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BROOKLYN WEEKLY, JULY 21, 2019
BUS INES S , B ROOKLYN S T Y LE
Dr. Enrico Ascher provides the best vascular care
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.
BY KEVIN DUGGAN
They’re coming for ya!
A Mardi Gras Indian band
will transport lunchtime listeners
from Downtown’s MetroTech
Commons to the pulsing streets
of the French Quarter on July 25,
by blasting the sounds of New Orleans
streets at a free afternoon
concert hosted by the Brooklyn
Academy of Music.
The eight-piece band Cha Wa
will perform its upbeat blend of
funk and brass-fi lled jazz, while
its two singers draw the eye with
feathered Native American outfi ts
that honor their home city’s rich
heritage, according to one of the
group’s founders.
“It’s a lot of pageantry along
with a deep musical tradition,”
said drummer Joe Gelini.
The group, whose name is Indian
vernacular for “we’re comin’
for ya,” formed around Gelini,
along with lead singer J’Wan Boudreaux
and his uncle Joseph Boudreaux,
Jr., who are the grandson
and son, respectively, of “Monk”
Boudreaux, the Big Chief of the
Golden Eagles Mardi Gras Indian
tribe.
The tribe is one of dozens that
trace their origins to the intermingling
of escaped African slaves
and Native Americans in the New
Orleans region.
J’Wan is second-in-command of
the Golden Eagles tribe, known as
a “Spyboy” — also the name of Cha
Wa’s Grammy-nominated 2018 album.
He and Joseph Jr., who both
have black, Choctaw, and Cherokee
heritage, spend most of the
year crafting traditional outfi ts
out of canvas, beads, and feathers,
which they debut each year during
Mardi Gras, according to Gelini.
“It’s a very personal and detailed
piece of artwork,” he said.
The group was inspired by
Monk Boudreaux’s performances
with the Wild Magnolias, a Mardi
Gras Indian tribe that also performed
as a funk band in the
early 1970s. Cha Wa honors that
tradition by including musical
elements like call-and-response
rhythms, while its horn section
adds in brass sounds in the vein of
New Orleans jazz.
The band’s music is infectiously
upbeat, but the lyrics often
highlight the Crescent City’s issues
with racism. The track “Visible
Means of Support” references
a Jim Crow-era vagrancy law that
allowed police to fi ne black men
for loitering if they could not prove
they had “a visible means of support,”
or were looking for a job.
“It was like a modern day stopand
frisk,” Gelini said.
The band is set to release a new
single this summer, followed by a
full-length record next spring.
Cha Wa at MetroTech Commons
Myrtle Avenue between
Lawrence and Bridge streets
Downtown, (718) 636–4100, www.
bam.org. July 25 at noon. Free.
TAKE IT BIG EASY: New Orleans outfi t Cha Wa will bring its Mardi Gras Indian
funk and brass sounds to MetroTech Commons on July 25. Erika Goldring
BAYOU BASH
Mardi Gras Indian band blasts the sounds of NOLA
/www.vascularnyc.com
/bam.org