i-Marbella.com online magazine at Costa del Sol, Spain, and Annika Urm, a worldwide celebrity journalist, had an exclusive interview with an expert in skin cancer surgery and anti-ageing procedures. She is a scientist, medical doctor, wife and mother of six. MEET the Dr Gabriela Casabona!
Dr Gabriela Casabona is the Director of Clinical Research & Medical for Ocean Clinic Marbella Madrid’s Aesthetic and skin cancer departments.
- Dr Gabriela Casabona is a specialised skin, face and modelling medical doctor with over 20 years of experience in the field.
- She is Dr Kaye’s wife, the founder and plastic surgeon of Ocean Clinic Marbella, Zürich and Madrid.
- Dr Gabriela Casabona is the mother of 6 kids.
- She is from San Paolo, Brazil and now lives in Marbella, Spain.
Let’s find out how Dr Kaye and Dr Casabona met and how they found love and became soulmates. They are a successful power couple with six kids and successful careers and businesses.
Dr Gabriela Casabona is a modern example of balancing career and family. She is very passionate about her work and the same time, sets priorities husband and children and has experience keeping all in balance and creating happy family life.
She has created a real-life story that is very passionate and inspiring. There are many things to learn and keep us all going.
Dr Casabona has published many papers in highly respected journals on combined technology treatments and techniques and has spearheaded breakthrough innovations in anti-ageing procedures. She is an expert in skin cancer surgery, Oculoplastic reconstruction, and dermatology and an international speaker and consultant for Merz Medical and Dermapen.
Asking AU: Annika Urm
Answering Dr Casabona: Dr Gabriela Casabona
AU: 1. How did you meet Dr Kaye? When did you realise he is your true love and soulmate?
(Year 2017)
Dr Casabona: So you asked how I met Kai, so I have divorced already in Brazil. I was already having part of my career internationally. I was invited to go, for teaching purposes, to different companies in Asia, Australia, China, Hong Kong etc. One of my stops was Thailand; Dr Kai and I have a friend in common, and she was hosting a meeting. Me and Dr Kaye were both invited to speak at this conference. We were also hosting some sessions together.
So we met there, we have a friend in common, and this friend gave him my phone number. Dr Kaye arrived a few days later to join his group in Thailand. So we met, and we spent time together like we went out for dinner with a group of people, and we kept talking the whole night and then, well, we had a connection from the first time.
But he had a life in Marbella.
I had a life in Brazil.
So I went to Australia to finish my trip, and he went to Vietnam. We kept speaking to each other for some time as friends or professional friends. At some point, we both realised when we were in Thailand already that that was a very deep connection there.
From my side, I believe in God and that there is something out there for me. I used to dream. I dreamed of finding someone who could be my best friend.
At one point, we realised that we were meant to be together, he in his way and me in my way.
And so he came to Brazil to visit me. He spent 20 days in Brazil with me, and then we knew for sure that we wanted to be together. This is how it all started; we wanted to live and share our life.
So we decided that the best thing was for me to move with the four kids,
And then we got married, and we had two more kids. After five years, we both agreed that we had made the right choice.
AU: 2. Tell us about your medical doctor career’s most important discoveries and turning points.
Dr Casabona: In my medical career in med school, I wanted to be a vascular surgeon, but then life for a young woman that a surgeon is incompatible with having to be married and having a family. I married in my first year of first to the second year of med school. In that sense, it was unthinkable to do such a speciality. So then I realised I’d do something of the minor specialities like ENT (ear-nose-throat) or Derm.
And I ended up doing dermatology. So I did my dermatology residency for three years. And then, at the end of my first residency, I had a baby, my firstborn, and four years later, I had three more. But after that, I realised I was already a laser professor at the university. But I realised this was too small for me, and I wanted something bigger.
So I went back to study. I did one year more residency in dermatologic surgery. And then I went outside abroad. I went to Argentina and USA to do a fellowship in mole surgery, a particular skin cancer surgery. Then I returned to Brazil and spent a year more in the university because I needed to validate my skin cancer surgery diploma.
And then after that, I didn’t want to only the surgery. I wanted to reconstruct my cases. So I did two years of plastic surgery off the face and training in periocular reconstruction and other cosmetic surgery. So then, after that, I started my skin cancer department in a public service, which was not a teaching university. And this is when I mean, three years after I met Kai, I had my own clinic for 18 years in Brazil. And then I moved to Marbella.
And this is what I do. So usually, I’m more well-known in cosmetic dermatology. I do cosmetics. But actually, I have a big passion for cancer surgery, and I studied a lot for that. But nowadays, I’m doing very little with cancer.
I’m doing much more cosmetics. And when I came to Spain, I had already published many articles when I came. But when I came to Spain, it was much easier having an or, having the skin of the patients, having easiness in, getting ethical committee approval for studies. We started at Ocean Clinic Marbella, the scientific department, and we have already accepted ten trials. Yeah, I’m doing what I love, but always based on science.
AU: 3. How long have you been living in Marbella? And how was your life changed from moving from the megacity São Paulo to the small Marbella town? Pluses and minuses?
Dr Casabona: I moved to Marbella entirely four years ago. Four years and a half ago, in the first year. So five years ago, I started spending 15 days in Brazil and 15 days in Marbella. I had a contract with a pharmaceutical company. I had to teach doctors in Europe.
So I used to travel for 15 days and 15 days. And then, after a year, I finally moved to Marbella. So I shut my clinic, sold everything, and then came to Spain.
Well, it was a hassle for me in the beginning. I love the lifestyle of Marbella. I love the climate. I love that we don’t have such big traffic as the big city of Sao Paulo. But there’s a downside.
So, of course, I was well connected and working in the biggest hospitals in Brazil, all private hospitals with high-end technology and excellent doctors. So I was a bit lost because I didn’t know anybody and I was having a baby. It was a bit like I couldn’t find myself. I was trying to decide which doctor I should search for myself. I knew some people in Barcelona and Madrid, but nobody in Marbella.
But of course, Dr Kaye was there. I mean, years when I arrived, he helped to find doctors when i got pregnant and needed someone. I know many people, so he recommended it here and there, and we adapted. There are downsides to living in a small city.
There’s also the bright side, especially for raising kids. Marbella is very lovely, and the quality of life is pretty excellent. I’m delighted to be in Europe because it’s much easier for me, with my international career, to be closer to most of the things I do. Then I would be very limited if I were to do this from Brazil.
AU: 4. How often do you visit São Paulo now?
Dr Casabona: I visit São Paulo seldom. The only things I have left are some friends and my mom. I go every once every two years if I don’t have to work. In the first year, I went twice to work; if not, neither my mom nor my brother would come to Marbella, or I would go. My brother lives in the USA mostly. We went to Brasil two years ago for Christmas, with the babies, to see my mom and my brother, and we met in Brazil. But typically, since I came every two years.
AU: 5. You have six kids? How old are they, and how do you manage to put everything function between work, home, children, possible different countries, teaching, career and medical research?
Dr Casabona: Well, this is a difficult question. Everything in life is about priorities and dreams. I always dream of being a good wife and a mom. Those were my priorities. My career was never my priority in my life.
And at some point when I was in Brazil during my divorce, et cetera took a little bit longer than I would expect. So my career became my parachute. So I had my kids for some years. My kids were, let’s say, my safe board, my priority. And my career was my ship, the ship that made me know all about myself and the world.
So throughout my career, I grew a lot as a personality, but my career was never my priority. And then I met Kai. And again, my priority is to be a good wife and to raise my kids. That’s why I didn’t step back from having more kids, even though I was stable in my life already in terms of all the phases where you have to step back and slow down. And I was picking up when I decided to have more kids, let’s say, in this way.
But it’s about priorities. I’m always learning. Many times in my life, I overdid in my career and spent less time than I should have in my house. But then, everything is a learning curve, and I learned. So I go back, I spend more time.
I gave up some things that I do, and nowadays, I’m in that phase again where my career is really picking up strongly. But I know I have to step back and reduce, not only to spend more time doing what I love, which is research and science, but also to stay with my kids in my house. Since I arrived, I’ve been doing little by little creating roots, but I have to create more routes. The key point is having values and priorities but also being humble and gracious with yourself if you fail at some point, and don’t hesitate to go back and say sorry and do it again.
AU: 6. Why do you love your job and go to work every day?
Dr Casabona: Well, I think. I love my job. I always dreamed of doing something that would make a difference in people’s life. Either. Patients or friends or colleagues, or the aesthetic field. And I think I achieved that in my life, you know, most of the studies and the publications I did were to make my colleague’s life easier so they wouldn’t have to go through all the errors and mistakes I made. So I did my part. I have more than forty publications where. I think half of them. I did either innovations, new protocols, new users or best users of the things already used, or new horizons for the same products. I am using anatomy to help you inject better. I love what I do because I do what I try to do with excellence. And it excites me every day because I don’t have a boring job, you know, I’m a very creative person, my job allows me to be creative when I do science and new protocols and new users for things. I drove in that direction where I could use my creativity not only like a robot or a mechanical thing.
AU: 7. Please describe your regular day
Dr Casabona: wow. I only have a few routines. But anyhow, it depends on the day. Typically, Kai gets the babies to school, and sometimes I do. In the morning, I usually get to the clinic at nine nine-thirty. I exercise in the morning when I can do either pilates or my trainer. Whenever I’m in Marbella, I’m not travelling. As a routine, we have dinner with the big kids, so we arrive home between six and six thirty, and then we watch the babies having dinner and then we have dinner with the big ones. My oldest son is twenty-one and is already in Barcelona med school; the youngest is three. And in between, we have two seventeen, almost seventeen. We have one, fifteen, four and three.
AU: 8. Tell us about your department in Ocean Clinic Marbella, what you do, and your expertise area.
Dr Casabona: My department at Ocean Clinic Marbella has two branches. 1. One is the science department. Where we do clinical trials, new indications for approved drugs or cosmetics, or we do a study a post-market study for a device that is already accepted in the market that they need to renew the C market or FDA or something like this.
2. Clinical trials. Then there’s the other part where I see the patients. I usually see patients from Monday to Thursday. Fridays, I do consultancy for a pharmaceutical company in Germany. We do all kinds of cosmetic procedures that are non-surgical, and I am a fan, and I’m defender of combination procedures. You achieve better and more natural results if you combine procedures instead of spending all your tools on one kind of procedure, especially only hyaluronic acid, so the injectables are good. They are here to stay, but we have to know exactly the amount we will spend in that specific area for that specific patient and take into account the long term because this is not a one-stop shop, and we are talking about a journey.
I am a defender of not exaggerating in any procedure.
If a patient walks into Ocean Clinic Marbella, Madrid, Zürich, this is all relevant in our assessment of their expectation and requirements.
Dr Gabriela Casabona from Ocean Clinic Marbella Madrid . Here: Ocean Clinic appointment link with one of our plastic surgeons.
AU: 9. Tell us about the best treatments. Now, what are you doing?
Dr Casabona: Most of my patients are cosmetic patients. I have two specialities, cosmetic and skin cancer.
I see a few skin cancer or clinical dermatology also diseases. I would say that my expertise is non-melanoma skin cancer, plus all the cosmetic procedures. I mastered all of these procedures.
I don’t use some of the machines, and I don’t have them because I don’t believe in them, like an electromagnetic field for the muscle or something like this. So there are some that I don’t have. But I know them all. I specialised in combination procedures.
AU: 10. Why and how do patients come to you? What are their reasons, and what are they looking for?
Dr Casabona: The best treatments now are all the regenerative medicine from bio stimulators to p.r.p.
You can use the following:
- micro-needling,
- mini threads,
- and monophylum
- threads for biostimulation.
All of them try to bring regeneration to tissue.
AU: 11. How do you change patient life? Describe some cases, please.
Dr Casabona: Most patients come to the clinic because Ocean Clinic Marbella has good recommendations, excellent service, and top quality.
Many patients come to me directly from my name Dr Gabriela Casabona is referred by colleagues from abroad, like the USA or Dubai or some other area where they recommend the patient specifically to me or my area of expertise, cosmetic and skin cancer.
I have received recommendations worldwide and word of mouth from patients who have done procedures with me or have heard about me and what I do.
For example, clients had a botulinum toxin in with me and liked the result, had done Ultherapy or had a procedure where they had the lips done. I have a lot of mothers that bring their daughters etc.
AU: 12. What is your key to Success, or how to be successful? And what does Success means to you?
Dr Casabona: The most important thing in my career is understanding what patients want, their expectations, and what they can do. Either they can reach the expectations or not with this kind of procedure.
And if not, I recommend them to operate. It is the most important thing in our career, and I really like it. I’m pleased when I see the changes in my patients and their behaviour when I start taking care of them. They start achieving the looks they want, bringing friends, and the mother, the grandmother, and the husband bring the wife or the other way around.
This is something that makes me happy because I remember when I participated in a TV Show in brazil for three years, it was called “Ten Years Younger” we had one week. I was the dermatologist. There were a hairdresser, a stylist, a fashion stylist, and a dentist working, and we had a week to change a patient’s life. I was amazed at how many patients didn’t have partners before, and they have partners, were unemployed, and got a job. Interestingly, this changed my confidence; everything is about being confident with who you are.
AU: 13. What is the key to happy family life in busy career life?
Dr Casabona: The key to a happy family is going back to what I answered before to have priorities. In a family, the priority has to be for a woman, although it sounds very macho. Still, the relationship with your husband needs to be a big priority in a family. Then your kids and I, and the secret to having a happy family is to try to understand how to love each one because each person is very different from the others.
The secret to having a career is when you love what you do. It’s like a hobby.
You don’t need to spend time having a hobby because you’re enjoying what you are doing, and it’s a hobby for you. It’s not working. I think when I had to stay up nights instead of using the daytime to do some things for my job. I used to do this at night because I had priority staying with my husband and my kids. This is very important. I had the energy to stay awake to do what I had to do, and I was a little bit younger than I am now. But I was so passionate about what I did, but I didn’t want to compromise my time with my kids and my husband. Having priorities is very important as being passionate about what you do.
Remember Ocean Clinic Marbella, Madrid are available for face to face and virtual consultations.
What is Ocean Clinic Marbella
Ocean Clinic Marbella is the leader in aesthetic & plastic surgery and in Anti-ageing Medicine with units specialized in Cosmetic dentistry, Orthopedics and Traumatology. Ocean Clinic offers you our combined expertise and experience in unique interdisciplinary treatments.
With over 15 years of experience, our surgeons jointly perform more than 1000 procedures a year.
We conduct evidence-based clinical research and continuously publish our avant-garde procedures in peer-reviewed scientific journals, significantly improving treatments and recovery times for our patients.
We pioneer surgical techniques in plastic and aesthetic surgery and organise international workshops and annual scientific meetings attended by specialists from all over the world.
We travel the world to constantly update our level of knowledge and exchange it with colleagues (international congresses) – and we travel the world to help the less privileged in need of reconstructive surgery.
Who is Dr Kai O Kaye?
The clinic was founded in 2008 by Dr. Kai Kaye, who is a registered Plastic Surgery Consultant in Germany, Spain, and the UK. Dr. Kaye regularly lectures at national and international conventions and teaches at Plastic Surgery Resident courses. Dr. Kaye and his team also carry out charitable work, providing reconstructive surgery and dental work to patients in developing countries.
Where is Ocean Clinic Group
In the heart of Madrid, Marbella, and Zurich, equipped with the latest technology, we cultivate a true understanding of beauty, well-being, and well-ageing. Medical professionals, modern facilities, trust, experience, and security. You will find Ocean Clinic in an atmosphere of excellence and innovation dedicated to your looks, your health, and your feeling great about yourself. Come and meet us!
Ocean Clinic International Team of Experts
The Ocean Clinic Group’s international team of experts have been trained in prestigious institutions with proven track records in practice. Our specialists in plastic and aesthetic surgery, dermatology and anti-ageing medicine work side by side to create unique treatment concepts that are tailored to you.
At Ocean Clinic, we are dedicated to excellence because we look beyond beauty.
Ocean Clinic Moto ”Beyond the art of beauty”.
Remember Ocean Clinic Marbella, Madrid are available for face to face and virtual consultations.
Contact Information
Email Address: info@oceanclinic.net
Official Website: www.oceanclinic.net
Facebook:www.facebook.com/Oceanclinic
Instagram: www.instagram.com/ocean_clinic/
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