August 30–September 5, 2019 Brooklyn Paper • www.BrooklynPaper.com • (718) 260-2500 AWP 9
‘They love it’
Kids train service dogs at
C’Heights detention facility
Demo begins at 80 Flatbush
Controversial development in Boerum Hill moves forward
Photo by Susan De Vries
We don’t have to travel to
Manhattan to get the best
vascular medical care because
we have Dr. Enrico
Ascher, Chief of Vascular
and Endovascular Surgery
at NYU Langone Hospital
Brooklyn, and founder
of the Vascular Institute of
New York.
Dr. Ascher is an internationally
recognized vascular
surgeon who pioneered several
techniques that are now
utilized worldwide. In addition
to being one of the most
experienced surgeons in this
country with over 25,000 procedures
and operations performed
over a 3 decade span
he finds time to author and
co-author over 300 scientific
articles in addition to be the
Chief-editor of a classic textbook
in vascular surgery.
His enormous contributions
to the minimally invasive
management of vascular
diseases including aortic
aneurysms, stroke prevention,
wound care, varicose
veins and angioplasty and
stenting for PAD have not
gone unnoticed. Dr. Ascher
is the only surgeon in the
tristate region to be elected
as President of the Society
for Vascular Surgery as well
as The World Federation of
Vascular Societies. During
his tenure as leader of these
societies Dr. Ascher was able
to help shape the specialty
and reached out to the medical
community in a partnership
to improve the vascular
health of the US population.
Dr. Ascher conceived and develop
the first clinical guidelines
for the management of
vascular diseases and he is
recognized by his peers as a
superb surgeon with tremendous
talent. As an example
of one of his creative contributions
one can describe
his technique of performing
balloon angioplasty and
stenting (in patients who
experience pain in the legs
upon walking) without the
use of potentially harmful
contrast material and with
no exposure to radiation!
Dr. Ascher also developed
the mini-incision carotid
surgery where a life threatening
plaque can be safely
removed from the artery via
one inch small cut instead of
5-7 inch incision in the neck.
“We have the lowest rate of
complications in the country
since I have not had a single
major issue with hundreds
of patient treated with this
technique” - says Dr. Ascher.
His groundbreaking techniques
have been adapted
worldwide as they causes
less trauma to the patient.
Limb salvage is yet another
field in which Dr. Ascher
has earned acclaim.
“We are the first to create
a comprehensive care plan
that has vascular medical
specialists and surgeons
working together to treat
patients,” he says. For the
most part, vascular surgeons
elsewhere work separately
from vascular medicine
physicians, he says. But by
working as a team, the patient
is assured of optimum,
unbiased treatment.
Patients from New York
City and surrounding states
have sought Dr. Ascher’s
services, after being told
by other institutions that
their limbs could not be salvaged,
and that amputation
was the only option. Yet, Dr.
Ascher and his team were
able to transform their lives
by utilizing techniques they
developed to save the limbs.
“These patients are now
walking on their own two
feet,” he says.
Research, studying, and
learning are Dr. Ascher’s
passions. He was the first
to perform bypass to the
plantar arteries of the foot,
and this is now widely considered
standard procedure
for limb salvage.
Swelling of the legs is
a common problem that
causes tremendous pain,
inhibiting lifestyles. This is
another area in which the
Vascular Institute can help,
as Dr. Ascher has published
extensively on the subject
of varicose veins. He and
his team of board certified
vascular specialists have
performed more than 15,000
laser procedures for the
treatment of varicose veins
and leg swelling, offering
several different devices to
customize treatment plans
for the patients who come
to his Vascular Center for
relief of symptoms or for aesthetic
reasons. He notes that
swelling of the legs can be
caused by veins that are not
visible, so a thorough examination
is really important
to detect the cause of these
problems and to fix them to
obtain a meaningful result.
More than 20 years ago Dr.
Ascher was helping people
with aortic aneurysms – ballooning
of the arteries in the
stomach or chest.
“We are so comfortable
with the new, modern techniques,
we are sending patients
home the same day.
Just 5 years ago we were
keeping patients for at least
2 days in the hospital,” he
says. “They leave with a small
puncture in the groin, go
home with no pain, and have
dinner with their families.”
This potentially life-threatening
issue is more common
than people realize,
he says, and is often found
accidentally when patients
undergo ultrasounds or
CAT scans.
“When it becomes painful,
these aneurysms (ballooning
of the arteries) are
ready to pop with critical
consequences. So it’s better
to fix them when they
achieve a certain size,”
he says.
Notably, the Vascular Institute
was the first wound
care center in New York,
and remains one of the busiest
wound care centers in
the area.
Dr. Ascher’s esteemed
staff includes Dr. Anil Hingorani,
Dr. Natalie Marks,
Dr. Sareh Rajaee, and Eleanora
Iadgarova, a nurse
practitioner.
The practice is open every
day, including weekends,
and the staff can always
find an opening to ac
- commodate patients who
need immediate treatment,
says the doctor.
Vascular Institute of
New York 960 50th St.between
Ninth and 10th avenues
in Borough Park,
(718) 438-3800, www.vascularnyc.
com. Open every
day, 8 am – 5 pm. Additional
locations: 9920 Fourth Ave.
in Bay Ridge; 5801 Woodside
Ave., Queens; 97-32 63rd Rd.,
Queens; 432 E. 149th St. in
the Bronx.
BUSINESS, BROOKLYN STYLE
By Aidan Graham
Brooklyn Paper
Five incarcerated Brooklyn
youth are learning how
to care for and train service
dogs while locked up at a
juvenile detention center in
Crown Heights.
“A lot of the kids come into
the program, and they’re very
emotionally closed. It’s hard
for them to open up,” said
Jeannie Ashford, a rep with
the program. “The dogs help
the kids to think about their
emotions. They’ve shut down
their emotions, but when they
start training these dogs, it
helps them reconnect with
their emotions — and with
other people.”
The program — run by
the nonprofit Rising Ground
— offers incarcerated kids
an opportunity to serve their
sentence in a secure, retrofitted
Crown Heights home
as an alternative to the traditional
prison system.
The facility is currently
occupied by five teenagers,
who work together to teach
new tricks to two pups — a
Yorkie named Simon, and a
Pitbull mix named Jay Mo.
“The dogs are very therapeutic
for the kids,” said Ashford.
“They love it.”
The alt-prison facility and
its four-legged staff helps the
incarcerated kids build social
and life skills while serving
their time, improving their
chances of staying out of
trouble once they’re free to
leave, said Ashford.
“On the first day that the
kids come into the program,
we start planning about what
they’re going to do when
they get out,” she said. “You
can’t just take teens and put
them in adult penitentiaries
upstate, where they are not
going to go to school and
they’re not going to have
a chance to re-enter their
communities.”
Dog trainer Josh Abolt of Backcountry K-9 Training
works with a Pitbull mix named Jay Mo.
By Craig Hubert
for Brooklyn Paper
It’s starting to come
down.
Demolition has recently
kicked off at 80 Flatbush
Ave., the site of a controversial
future development in
Boerum Hill that spent most of
2018 going through the city’s
ULURP process. The demolition
permits were filed back
in January.
The row of one-story retail
stores facing Schermerhorn
Street was recently razed, and
on Tuesday firefighters were
knocking windows out of the
largest building on the site,
which faces Flatbush Avenue
and is adorned with a largescale
mural by the artist Katie
Merz.
Still standing is the Khalil
Gibran International Academy
and an old smokestack.
Portions of the five-building
complex, dating from 1860
to 1890, will be torn down,
while others will be saved and
incorporated into the larger
development.
The proposal from the
developer, Alloy Development,
calls for two towers,
900 apartments — including
200 affordable units — and
two schools. But, as part of
the approval, key details of the
project have changed.
Mainly, the scale: The floor
area ratio of 18 initially proposed
by the developers was
reduced to 15.75, including
the schools. The tallest tower
has been reduced from 986
to 840 feet, while the smaller
tower will shrink from 561
to 510 feet.
Other modifications include
the removal of all loading
docks from the State Street
side of the development and
the promise to keep the original
plan for 200 units of affordable
housing.
New building permits have
yet to be filed.
Over much of the last year,
the development was protested
by local advocates including
the Boerum Hill Association.
And the controversy is far
from over. In July, the 400 &
500 State Street Block Association
filed a lawsuit against
the New York City Educational
Construction Fund,
Alloy Development, City
Council and the City Planning
Commission, which is
currently ongoing.
This story was first reported
by Brownstoner , one
of our sister publications.
Demolition has recently
kicked off at 80 Flatbush
Ave.
Photo by Caroline Ourso
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