued multiple decisions finding violations of the procedural aspect of the right to life in cases concerning alleged deaths caused by deficient medical care and the way those allegations were examined.

The international character of the case does not remove these protections.

Turkey’s Constitutional Court has itself considered medical-negligence allegations concerning a foreign national brought to Turkey for treatment.

International health tourism also operates under a strengthened regulatory framework following the International Health Tourism and Tourist Health Regulation of 26 April 2025, which governs healthcare facilities and intermediary organisations serving international patients.

Foreign families should therefore not assume that they have no remedy simply because the deceased patient was not Turkish or because the family has already returned home.

Depending on the circumstances, Turkish legal counsel may investigate the hospital, obtain medical records, assess the role of healthcare and intermediary organisations, pursue compensation, initiate the required administrative or mediation procedures and follow any relevant criminal investigation.

The most important factor is often timing.

Medical records can become harder to obtain.

Foreign income evidence can be lost.

Witness memories can fade.

And legal deadlines can expire.

If a family member died following surgery, medical treatment or a serious complication in Turkey, the medical and legal circumstances should be examined as early as possible to determine whether the death resulted from an unavoidable medical event or legally compensable medical negligence and to identify the full financial and non-financial rights of the surviving family.

Legal Disclaimer

This article provides general information concerning Turkish law and the rights of foreign families following a death allegedly caused by medical negligence in Turkey. It does not constitute individual legal advice.

The existence of medical negligence, the appropriate defendant, the competent court, criminal responsibility, support-loss compensation, non-material damages and limitation periods depend on the particular medical records, healthcare institution, treatment date, family circumstances, expert findings and procedural history of each case.

Each case should therefore be evaluated individually by appropriate Turkish legal counsel and medical experts.