For his efforts during the pandemic, Çelik received the city’s Silver Plaque of Merit. The doctor from the Darmstadt Clinic found haunting words at the award ceremony.
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Darmstadt’s Lord Mayor Jochen Partsch honored Dr. Cihan Çelik for his services to information and education during the pandemic. (Photo: Andreas Kelm)
DARMSTADT – The Darmstadt City Council has appointed Dr. Cihan Celik awarded. On Wednesday Mayor Jochen Partsch (Greens) presented him with the city’s Silver Plaque of Merit in the festively decorated hall of the Orangery. He received this in recognition of his services to the common good and the promotion of acceptance of science among the population.
Cihan Çelik, who has been section head of pneumology at the Darmstadt Clinic since January 1, 2022, campaigned at the beginning of the Covid 19 pandemic to educate society about the virus and the corona vaccination. “The perceived insecurity and the information needs of the population were the additional motivation to finally take the initiative,” explained Çelik. In the social media in particular, he initially provided information on current developments and preventive measures. He also regularly shared his own direct experiences from the isolation and intensive care unit of the hospital. Born in Heidelberg, she has been working there as a senior physician since 2019 and as a senior physician and specialist in internal medicine and pneumology since 2021. He always intended to remain factual and distant. As a result, Çelik became a sought-after interlocutor as a representative of the clinic staff. In addition to numerous interviews and reports in German newspapers and on television, he was also available as an expert to the Turkish-language media, true to his own motto: “The need for information must not fail because of language.”
Çelik: “The hardest time of our lives is behind us”
At the beginning of the event, Mayor Jochen Partsch emphasized the special feature of the plaque of merit, which, as one of the highest honors in the city, is only awarded on a case-by-case basis. “It always fills me and the city of Darmstadt with pride when an article about Cihan Çelik and the clinic can be read, heard or seen beyond the borders of Darmstadt”.
There was also great appreciation from the clinic director of the Medical Clinic II for gastroenterology, hepatopancreatology, endocrinology and pneumology, Prof. Dr. Carl C. Schimanski, who said of Çelik that he always guided his team like a rock in the surf. Visibly touched, Çelik accepted the award, but expressly emphasized that he was accepting it on behalf of all colleagues in the Hessian health care system. “I consider it a privilege to receive this appreciation, which is anything but a matter of course in medicine,” says Çelik. “Please don’t forget us! We have the most strenuous time of life behind us.”
