New surgeon, Mustafa Ugurlu, is a cut above the ordinary

Bringing a bit of glamour to the surgery department at Sharon Hospital is its newest team member, Dr. Mustafa Ugurlu (which is pronounced “erloo”).

When you read about his background, it’s hard not to think: international jet setter, race car driver, rock star.

In person, he’s actually a pretty mellow guy, approachable and easy with a quick sense of humor. He’s a family man and ended up in the Northwest Corner partly out of deference to his wife, whose family had a house in Bantam, Conn.

So where does all this international man of medicine stuff come from? In fact, Ugurlu does have a somewhat exotic background. He is Turkish and attended medical school in his native country (where his father was a cardiologist). He earned honors at a top Turkish medical school in several areas including cardiothoracic surgery and emergency medicine.

He then completed a 5-year research fellowship and a 2-year residency at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota. 

From there, he was assigned to work in an “underserved” area, which turned out to be Torrington, Conn. He was a surgeon at Charlotte Hungerford Hospital until last November, when he joined the Sharon Hospital staff.  

It was while he was working in Torrington that he was introduced to his future wife, Caroline Wilcox, by friends. 

“We met in 2007, got engaged on Valentine’s Day and were married four months later,” he said in a recent chat in his office at the hospital. 

They live in Litchfield now and have two children, ages 4 and 7. Ugurlu says his hope is that the family will remain here. He particularly likes Sharon and the hospital community, he said, because it has a sort of old-fashioned mom-and-pop feel to it.

All this domesticity is balanced by the doctor’s two hobbies. He raced “spec” Mazda Miatas for many years and is very happy to be living in proximity to the race track at Lime Rock Park. 

“I still do some racing instruction with the Sports Car Driving Association,” he said.

His other favorite past time is playing electric guitar, which he did for some years as part of a rock band. Like many mid-40s music fans, he prefers the songs of his youth; his particular favorite band is Bon Jovi.

This proficiency and dedication to his hobbies mirrors the attention he brings to medicine. He and practice partner Dr. Joseph Catania share general surgery duties, working for example on patient hernias, thyroid issues, some cancers. They work on patients who’ve have accidents and injuries, from student athletes to contractors to the elderly, calls that bring patients into the emergency room — often of course on weekends and in the night.

“It speaks volumes about Dr. Catania’s dedication, that he was able to be the only surgeon on call here for eight or nine years,” Ugurlu said with admiration. 

He and his new practice partner get along well and seem to be similar in many ways (Dr. Catania is of course also very glamorous, in addition to being a skilled surgeon). 

Catania and Ugurlu are also looking forward to the hospital’s pending partnership with the Health Quest group,which is based in nearby New York state. 

“It will give us a fast track for sub-specialty expertise,”Ugurlu said. “That will help us get patients in to see the doctors they need quickly.”

Also looking into the (more distant) future, Ugurlu would like to one day see robotic surgery introduced here, which will allow for very minimally invasive surgery. 

“That helps minimize the trauma to the body and reduces the danger of post-surgical infection, especially in older folks,” he explained. 

Although he is interested in new methods and techniques, Ugurlu feels that the most important part of medical care is good communication and continuity of care.

“That was the most important thing I learned at the Mayo Clinic,” he said. “I gained a wealth of experience and medical knowledge, it’s a premier institution in the world. But the Mayo ‘way’ is very much based on patient care. When I was growing up, my father was a doctor who knew everyone in his town. I’m looking to follow that model.”