After I graduated from high school in Jerusalem, I immigrated to the United States to attend college at Furman University in Greenville, South Carolina. You could imagine the cultural shock of being in college, on a different continent, at age 18 and separated from family and loved-ones. Despite my language shortcomings, I learned to adapt rapidly in this new environment and excel at my education. When I graduated from college with an achievement award, I applied to many medical universities around the country and ended up at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston, SC. I was in the top tier of graduate medical students upon graduation. Unfortunately, during medical school, I lost my father suddenly due to an accident and my family was devastated. I took on the responsibility to take care of my sister and brother who also came to America to live and study. We stayed together until I finished medical school and I left to New York City to enter general surgery residency at the New York Medical Center/Bellevue Hospital. At that time, I knew my passion was plastic/cosmetic surgery. I shared my desires with my dear mentor and family friend Dr. Albert Sabin, the discoverer of the oral Polio Vaccine, who proceeded to tell me that I needed to become a well rounded physician before I enter Plastic Surgery specialty. I heeded his advice and pursued an Emergency Medicine specialty when it was in its infancy.
I worked at the Bellevue Hospital Emergency department for two years and then moved to Upstate New York to a city called Rochester. There I began the long journey of five years in my Emergency Medicine career. Within two years, I was offered a Medical Director position at the Emergency medicine department of a nearby hospital. I got married and had a daughter and my Emergency medicine career took me to different States and hospitals around the country where I became the Director of several Emergency Medicine departments and provided physician staffing services to ERs. After 20 years and over a hundred thousand patients later, I resigned due to the fact that the time to pursue cosmetic surgery was now. So, I looked at my options and concluded that Brazil was the best place for me to learn cosmetic surgery. I went to visit Dr. Ivo Pitanguy in Rio de Janeiro, a famous Brazilian Plastic Surgeon who operated on kings, queens and famous celebrities from around the world, and spent a month-rotation with him. It was during this time that I was reassured that this was truly my calling. Dr. Pitanguy accepted me into his plastic surgery program on one condition; I had to learn to speak Portuguese to be able to continue my education in Brazil. I came back to Atlanta and focused on learning Portuguese and intermingled with the Brazilian community in order to understand the culture as well. I went back to Brazil and started my Aesthetic Training while continuing my Emergency Medicine practice on part-time basis in the USA. It was a long, four year journey but finally, I arrived.
In 2004, I opened Bella Forma Cosmetic Surgery Center, in a suburb of Atlanta, and started performing Cosmetic Surgery. Since the opening of Bella Forma, I have experienced complete satisfaction with my career and I have fallen in love with Aesthetic surgery. I evolved as lipo-sculpturor, transforming bodies into a work of art. I connoted the phrase “3-D lipo sculpture” to differentiate the work that I do from the rest of the work seen in my field (still doing Liposuction by “parts”.) I started looking at bodies as marble stones that needed to be transformed into statues. I started to focus on fat transfer to enhance gluteal shape and volume. I connoted the word “V-Plasty” to mean sculpting the fat around the gluteal area to create a heart-shaped appearance of a square flat butt. I became known for the Brazilian-Butt Lift and I performed thousands of them since. Today I continue to sculpture bodies of all types of gender, race and ethnicities. I am currently married with three children. Two are pursuing an education in medicine and the other just graduated from Law school. My wife is the love of my life and is my favorite fan. I admire her support throughout the journey to get to this point in my life. I look forward to the surgeries that I perform and to the satisfaction I give to my patients. I never forget to be humble, honest, and caring to my patients who trust me to meet their realistic expectations.
I continue to further my education and learn from others by attending surgical conferences around the world. It gives me great satisfaction to know that I can stand tall with the giants in my field.
