#YoMeQuedoEnCasa: Dr Felix Paprottka, Plastic Surgeon

Ocean Clinic is closed during Spain's state of alarm but our team is still keeping busy. The #YoMeQuedoEnCasa blog series looks at what they're up to.

What is your role at Ocean Clinic?

I’m a Plastic Surgeon at Ocean Clinic specialising in face and breast surgery as well as body contouring. I'm treating my own patients and work hand-in-hand with my boss Dr. Kaye.

What are you doing with your time while Ocean Clinic is closed?

I’m staying on call for all of our patients and doing postoperative checkups. We have patients that have been operated on prior to the lockdown and need follow-up care. We have to make sure everything's healing nicely.

Me and Dr. Kaye are the only ones coming into the clinic in order to minimise the chances of anyone becoming infected. Strong hygienic measures are the key to solving this pandemic crisis.

How are you staying in touch with the industry and your peers during this time?

We have quite a lot of contact with our colleagues and coworkers through various forums, where we discuss views on COVID-19 and its future impact, and how we will spend our time once this intense period has passed.

Unfortunately, our annual meeting, the Marbella International Summer School (MIPSS) has been cancelled. It's going to be postponed until next year. It’s sad because we had some excellent international speakers coming and lots of visitors from all around the world flying in. But due to the situation and all the travel restrictions we decided it was too risky to go ahead. The safety of the participants comes first. 

How are you staying motivated?

First of all, I'm motivated all the time. If I’m not working for the clinic, I’m doing my daily sports sessions at home and nowadays working on my cooking skills. I’ve also been doing some research projects. We still have a follow-up publication on the earlobe tailoring technique we published two years ago. 

We are also working on another new technique for breast augmentation in combination with a lifting procedure which prevents a loss of volume behind the nipple-area-complex. It means you have a fuller and more round breast afterwards and therefore it's more aesthetically pleasing.

Do you think the coronavirus crisis will have any long term impact on your role or field of specialism?

This is hard to estimate at the moment, but since patients will always have an interest in improving their looks, we should be fine in the months ahead of us. We have a solid base of faithful patients that use our services on a very frequent basis. Ocean Clinic has been around for over 10 years and has a very good reputation. 

We are trying to stay up to date with all the latest information. The International Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons is always offering video tutorials and advice on how to handle the COVID-19 situation. 

What are you looking forward to when you return to work?

I miss operating, so I’m looking forward to that. Also treating patients with cosmetic injections and other conservative treatments such as filler, which we are not doing at the moment. Patient satisfaction is, of course, my reward.

Also being an Ocean Clinic team member is like being part of a family. So, therefore, I’m looking forward to reuniting with my colleagues, and with my wider peer group when we’re able to travel to medical meetings again.