Plastic surgeon Dr. Jeffrey Wise knew exactly what the finished product would look like as he examined his first grammar school-aged patient of the day.

He just didn’t know how to start. Or, more precisely, where.

Needles? Surgical thread? Where the heck does everyone keep this stuff?

Almost a full month ago - one week before Gov. Phil Murphy ordered non-essential businesses to close in response to the coronavirus - Wise had made the decision to close the doors of his Wayne practice in order to better protect both his patients and staff.

Soon after, he received a worried call from a patient whose daughter had sustained a cut while playing in the backyard. The woman was sure her little girl required stitches, but was concerned about taking her to an emergency room already stretched to the limits dealing with coronavirus patients.

Wise came to the rescue ... at least as soon as he could locate all his stuff.

“I could barely find the sutures or any of my instruments because my staff knows where they all are, and I take that for granted. Or, I did,” Wise said. "As you may or may not know, surgeons are very needy and we like our staff around us to help us out. I’m used to putting my hand out and saying ‘please’ and ‘thank you’ and that’s it. But now it’s an interesting lesson for me in self-sufficiency.

“I always feel like I’ve had a deep appreciation for the assistants and my staff. But now that they’re not around, absence does make the heart grow fonder. I definitely appreciate them even more.”

Seems as though, Wise’s staff of 20 at the Wise Center for Plastic Surgery doubles up on that sense of appreciation for their employer, a double board certified surgeon with an extensive Ivy League background.

He attended Yale for his undergraduate studies, went to medical school at Cornell and fulfilled his residency at the University of Pennsylvania. Along with his private practice, Wise is affiliated with NYU Medical School as a clinical assistant professor.

Wise is originally from Hollywood, Florida, but has lived with his wife, Allison, and their two children, daughter Kate and son Jacob, in Montville for the past 13 years.

“I consider myself now a Jersey guy,” he said. Just as those 20 staff members consider Wise pretty much part of their own families.

It was one of those staff members, in fact, who reached out to NJ.com to spread the word about Wise’s transformation from skilled sculptor to ER doctor. Perhaps one of his gratified patients would have eventually shared their story with the same sort of handwritten notes that have been sent to Wise to express their thanks. But Kaidi Ilves wasn’t about to wait.

Dr. Jeffrey Wise's plastic surgery patients probably don't send toys as a general practice, but this youngster decided it was appropriate after being stitched up in Wise's Wayne office.Courtesy Kaidi Ilves

“He’s fantastic,” Ilves said. "I’m not one to praise people for no reason, but he’s one of the good guys. I think he really deserves to have some spotlight.

“He’s chosen to do the right thing and he’s been urging his colleagues to do the same thing. There are a lot of people in his network who know how to do sutures and suture removal.”

But can they handle it all by themselves, as Wise has done for the approximately one dozen young patients he has patched up? He ordered his staff home for their own well being, though kept his door ajar to alleviate some of the growing perils of overcrowded emergency rooms.

And what about cutting their rates drastically for these frantic parents?

“I’ve only been charging a bare bones fee,” Wise said. “Once the dust settles, I’m going to help them submit to insurance companies so they get reimbursed.”

Another thing: while the employees are home with their families, Wise is still paying their salaries. He also donated much of the personal protective equipment (PPE) that his staff would have been utilizing to the Passaic County Office of Emergency Management.

“I’m super proud of the fact that we haven’t let a single person go and we’re still paying the entire staff,” Wise said. “It does create quite a strain on the business for obvious reasons, but I feel a real responsibility to my staff to take care of them to an extent. I’m happy to help them for as long as I can.”

Same as he helped that frightened young girl with the sizable laceration, or the young boy who came in with a fractured nose and had to have it reset right there in the office (impromptu rhinoplasties may not have been part of the curriculum at the Cornell Medical School).

“There are patients I would have taken to the operating room, but we’ve been trying to make due in an office setting without some of the anesthesia we might normally perform with just to get it done,” he said. “There really is no availability right now for non-life-threatening surgery at the local hospitals.”

Wise realized the importance of keeping otherwise healthy patients away from those situations through his affiliations with both the Chilton Medical Center in Pompton Plains and St. Barnabas Medical Center in Livingston.

“Just in receiving some of their staff memos and internal memos (as far back as February), it became obvious that the emergency departments were really overcrowded and the entire medical system was being really stressed as far as patient encounters with potential COVID patients,” Wise said. “It became an obvious thing for us to try to do just to fill in.”

The kids that Wise has stitched up obviously hold that fill-in work with the highest regards.

Another note of appreciation from a parent whose child was under the emergency care of Wayne plastic surgeon Dr. Jeffrey Wise.Courtesy Kaidi Ilves

No doubt some of you have the same question that we put forth to Wise. How in the world, with all this social distancing and park closures, are children suffering injuries that require stitches and nose resettings?

“I actually feel like we’re seeing more injuries,” Wise said. “This has been an opportunity for a lot of parents to try to teach their kids how to ride bikes. I’ve seen a few bike injuries at this point. And kid are also on the trampoline in the backyard. Normal kid stuff, but the odds are they’re going to get into more accidents with more time.”

Wise has been able to capture some quality time with his wife and children, though the good doctor is busier than one might expect despite a relatively vacant office. He is still conducting his plastic surgery practice virtually and he also has been creating helpful videos on such topics as how to effectively wear a mask and use gloves.

“Obviously, people are at home by themselves. It’s actually a great opportunity for me to connect with patients,” he said. “I know it sounds counterintuitive, but there’s actually something more personal about zooming with someone than meeting them in person sometimes. It’s really interesting; they’re inviting me into their houses and I’m inviting them into my own home.”

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Mike Kinney may be reached at mkinney@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on twitter @MikeKinneyHS.