Veterinarian who died in mobile animal care van wedged in snow in Queens worked 7 days a week: wife

A veterinarian who died while operating on a dog inside a mobile animal care van wedged in snow in Queens was so devoted to the job he worked seven days a week, his mourning wife told the Daily News Monday.

Ashraf Hussein, 56,  was found dead inside the van parked next to a thick snow bank on 65th Ave. and Parsons Blvd. in Flushing about 9:25 a.m. Sunday. A small white dog who a coworker said Hussein had been operating on to remove a mass in the animal’s paw also died.

“He loves animals very much,” Hussein’s wife, Marwa Mansour, 46, told the Daily News as she cried. “That’s why he became a veterinarian, because he loved animals.”

“He didn’t care that he had to go out in the snow and the cold to go to work,” she added. “That’s how passionate he was with helping the animals.”

The owner of the mobile vet clinic, Garo Alexanian, 73, was found unconscious by neighbors who called 911 after he stumbled out of the van and collapsed on the sidewalk. Alexanian told a woman who came to his aid that he and the victim had been trapped inside the van for four hours.

Investigators are looking into whether the victims may have become overwhelmed by fumes inside the poorly ventilated van after the exhaust pipe became packed with snow, police said.

Hussein worked at Aadobe Animal Hospital in Staten Island. He lived in that borough with his wife and had three sons.

“When he’s not at the mobile vet, he’s working here in Staten Island,” Mansour said. “He was working seven days a week.”

“The hospital he works at in Staten Island, he finishes his work at around 3, 4 o’clock — but if he got a call from Garo, he would go straight to Queens to help him out,” Mansour said.  “That’s how much passion he had for working.”

Hussein worked for the mobile clinic for more than 15 years and had a close relationship with Alexanian, according to his wife.

Hussein performed surgeries for the mobile clinic every Tuesday and Saturday, Mansour said. When her husband did not return home from work Saturday night she became anxious.

“Sometimes he would come home late at night (from performing surgeries),” she said. “But he never came home that night and I was worried.”

“My family is taking it very hard right now,” Mansour added. “We’re all upset. We’re devastated. I feel like this could have been prevented. It shouldn’t have happened.”

The city Medical Examiner will conduct an autopsy to determine exactly how Hussein died.

Hussein was born in Asyut, Egypt, and moved to the U.S. in the 1990s.

“He was passionate about playing chess,” his wife said. “He actually went to a tournament to play chess a couple years back and he won. Even when he’s sitting at home, he’d be on the computer and playing chess. That was his favorite thing to do.”

”He was a very funny person. Everybody laughed around him,” Mansour added. “You could learn a lot from him. And he will make you laugh. That’s why we’re all very shocked about this news.”

Hussein’s family in Egypt would like his body flown back to his native country, but his sons wish to bury him in New York so they can visit him, their mother said.

“He was a wonderful father,” she said. “He was a wonderful husband. He was so kind. Everybody loved him.”