By TONY TAGLAVORE, Journal Services
Think your work leaves little room for error?
Meet Dr. Ashish Sonig.
“If you’re operating in the area of the brain we call the brain stem, a small error by a millimeter can cause so much deficit to a person that they can become completely weak on one side of the body,” Dr. Sonig told the Shreveport-Bossier Journal.
He knows of what he speaks. Dr. Sonig is northwest Louisiana’s first dual vascular trained neurosurgeon and fellowship trained skull base neurosurgeon. Dr. Sonig recently arrived at Willis Knighton Health, where he is director of the new Willis Knighton Neurovascular Institute.
“The reason I’m so confident about doing this is that I was trained at one of the world’s best at the University of Buffalo. That’s where the entire neuroendovascular process was invented. That’s where all the trials of aneurysms and strokes happened. I was there at that time . . . . I was recruiting patients and talking to them. Being the highest volume center, I saw how the administration worked, and the skill set I needed. That gave me the confidence to say yes, I can set up a similar style down south for the people here.”
Dr. Sonig is also co-medical director of Willis Knighton Stroke Centers.
If the following sounds familiar, you should care that Dr. Sonig is in Shreveport-Bossier.
“Most of the time, a patient will go to the doctor, which could be a neurologist or a family medicine doctor, saying they’re having symptoms of dizziness, they’re not remembering things, their hands are getting weaker or their legs are getting weaker, or they’re not able to find the right words, or are feeling numbness. These are the bigger neurological problems. When the spectrum increases, (the patient) becomes unconscious. They come to the ER and (the patient’s family) tells the doctor, ‘He was talking to us this morning, and now he’s not talking. He’s just opening his eyes. He cannot move his right side.’ Those are the symptoms which tell you there is something abnormal in your brain vasculature — the arteries that supply the neck or head — or something is going wrong in the brain. It could be a tumor. It could be a stroke.”
And thanks to computer software which Dr. Sonig said is a first for Shreveport, he can get an idea of the problem before arriving at the hospital.
“If a scan is done in the ER (at Willis Knighton North, Pierremont, or Bossier) and the patient is having stroke-like symptoms or a bleed in the brain, the moment a scan is done, I get it on my cell phone. I can see it in real time, within minutes. I can have a plan and make a decision then and there. It is immensely helpful. We have the best technology in the country in Shreveport.”
Dr. Sonig is not new to this area. He did his first fellowship in skull base neurosurgery at LSU Health Sciences Center-Shreveport School of Medicine. Now, he’s back, building his own department from the ground up.
“This was not a process we started just a couple of months ago. I was in touch with Willis Knighton for a couple of years. It’s a gradual process, because it needs funding and approval to set up a new department . . . . You need special machines which are highly expensive and sophisticated. That’s what we have here . . . . We also needed proper open vascular operating rooms. Willis Knighton has procured state-of-the-art microscopes and all of the gadgets needed for open vascular surgeries.”
Born in New Delhi, India, Dr. Sonig grew up wanting to follow in his older sister’s path and become a physician. Once in medical school, Dr. Sonig knew he wanted to be in the operating room.
“I knew I had to be a surgeon because I loved using my hands for other things. Then came the question of, ‘What kind of surgeon?’ When I went through different specialties and saw neurosurgery, (I was fascinated by) the simple fact you are operating on a human brain, where even a small millimeter of error can cause devastating complications to a patient.”
But being trained in two types of neurovascular surgery has come at a price.
“There are very few people who are able to deliver this kind of patient care to the community. Somebody has to take up the challenge and have a difficult lifestyle to benefit the community. There are so many doctors who don’t want to be a vascular neurosurgeon because they don’t want to be on call. Most of my stroke (victims) come in the middle of the night. You have to make a family sacrifice. It’s something you are seeking for the remainder of your life, in which you are completely devoted to patient care.”
Dr. Sonig is married (to a physician), and has two children.
“My wife completely understands my passion for patient care. She knows my time is 50% for us, and 50% for my patients.
Contact Tony at SBJTonyT@gmail.com.