Stroke Care
Stroke Education Resources
Our Staff
The Queens stroke specialists at Jamaica Hospital’s Comprehensive Stroke Center are experts in high-quality stroke care, prevention, and recovery. Our team consists of experienced neuro-intensivists, neuro-interventionalists, and neurologists, working together to minimize any brain damage or long-term disability you may experience as a result of your stroke or other neuroendovascular condition.
Aashish Patel, DO
Director, Neurocritical Care
As a neurointensivist, Dr. Aashish Patel takes care of patients who present with acute, life-threatening neurological injuries such as large strokes, ruptured brain aneurysms, or traumatic brain injuries.
He obtained a Bachelor of Science degree in neuroscience at Texas Christian University. After attending medical school at Kansas City University of Medicine and Biosciences, he completed residency training in neurology at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, Michigan, as well as a fellowship in neurocritical care at University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, Texas.
While Dr. Patel found caring for patients in the neurocritical care setting to be rewarding, he decided to pursue a Master of Health Care Delivery Science degree at Dartmouth in order to become an agent of change in healthcare. He recently worked at Northwell Health, Lenox Hill Hospital from 2017 to 2022 and transitioned to Jamaica Hospital Medical Center to serve the Queens community.
Thambirajah Nandakumar, M.D
Co-Director, Stroke Care
Dr. Thambirajah Nandakumar graduated from the University of Jaffna Faculty of Medicine in 1987, later studying neurology at the Sunny Health Science Center in Brooklyn.
Dr. Nandakumar is the longest practicing neurologist at Jamaica Hospital Medical Center, having been in practice for over 20 years and administering the highest number of thrombolytics for acute stroke patients in the hospital. He currently works with patients with neurological ailments at Jamaica Hospital. He is board-certified in neurology, vascular neurology, clinical neurophysiology, and neuromuscular medicine.
Abigail Hasan
Stroke Coordinator
Abigail Castro Hasan has been with Jamaica Hospital since 1997. She started as a staff nurse in the Emergency Department before transitioning to a leadership role, managing various programs for the hospital such as Transitional Care, EEG, Trauma PI, and Stroke/Neurology. Her journey to working with the Stroke Center began in 2016.
Ms. Hasan helped develop a robust stroke program for both Jamaica and Flushing Hospital by “mobilizing the stroke committee.” She facilitated stroke care by maintaining quality measures within or above the compliance threshold. She serves as a liaison among different departments that provide patient care, and as a representative to the community being served. As a board-certified Family Nurse Practitioner who graduated from New York University, she utilizes her talent in both clinical and educational forums to meet the needs of the stroke program.
As a result of her passionate stroke care, she was a recipient of the Northeast Cerebrovascular Consortium and New York State Department of Health award in 2017. She also received an award from the American Heart Association for the month of July in 2021. Her future endeavor is to eliminate the disparity in stroke care not only nationally, but also globally.
Amit Khaneja, M.D.
Neurologist
Dr. Amit Khaneja is a neurologist with expertise in epilepsy and stroke care. He spent his early years between India and Europe. He went to CUNY Brooklyn College for his graduate studies and subsequently completed his Neurology residency at Mount Sinai Beth Israel Hospital, NYm as well as a fellowship in epilepsy and clinical neurophysiology at NYU. He has mentored numerous neurology residents and worked as a faculty member at CUNY Queens College.
He received the Kiffin Penry epilepsy scholarship in addition to numerous research and travel grants for presentations around the continental United states in more than 25 states. He is published in the Journal of Bone, Radiologic Clinics of North America, Journal of Biomechanics, FEBS Letters, and also published articles exploring the relationship of stroke and COVID-19 in the Frontiers Journal. At Jamaica Hospital, he has been primarily instrumental in establishing the ambulatory and in-patient epilepsy monitoring units.
Mohsen Nouri, M.D.
Director of Neuro-endovascular Services
Mohsen Nouri, M.D. is a neurosurgeon with dual fellowship training in both endovascular and cerebrovascular surgeries with surgical expertise to treat various vascular diseases of the brain and spine, including stroke, aneurysms, arteriovenous malformations, vascular dissections, carotid artery stenosis, Moyamoya disease, cavernous malformation, and venous/lymphatic malformations. Based on the lesion characteristics, Dr. Nouri is able to offer and perform treatments ranging from complex skull base surgeries to minimally invasive endovascular and angiographic techniques.
After finishing medical school and his residency in neurosurgery at Tehran University of Medical Sciences in Iran, Dr. Nouri completed a research fellowship in cerebrovascular surgeries at Fujita Health University in Japan in 2014. In 2017, he completed a fellowship at the Weill Cornell Neurosurgery Department in New York, where he learned complex skull base techniques to treat vascular brain abnormalities. Dr. Nouri completed his first clinical fellowship in endovascular surgical neuroradiology from 2017 to 2019 at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York with a focus on treating vascular diseases of the brain and spine with minimally-invasive techniques through the groin or wrist vessels.
Dr. Nouri’s second clinical fellowship focused on cerebrovascular and skull base surgeries at North Shore University Hospital in New York from 2019 to 2020. He concentrated on performing classic open surgeries for treatment of vascular lesions of the brain and spine. His main professional focus is on vascular diseases of the brain and spine after years of research and clinical education on different aspects and modalities of treating such lesions.
Elizabeth Fontana, M.D.
Director of Neurosurgery
Elizabeth Fontana, M.D. is a neurosurgeon and trauma liaison with a special interest in tumors. Dr. Fontana received her BA at Harvard University and her MD from Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. Following medical school, she completed her neurosurgical residency at New York Presbyterian/Columbia University Medical Center. After residency, she spent a year in Seattle where she completed a tumor fellowship.
Dr. Fontana serves as the director of neurosurgical trauma but maintains an interest in brain tumors and the field of neuro-oncology. Prior to joining Jamaica Hospital Medical Center, Dr. Fontana worked at Northwell Health. She is delighted to join the JHMC team as the director of our growing neurosurgery department.
Pouria Moshayedi, M.D.
Co-Director, Stroke Care
Dr. Pouria Moshayedi is a vascular neurologist and interventional neurologist. As a vascular (stroke) neurologist, he is focused on the treatment of acute stroke, as well as finding the cause of stroke to advise preventive therapy and minimize the chance of recurrent stroke. As an interventional neurologist, he treats cerebrovascular diseases such as acute stroke, carotid stenosis, subarachnoid hemorrhage, brain aneurysms, and brain vascular abnormalities such as vascular malformations and fistulas.
Dr. Moshayedi completed his neurology training at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and studied vascular neurology at the University of California Los Angeles. He also completed his neuroendovascular surgery fellowship at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York. He is certified by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology (ABPN) for neurology and vascular neurology.
Dr. Moshayedi also has strong academic interest in neurosciences with a doctoral degree from the University of Cambridge and 42 published papers, review articles, and book chapters with over 2000 citations. He received his medical degree from the Tehran University of Medical Sciences.
Xun Li, M.D.
Neurosurgeon
Dr. Xun Li is a bilingual brain, spine, and nerve surgeon with expertise in spinal surgery. Dr. Li was born in Beijing, China but grew up all over the world and finally settled in the suburbs of Philadelphia in high school along with his family. Unprepared for the exorbitant cost of American higher education, he was finally able to attend Allegheny College and Temple University School of Medicine with generous scholarship support.
He completed his neurosurgery residency at Brown University and his orthopedic spine surgery fellowship at the University of Pennsylvania. During residency, in addition to mastering the surgical treatment of common spinal disorders such as spinal stenosis and disc herniation by both open and minimally invasive approaches, he spent an additional year learning how to treat rarer neurosurgical diseases such as brain and spine tumors including metastasis.
Lastly, during his fellowship, he also trained at the Shriners Hospital for Children in Philadelphia, where he learned to treat pediatric and adolescent scoliosis and other complex spinal deformities. Dr. Li’s philosophy of care is to treat every patient he meets as if they are members of his family, with compassion, respect, and dignity. He speaks Mandarin Chinese and English.