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Cardiac Care Compromised…the Alfred Sparman Matter

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Submitted by Emmerson Inniss
Dr. Alfred Sparman barred from doing cardiac care
Dr. Alfred Sparman barred from doing cardiac care – Photo Credit: Nationnews.com

Dr. Sparman has nothing to worry about regarding the ACC accreditation, I have seen the letter from the ACC informing him that a membership card was sent to him in error and requesting that he return it. It was just unfortunate that he, being excited, rushed to press to announce his membership after receiving the card but his lawyers in the US will deal with that.

The public here in Barbados is led to believe that the ACC (American College of Cardiologists) is some sort of examining body that certifies cardiologists; some don’t understand that it’s just an organization which some cardiologists choose to join and pay a yearly fee somewhat like a fraternity. One should wonder why is it that 12 years ago, Dr Sparman was registered by the Medical Council of Barbados as a cardiologist after the council vetted all his qualifications and now 12 years later, the same Medical Council is refusing to register him as one. What could have transpired during those 12 years?

As I see it, a few things happened (1) In 2001, he performed the first successful angioplasty on a patient at Bay View Hospital and invoked the wrath of his competition who to this day, qualified as they profess to be cannot perform such a procedure. Yet still, these same folks question Dr Sparman’s qualifications while still accepting them, having now registered him as a Medical doctor…this logic is somewhat weird and inconsistent. (2) He built the Sparman Clinic, a state of the art Cardiac facility which may have invoked envy and (3) Patients started to see him as their cardiologist of choice in Barbados, causing I would imagine, a loss of income for others.

In May 2005, I was a patient at South Miami Hospital, another hospital where Dr.Sparman worked and when I mentioned this doctor named Sparman from Barbados, I realized that he was almost revered by everyone in their cardiology unit, doctors and nurses alike praised him as a very capable cardiologist. It makes me wonder therefore what is really going on down here in Barbados. If his colleagues have him assessed as a quack and have succeeded in convincing the general public that he is not qualified, then why are they not performing angioplasty since a “quack” is doing it and they are the “qualified ones”. I can assure you though, that no under qualified cardiologist or quack can perform angioplasty which involves placing stents (small mesh tubes) in micro arteries of the heart entering via the main arteries of the groin, essentially a life or death situation.

The general public should really think about what they are buying into and I think the Minister of Health should get involved in this case since if Dr. Sparman is not allowed to practice as a cardiologist, Barbados will be robbed of acute talent in the health arena, namely cardiac care.

Additionally, what is to become of the thousands who are currently Dr. Sparman’s patients? Hundreds of whom carry stents in their heart, implanted by him and who would be in need of his urgent post-cardiac care. Are they to languish, being caught in the cross fire between a besieged cardiologist and his angry opponents?.

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76 responses to “Cardiac Care Compromised…the Alfred Sparman Matter”

  1. BAFBFP Avatar
    BAFBFP

    Thanks Georgie … I feel better now … I do.

    I read you as saying that my father was a goner … even if he was advised of the posibility of cancer, there was still not much that could be done.

  2. Georgie Porgie Avatar
    Georgie Porgie

    Baffy
    Correct
    One of the major issues with treating Ca pancreas surgically is the relations of this structure- especially the major blood vessels close by..

  3. Georgie Porgie Avatar
    Georgie Porgie

    @SS
    You don’t think that if he could practice in Canada or the U.S. he wouldn’t be practising there?
    Not necessarily. It is very difficult to practice in these countries. Lots of red tape, and forms to fill out, before you can get paid.Lots of doctors in US are leaving their practices.This will be worse under Obama care
    Even though I passed the ECFMG exam whilst a student I never considered practicing in the USA

  4. bernadette Avatar
    bernadette

    AKC clearly you have a reading problem but let me clear it up for you Dr Sparman is more than qaulify he is more qualify here than anyone else have more credits than anyone else here in Barbados but that is not the issue at hand the issue is that they did not register him as a specialist and yet they can not give a reason why but yes all that am sure with God help will all be cleared up soon God have place him here for a reason, nellie please dont speak of thing that you have no clue about life is not a game,and well well every man have the right to choose what type of woman he want in his life just as a moan have the right to choose what type of man she want in her life so dont flaut the man for liking brown skin curly hair woman ohhh i see what happen your heart got broken why else will you speak about the man quality of woman. please ppl think for your self they same Barbadian are smart and i know am smart so why act so stupid now.

  5. Never tell Avatar
    Never tell

    I can tell you that when my mother was doubling over with stomach pain a prominent doctor in Barbados told her she may have strained her muscles from exercising too much. She was a diabetic from the time she was in her late 30’s and on oral medication. When pushed this doctor was reluctant to have an ultra sound done. Her pancreatic cancer was revealed about 4 months later when she was in Boston looking after my brother in law. He had luekenia which was also missed here. If you are diabetic and on oral medication you should be screened for pancreatic cancer every year after you are 50. My recent reading on this condition is that the onset is slower than first thought and because it is soft tissue it is difficult to treat and detect, which is why without annual precautionary screening it is missed. They are specific blood test to test for this condition,

  6. Never tell Avatar
    Never tell

    I had a heart attack 5 years ago while living in another country. The symptoms were a headache and upset stomach. No chest pains. The previous weeks I was having short of breathe and some pain down the arm. That same week, I had an EKG and chest xray that detected nothing unusual. These were done at the the hospital in that country but as a precaution I was recommended for a stress test but could not get on the schedule.
    I was at that time the fittest I had been since my teens and early 20’s. Aerobic and abs 4 times a week at the gym. Squash 3 times as week. I went through the whole weekend with the symptoms and then to the emergency room. I was lucky the listened to the symptoms and had be in the ER within 5 minutes. The only thing that confirmed the heart attack was the blood work, the EKG and Xray still showed clear.

    10 days later I had the echo, stress and full exam done in Miami that showed I was not getting enough oxygen to the heart. I had a angiogram schedule for two days later that showed a minor blockage. My strong belief is that if I had walked in with the same symptoms at the QEH I would have been sent home with pills to treat gastro.

    The Sparman Clinic referred my father to the QEH for admission for pneumonia. He was there from 7 pm to 9 am before he was seen. The referring doctor had called the on call doctor at the QEH and discussed the case before sending him down. She took the precaution of giving him IV meds.
    The doctor called my sister and I at 2 am the morning and said that since the letter did not say exactly what she wanted it to say that she would suggest we take my father home and that we was not going to see him since she was going off duty. Finally at 9 am when a doctor decided to look at him and send him for xrays the pneumonia was confirmed.

    All of these guys make mistakes. Some are callous about treatment of the elderly, others are callous when they don’t think you are anyone. By the yardstick some wish to measure Dr. Sparman, none of them should be in practice either.

  7. Georgie Porgie Avatar
    Georgie Porgie

    Never tell | July 30, 2013 at 11:13 AM |
    ARE YOU TRYING TO SAY THAT THE ABDOMINAL PAIN YOUR MOTHER HAD WAS DUE TO CA PANCREAS? HOW DO YOU KNOW THAT?

    RE He had luekenia which was also missed here
    ARE YOU TRYING TO SAY THAT THE LOCAL DRS DID NOT EVEN DO A FULL BLOOD COUNT WITH DIFFERENTIAL?
    DO TELL BU READERS WHAT THE PRECAUTIONARY SCREENING TEST FOR CA PANCREAS IS ?
    THE DIFFICULTY IN THE TREATMENT OF CA PANCREAS IS NOT BECAUSE IT IS SOFT TISSUE, BUT BECAUSE OF ITS LOCATION AND RELATIONS.

    DIDNT YOU HET THAT IN YOUR READING TOO?

    Never tell | July 30, 2013 at 11:28 AM |
    My strong belief is that if I had walked in with the same symptoms at the QEH I would have been sent home with pills to treat gastro.
    YOUR OPINION SEEMS TO BE A CONSEQUENCE OF YOUR ABYSMAL IGNORANCE

    THE DR GOT WHAT WAS A CLASSICAL HISTORY OF MYOCARDIAL INFARCTION….ShortNESS of breath and some pain down the arm
    NO ROCKET SCIENCE THERE. MOST MEDICAL STUDENTS WOULD GET THE DIAGNOSIS HERE.

    YOUR STORY ALSO ILLUSTRATES WHAT I HAVE BEEN TEACHING ON BU FOR A WHILE, THAT DIAGNOSES ARE MADE 99% OF THE TIME ON HISTORY AND NOT ON TESTS

    NOTE THAT THE the EKG and Xray WERE NORMAL. AND THAT THE THE BLOOD TESTS MERELY CONFIRMED THE DIAGNOSIS ONLY. NOTE THATTHE DIAGNOSIS WAS MADE ON HISTORY.

    YOUR ACCOUNT OF YOUR RELATIVES PNEUMONIA SPEAKS MAINLY OF THE FACT THAT CASUALTY IS UNNECESSARILY CLOGGED UP AND THAT YOUR RELATIVE COULD HAVE BEEN BETTER SERVED BY REFERRAL FIRST TO A NEARBY POLYCLINIC SET UP ACCORDING TO THE STANDARDS DISCUSSED AS EARLY AS JANUARY 2008

  8. Never tell Avatar
    Never tell

    You seem to enjoy shouting at people. Yes, the stomach pain was related to the pancreatic cancer. This is why she was rushed to the hospital in Boston from the the severe pain in the abdomen. Yes the luekenia was missed as well. I was not here so I cannot tell you what test were or were not done. Again this was discovered in Boston while he was on a trip and complaining of severe leg pain.

    On my admission to the hospital, I had no shortness of breath, what I said was for weeks before I had experienced it from time to time. What I should have mentioned was that was during the time of the year that my asthma usually flairs up as well. The admission was when I was complaining for the upset stomach and headache over the weekend. The diagnosis was made or confirmed by the blood test. There was no chest pain, pain in the arm, neck or shoulder when I was admitted. You seem to want to leap and tell me what I went through when you were not there.

    If you do not know that there are blood test to detect pancreatic cancer and you are a doctor, I hope I never encounter you.

    With regards to my father’s pneumonia, you should carefully read my note that he was referred to the QEH for admission. He was treated as an outpatient for several days before being referred. His major risk factor was that he also suffered from congested heart failure. He was in hospital for 1 week to have the issue resolved. What good are your 2008 recommendation when they were not implemented.

    We would not speak about the conditions on the Wards at the QEH where birds fly in and out at their leisure and pick on people food if they are not strong enough to feed themselves. We will not speak about the open windows on the wards which are covered with filth and blow into the wards would we.

  9. Georgie Porgie Avatar
    Georgie Porgie

    QUID SCRIPSI, SCRIPSI

    THE FIRST CASE OF LEUKEMIA I SAW AS A STUDENT WAS SIMILAR TO THIS EXCEPT THAT THE LADY HAD THE PULMONARY EMBOLUS BEFORE THE DVT IN THE LEG

    THE PATIENT WAS ADMITTED CORRECTLY FOR PULMONARY EMBOLUS AND THE LEUKEMIA FOUND SERENDIPITOUSLY ON DOING THE WBC AND DIFF AS I SUSPECT HAPPENED IN THIS CASE

    TELL ME IN WHAT WAY WAS THE DIAGNOSIS MISSED IN BIM?
    BECAUSE YOU SAID SO.

    RE If you do not know that there are blood test to detect pancreatic cancer and you are a doctor, I ASKED YOU TO TELL ME. I NEVER SAID WHAT I KNEW OR DIDNT KNOW

    WHAT IS CLEAR TO ME IS THAT YOU ARE OUT OF YOUR LEAGUE

    My strong belief is that if I had walked in with the same symptoms at the QEH I would have been sent home with pills to treat gastro.
    YOUR OPINION SEEMS TO BE A CONSEQUENCE OF YOUR ABYSMAL IGNORANCE AND JUST BECAUSE YOU SAID SO?

    RUN IN AND BOWL AGAIN I FEEL LIKE MOCKING A MEDICAL ILLITERATE TODAY WHO THINKS HE KNOWS

  10. Georgie Porgie Avatar
    Georgie Porgie

    DEAR NEVER TELL THE MEDICAL ILLITERATE WHO DOES NOT KNOW THAT HE DOES NOT KNOW, READ AND LEARN

    Can pancreatic cancer be found early?
    One reason for the often poor outlook for people with exocrine pancreatic cancer is that very few of these cancers are found early. The pancreas is located deep inside the body, so early tumors cannot be seen or felt by health care providers during routine physical exams. Patients usually have no symptoms until the cancer has spread to other organs. Right now, there are no blood tests to find early cancers of the pancreas. Doctors are looking to see if something called endoscopic ultrasound can be useful in screening people with a high risk of pancreatic cancer.

    Blood tests

    A substance called CA 19-9 is released into the blood by exocrine pancreatic cancer cells and can be detected by blood tests. But by the time blood levels are high enough to be consistently detected by available methods, the cancer is no longer in its early stages. This is why the test is not recommended for routine screening of people without symptoms or a known diagnosis of cancer. The CA 19-9 test is sometimes used during treatment to see if the therapy is working or after treatment to see if the cancer has recurred (come back).

    Another substance, carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA), can help detect advanced pancreatic cancer in some people. But it isn’t sensitive enough to find the cancer early and is not recommended as a screening test.

    http://www.cancer.org/cancer/pancreaticcancer/detailedguide/pancreatic-cancer-detection

    IF YOU ARE UNABLE TO COMPREHEND THE ABOVE ASK
    GP IS A GOOD TEACHER OF MEDICAL ILLITERATES LIKE YOU THAT THINK YOU KNOW

  11. Never tell Avatar
    Never tell

    I shared the belief with a very well qualified doctors here in Barbados. He indicated that unfortunately he would not have been surprised if that had happened. I am not a doctor but my aunt is a pretty good nurse from the UK. She related a story about a friend of her’s who she told to have a specific blood test which is used to detect pancreatic cancer. It was done and based on that early detection she is a 5 yr plus survivor. I am not a medical person. I am sharing my experiences and opinions informed on those experiences. Your approach is abusive and some thing I associate with too many of the medical profession in this island who act like gods. It strange that in an island of 285,000 with over 500 registered doctors there has never been one case of medical malpractice. Does that mean doctors here are so good or are they so good at covering for each other. In most professions, mistakes happen, once they are not from gross misconduct people are accepting that they happen. Regardless of the cause they are learning experiences.

  12. Georgie Porgie Avatar
    Georgie Porgie

    DEAR NEVER TELL THE MEDICAL ILLITERATE WHO DOES NOT KNOW THAT HE DOES NOT KNOW, READ AND LEARN

    LET US TRY AGAIN MORON

    Are there screening tests available?
    Although there are no screening tests currently available to screen the general population, investigators at Johns Hopkins are working on developing new tests such as the endoscopic ultrasound. It is hoped that these new tests may prove effective, particularly when applied to slect groups of patients known to have an increased risk of developing pancreatic cancer such as individuals with a strong family history of pancreatic cancer.
    CA19-9 is the best available tumor marker for following the progression of the disease but is only 80% accurate in identifying patients with pancreatic cancer. Due to the inability of CA19-9 to identify early potentially curable disease, several other markers have been studied including SPAN-1, CA-50, DUPAN-2, elastase-1, tissue polypeptide antigen and tissue polypeptide-specific antigen. These markers have not performed nearly as well as the CA19-9.
    SNIP
    we now know much more about the changes in the DNA and other molecules in the pancreas cells that give rise to pancreatic cancer. Most of these changes are not inherited and occur as the result of factorssuch as smoking, diet, and age. Importantly, pancreatic cancer researchers are characterizing these specific changes in DNA and other molecules. Armed with this knowledge, it is hoped that over the next few years, specific and extremely sensitive screening tests will be developed. Such a screening test will be able to detect pancreatic cancer at an early stage when it still cannot be visualized using state of the art diagnostic imaging techniques. Once such a screening panel is in place, it can be offered to individuals who, from their family history, know that they are at particular risk of developing this disease.

    http://pathology.jhu.edu/pc/BasicScreening.php

    IF YOU ARE UNABLE TO COMPREHEND THE ABOVE ASK
    GP IS A GOOD TEACHER OF MEDICAL ILLITERATES LIKE YOU THAT THINK YOU KNOW

  13. Georgie Porgie Avatar
    Georgie Porgie

    I shared the belief with a very well qualified doctors here in Barbados. He indicated that unfortunately he would not have been surprised if that had happened.

    I AM TELLING YOU THAT THE HISTORY YOU GAVE IS CLASSIC FOR THE INFORMED PHYSICIAN

    DOES YOUR “very well qualified doctors here in Barbados” NOT MAKE MISTAKES TOO MORON

  14. Never tell Avatar
    Never tell

    It seems that you get off on being abusive, hence I I have made my case that you are obviously one of the medical profession in Barbados who seems to be worshiped.

    Do you dispute that pancreatic cancer can be detected early by annual screening of diabetics who are predisposed to this condition. I am not a doctor or profess to be a doctor. But because of my personal medical conditions and those in my medical history I have read up on what I need to know.

    I seems that you get off on demonstrating your personal and professional skills by hurling insults and attempting to ridicule others. If you wish to continue in this vein and demonstrate your communication skills, please feel free to continue. Your audience I am sure has your measure.

  15. Georgie Porgie Avatar
    Georgie Porgie

    MISTER KNOW IT ALL
    HERE IS ANOTHER REPORT
    LET YOUR VERY WELL QUALIFIED DOCTOR EXPLAIN IT TO YOU
    I DOUBT YOU CAN UNDERSTAND IT

    Promising Pancreatic Cancer Screening Marker Identified
    Apr. 27, 2011 — Researchers at the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center have identified a protein that shows distinct changes in structure between pancreatic cancer, non-cancerous diseases and normal blood serum. The protein also changes from early stage pancreatic cancer to advanced disease.

    The finding suggests a blood test could serve as a potential screening tool to detect pancreatic cancer — which has the worst prognosis of any cancer type — at an earlier, more treatable stage.
    “One of the difficulties in screening for pancreatic cancer is distinguishing it from other conditions, such as diabetes or pancreatitis. There is not a good marker currently that can do that. Ultimately, we need to detect earlier stages of pancreatic cancer that can be operated on and treated. Once the cancer reaches advanced stages, it becomes difficult to treat,” said senior study author David M. Lubman, Ph.D., Maude T. Lane Professor of Surgical Immunology at the U-M Medical School, and a U-M professor of surgery, pathology and chemistry.
    In this study, published online in the Journal of Proteome Research, Lubman and colleagues looked at proteins in the blood, and identified one, haptoglobin, that is in fairly high abundance. Haptoglobin is a type of glycoprotein, a category of proteins that has complex chains of sugar groups attached to it. These sugar groups are highly regulated in normal cells but develop a different structure in cancer cells.
    The study looked at a total of 31 blood serum samples. The samples were from disease-free controls, patients with chronic pancreatitis, patients with diabetes and patients with varying stages of pancreatic cancer.
    Because haptoglobin appears in abundance in serum, it is easy to pull out and isolate from the blood serum with an antibody. The researchers could then look at the structure of the sugar groups from the haptoglobin in the serum using a mass spectrometer, which is a device that separates and identifies molecules based on their molecular weight. They found it was easy to see the changes in the structure of the sugar groups from serum samples of pancreatic cancer versus non-cancerous disease, with distinct changes in structure or the amount of each structure present for each stage of pancreatic cancer versus pancreatitis, diabetes or normal samples.
    Researchers are continuing to refine the assay, and are looking to develop a method that would allow them to evaluate hundreds of samples at once. Eventually, they hope this would lead to a test in which patients submit blood samples through their local doctors’ offices, which are then sent to centralized laboratories for processing.
    “Screening for pancreatic cancer would not be done through the general population because it’s a fairly rare cancer. Rather, a test like this could potentially be used to screen people who are in high risk groups — those with a family history of pancreatic cancer, people who are obese or smoke, and people who have long-term diabetes or pancreatitis,” Lubman says.
    Researchers believe that a similar test could be used for colon and liver cancer, although more work is needed to identify the best markers in those diseases.
    The researchers will continue to refine the markers to allow them to better and more reliably distinguish early stage pancreatic cancer. They will also begin testing this approach in larger samples. This test is not available to patients at this time.

  16. David Avatar
    David

    @Never Tell

    You have to understand GP ok? If you want to learn stuff put it up and GP will give it to you. Don’t get immerse in the tone.

  17. Georgie Porgie Avatar
    Georgie Porgie

    BIRD BRAIN
    RE you are obviously one of the medical profession in Barbados who seems to be worshiped.

    NO I NO LONGER LIVE AT HOME

    AND I HAVE NEVER BEEN WORSHIPPED THERE, HERE OR ANYWHERE

    DAVID
    I WILL GET ONE OF MY STUDENTS TO SEND YOU A PPT ON SELECTING AND INTERPRETING TESTS WHICH I USED ONCE IN A PATHOLOGY CLASS IN THE COOK ISLANDS

    PLEASE KINDLY POST IT HERE FOR THOSE WHO SEEK TO LEARN

  18. Never tell Avatar
    Never tell

    You know the stupid thing about this, you are in violent agreement with what I have said about pancreatic cancer. I will not relive my mother pain through this forum.

  19. David Avatar
    David

    You maybe correct, BU is not for everyone.

  20. Never tell Avatar
    Never tell

    Here are the things I care about in this conversation
    1. There are means to detect pancreatic cancer early
    2. That pancreatic cancer is difficult to detect due to its location
    3. Because it is soft tissue it is more difficult to treat
    4. That people who are over 50 and who are diabetic should be subject to annual screening for pancreatic cancer.

  21. Georgie Porgie Avatar
    Georgie Porgie

    NO FOOL IM NOT
    YOUR MOTHER’S ACUTE ABDOMINAL PAIN MIGHT HAVE BEEN DUE TO A LONG LIST OF AILMENTS THAT PRESENT WITH ABDOMINAL PAIN………[GO ASK YOUR HIGHLY TRAINED DR FRIENDS AND YOUR AUNTIE THE NURSE FROM THE UK]

    ON THIS LIST CA PANCREAS IS NOT NEAR TO THE TOP OF THE LIST

    ONE MIGHT EASILY HAVE THOUGHT THAT YOUR MOM HAD PANCREATITIS [SECONDARY TO ALCOHOLISM WHEN THEY REALIZE HOW SLOW YOU ARE] LOL LOL ROTFLMAO

  22. Never tell Avatar
    Never tell

    For you to attack my mother without knowing her is reprehensible. You absolutely have no class.

  23. Georgie Porgie Avatar
    Georgie Porgie

    Here are the things I care about in this conversation
    1. There are means to detect pancreatic cancer early NOT TRUE
    2. That pancreatic cancer is difficult to detect due to its location ESPECIALLY ITS LOCATIONS ALREADY DISCUSSED EARLIER ON THIS BLOG
    3. Because it is soft tissue it is more difficult to treat NOT TRUE DIFFICULTY IN TREATING IS BECAUSE IT PRESENTS LATE IN ITS COURSE AND IS THEREFORE DIAGNOSED LATE BY WHICH TIME IT HAS METASTATISED TO ITS VERY IMPORTANT RELATIONS- THREE MAJOR BLOOD VESSELS
    4. That people who are over 50 and who are diabetic should be subject to annual screening for pancreatic cancer. THE ARTICLES DOWNLOADED INDICATE THAT THERE ARE NO PROPER TESTSAT THIS TIME

  24. Georgie Porgie Avatar
    Georgie Porgie

    Never tell | July 30, 2013 at 2:14 PM |
    For you to attack my mother without knowing her is reprehensible. You absolutely have no class.
    MY DIAGNOSIS WAS BASED ON MY HISTORY TAKING FROM LISTENING TO YOU ROTFLMAO

    DONT WORRY ABOUT MY CLASS
    NEVER REALLY BENEFITTED BECAUSE OF CLASS LOL
    YOU ARE SO FUNNY AND STUPID

    ONLY A MOTHER COULD LOVE YOU
    YOU LIKE CCC ROTFLMAO

  25. David Avatar
    David

    Here is that presentation promised by Doc GP.
    http://bajan.files.wordpress.com/2013/07/selecting-and-interpreting-lab-results-pbl.pdf

  26. bernadette Avatar
    bernadette

    simply simon Dr Sparman have 4 of each but we all know ppl can always apply for things doesn’t mean they are going to get it and its something he can apply for every year, still it have nothing to do with his qualification, we have to learn to read ppl

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