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Physician starts new practice

• A Camilla pharmacist’s son opens a vascular medicine center in Albany.

Susan McCord

ALBANY — It took Tripp Morgan 18 years to come home, but he has, and this month the Camilla native hung out a shingle for Albany Vascular Specialist Center, a new medical clinic in Albany.

The guest speaker at a well-attended meeting of Albany Rotary Club earlier last week, Morgan detailed the four primary kinds of vascular disease and their treatments, including aortic surgery, “the reason I became a vascular surgeon,” Morgan said.

Cerebrovascular disease causes stroke, the third leading cause of death, but can be detected using ultrasound imaging and treated with carotid surgery, to remove plaque build-up, or the insertion of stents, to keep blood flowing, he said.

Abdominal aortic aneurysm is often fatal — fewer than eight in 100 victims leave the hospital — but its warning signs also can be detected using ultrasound screening, Morgan said.

When the aorta swells until it pops, the body can quickly bleed to death, but treatment to repair or even replace the aorta can stop an aneurysm from occuring, he said.

Peripheral arterial disease shows itself with pain in the legs during or after walking, which indicates insuffient blood flow to the legs, Morgan said.

But pain from peripheral arterial disease, more seriously, is “a marker that you have hardening of arteries all over your body,” he said.

Peripheral artery disease as well as a fourth disease, varicose veins, can be treated at Morgan’s new practice, he said.

Morgan comes to Albany after 18 years away from Southwest Georgia, during which he received an extensive education. The brother and son of pharmacists, he obtained a pharmacy degree from the University of Georgia, then an M.D. at Mercer University.

“Eighteen years is a long time,” Morgan said.

He opens Albany Vascular Specialist Center as a solo practice but will be joined by a partner, a friend from medical school, in 23 months, he said.

His center offers hope to people who already have vascular disease.

“Not to undo it, but maybe slow it down,” he said. “We do the medical management, the surgical management. Cholesterol (lowering) medication and an aspirin a day are the most important things.”

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