Caribbean L 24 ife, June 28–July 4, 2019 BQ
Caribbean bribe-taking officials
Continued from Page 20
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 fi nds
time to author and co-author over 300
scientifi c 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 fi rst 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 fi eld
in which Dr. Ascher has earned acclaim.
“We are the fi rst 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 fi rst 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 certifi ed 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 fi x 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 fi x
them when they achieve a certain
size,” he says.
Notably, the Vascular Institute
was the fi rst wound care center in
New York, and remains one of the
busiest wound care centers in the
area.D
r. 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 fi nd an opening to accommodate
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.
criminal law enforcement
is irrelevant to the issues
for the jury at trial.
Whether the defendant
to date has been charged
in Barbados, or whether
the Barbadian authorities
are investigating the
defendant does not make
it more (or) less probable
that the defendant
promoted violations of
the Barbados Prevention
Of Corruption Act by
accepting bribe payments
in connection with his
official duties.”
The prosecution’s rush
to erase Inniss’ potential
defence that he was not
charged in Barbados so
he did not commit an
offence makes relevant a
contention by University of
the West indies, Cave Hill
Campus, political scientist
specialising in regional
affairs, Tennyson Joseph,
who has contended that
Caribbean governments
do not prosecute and jail
officials for corruption.
“Despite our constant
assertion that we are free
and sovereign people, we
constantly undermine
this aspiration by
our abrogation of our
responsibility to fully
prosecute the upper and
upper-middle sections of
our populations, and by
our cowardly, infantile
and irresponsible habit of
informally transferring
that responsibility to
the US justice system,”
he said last August
shortly after Inniss was
charged.
While making clear
that his opinion is not
on whether the former
government minister is
guilty, he said, “whilst on
one side of our mouths
we condemn the US for
interfering in our internal
affairs, on the other we
cheer and celebrate the
extradition of ‘Big Boys,’
we revel in the revocation
of their US visas, and we
wallow in their arrests on
US soil.”
Months after Inniss was
charged, ICBL’s Bermudabased
parent company,
BF&M, stated that it had
made a settlement with
the US Department of
Justice because of “ICBL’s
swift self-disclosure of the
payments to the DOJ, the
robust cooperation of its
board and management,
and the company’s
remediation, including
the fact that all executives
and employees involved
in the misconduct are no
longer at the company.”
But in another example
of what is angering
political scientist, Joseph,
American authorities
in January unsealed
documents naming former
Barbados insurance
executives, Alex Tasker
and Ingrid Inness as the
persons who allegedly
conspired with Donville
Inniss to launder money
in the United States.
Revelation of the names
of Tasker, a former senior
vice-president of Insurance
Corporation of Barbados,
and Inness, a former ICBL
Chief Executive ended
months of speculation
by Barbadians about who
were the persons alleged
to have bribed Inniss.
Tasker is Barbadian
and Inness, a Canadian
resident in Barbados.
These persons are yet to
be charged in Barbados.
/www.vascularnyc.com
/www.vascularnyc.com