What Drives Me
I always wanted to help people and at the same time had a good eye for aesthetics and a great love of detail. This combination led me to plastic surgery.
Although I knew early on that I wanted to become a plastic surgeon, it was important to me to first gain experience in general and trauma surgery. That’s why I began my specialist training immediately after completing my medical studies at a public hospital in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro. There, I treated gunshot and stab wounds as well as severe burn victims—often under difficult conditions and with extremely limited medical resources.
These experiences made me realize how high the medical standards of the Austrian healthcare system are. After almost two years in Brazil, I was delighted to continue my specialist training in plastic, reconstructive, and aesthetic surgery at the University Hospital in Graz. There, I was offered an impressively broad spectrum of plastic surgery without any shortage of resources. The training included burn surgery, hand and nerve surgery, reconstructive surgery after accidents or tumor removal, and highly specialized microsurgery.
To complete my specialist training, I returned to Brazil—this time, however, not to the favelas, but to the renowned training program of Dr. Farid Hakme, a world-famous facelift surgeon and first student of the legendary Professor Ivo Pitanguy. To this day, Dr. Hakme continues Pitanguy’s training tradition with many well-known surgeons.
In my daily work, surgical precision and a keen sense of aesthetics are paramount: beauty cannot be forced into a mold, but is something very personal. That is why I have chosen a path that combines both.
