From Grenada to Cardiology with Dr. Diego Humphrey

When determination meets opportunity, extraordinary stories unfold. That's precisely what you'll hear as I, Carlene Humphrey, host an intimate chat with Dr. Diego Humphrey—an embodiment of resilience and academic triumph. We journey through the halls of St. George's University in Grenada, a cradle of medical excellence, and discuss its origins tied to Charles Modica's vision and Eric Gairy's support. Uncle Dee, as we affectionately call him, recounts his early days as a pioneering Grenadian student, overcoming the skepticism of his qualifications and the intense dedication required to grasp the American medical system's complexities.

Our conversation takes an even deeper turn as Uncle D bares the soul of a cardiologist, sharing not just the rigorous path of residency and fellowship that shaped his expertise, but also the moments of financial strife and personal sacrifice. He recounts a pivotal experience in an ICU that cemented his calling, and we marvel at his perseverance to secure a place among the esteemed medical community in Philadelphia. This episode isn't just a testament to Uncle Dee's journey; it's a beacon of inspiration for anyone who dreams of wearing the white coat but doubts the possibility. So, lend us your ears, and let the story of Uncle Dee's ascent to a lauded cardiologist stir your heart and ignite your aspirations.

Chapters

• 0:01 Interview With Dr. Diego Humphrey
• 13:21 Becoming a Cardiologist
• 17:37 Medical Education Challenges in Grenada

Transcript

Dr. Humphrey: 0:01

Welcome to Nutmeg Nation with Carlene Humphrey.

Carlene: 0:05

Hi, I'm Carlene and this is Nutmeg Nation. I am your host and I have with me on Zoom Dr Diego Humphrey, and he's in Oklahoma. Hi, diego, hi.

Dr. Humphrey: 0:19

Dr, Diego, hi Carlene, how are you Carlene, uncle D, that's just fine, I'll call you Uncle D.

Carlene: 0:24

Okay, yeah, there you go. Yeah, we've made it professional.

Dr. Humphrey: 0:30

We're ready and that will take care of that Going forward, Uncle Dee.

Carlene: 0:35

So tell me, for those that don't know a lot about St George's University, what is it about the school that brings so many students to the country?

Dr. Humphrey: 0:47

Well, basically the school started with Charles Mordechar. He was attempting to go to medical school himself and then he became professionally as a lawyer. But then he had his idea to get away with his father to start off a medical school it's unknown to be in the Caribbean eventually, in Grenada eventually but to provide access to many of the good students actually who were trying to get into medicine and was not able to do it Unfortunately. He met with Eric Gary, our prime minister at the time, who also had a fantastic idea to try to promote education in Grenada, and there came up with that off-island, offshore for US medical school, and so the first chartered class was, I think, 1977. It took off from there. Right now, the majority of students that started the school were Americans and the agreement or arrangement that they had is to start providing scholarships to Grenadians.

Dr. Humphrey: 2:01

Unfortunately, I was among the first Grenadians that went into the medical school. It was five of us and, lo and behold, some way along the way the other four dropped off and I struggled through the whole process and eventually got my MD. I didn't know that. Yeah, it was, and I think you remember it was what Charmaine Steele, jennifer Edwards, ray Charles, clinton, lewis and myself you remember everyone in your class.

Dr. Humphrey: 2:36

Yeah, because it was a special group and everything was new to us. As a matter of fact, we did not have the pre-med or master's degree to go into the school itself. So they joined up with Truth McConnell College in Georgia, cleveland, georgia, and they allowed a pre-med program designed for us as Grenadians, and then that's how we were able to make the first semester into the school accepted, into the school itself.

Carlene: 3:10

When you think about med school, a lot of programs like you either study in the United States or Canada, like if you were in India and you come here you can't just practice medicine. It doesn't interpret the same way. I guess it's because of the system, right? Like you were able to study the American system in Grenada, which makes it easier to study anywhere in the US, right?

Dr. Humphrey: 3:37

It's a somewhat difficult thing for us. Well, for me, as a Grenadian and not a US citizen, I could not, and that's how I end up in England. I could not. After finishing the first two years of training in Grenada, I couldn't come up to the US to study the clinicals. So we end up in England and doing the clinical rotations out there and then come back to the US after graduation. Essentially, oh, okay, it was a difficult time because growing years for the school and for the students in there it's like the test of the actual program itself.

Dr. Humphrey: 4:20

That's a separate topic of its own, oh okay.

Dr. Humphrey: 4:24

Because, yeah, it was a difficult thing in every step that we had to go through. Initially, us hospitals were very rejectful of our students. They didn't want to accept our students to begin with, and a lot of work and arrangement that Dr Modico had with professors, even some retirees, and through arrangement with them where they're practiced, they were able to get our students to enter the program like residency and training, like that. Most of the students they just work the dickens out, work very hard and once they get into any program they just continue to work like crazy, I would say, and that just showed them. Even myself personally, that's what happened Once I get into the program. It took me quite a while to get into the US residency training, but once I got in, you just work yourself to make sure that you're well known for what you are essentially.

Carlene: 5:29

Yeah, you're trying to make your mark in the program.

Dr. Humphrey: 5:32

Yeah, yeah, I mean, you get a chance and you make the best of it. Matter of fact, after I finished my residency in internal medicine, I was one of the first that chose for the Cardiology Fellowship because of the features that I showed as a resident in internal medicine.

Carlene: 5:48

Talking about your education, it obviously stems from where growing up in Grenada and going to school and then realizing that this is something that you wanna do. So I read that your aunt was your kind of like a little bit of an inspiration or someone that helped you decide that this is something you wanted to do.

Dr. Humphrey: 6:13

Well, yes, that's correct, aunt Tijou, teacher German is one.

Carlene: 6:17

Yeah, teacher German. Yes, Bless her heart.

Dr. Humphrey: 6:19

Yeah, bless her heart, yeah, and may she continue to rest in peace. You know, when she did district nursing in Bolio, I remember vividly when she did the clinic, there were certain days that they do different types of clinic, and happened to wander into the clinic and I just got a sense of what they were doing and taking care of wounds and so come in there, different things like that. So that's where the caring part went into it for me. The rest of it, though, if I had to speak on one thing, it's just the gift that I got, really yeah. Yeah, you know, because things opened out for me in certain ways. I give you a little story. Actually, you may not know that, and a lot of people might not know that I never really liked school. You know it's not enough in Bruchkov.

Carlene: 7:14

Really. Yeah, I looked at that. I looked at something new.

Dr. Humphrey: 7:18

Yeah, it's a funny story. You know, we grew up in Nez House. My grandmother's house is right next to Johnson Estate and right there, you know, there was a little river, a little creek that runs across the road, and right in the estate there were lots of things to do. And so when the mommy sent me to school that was Bruchkov RSC school at that time I never really went to school, I just stayed on the estate and play and things like that. And you know I would go home after school or lunchtime because we walked up from Bruchkov to Nez House and shot here and then mommy would come up and say what did you learn in school today? Abc. You know what I mean, abc, you know. So for after a while it was just ABC alone and it didn't know much.

Dr. Humphrey: 8:06

So they get a sense, you get a sense that he was not going to school. And, a matter of fact, the workers in the estate told mommy he was not going to school. At 10 o'clock they would see him playing by the river or things like that. So finally she brought it. It's a funny story, but she brought me to this bar friend that she had was a police officer. He said you need to go to school, Otherwise he'll put me in that little jail in there. And he showed me that little two-eyed, two-cell. Oh my god, I cannot go in there here. From that time I started going to school and it took off from there. I mean, I was just knowing everything and you know, and everything just fall into place.

Carlene: 8:50

Wow, I mean, what a way to really give you a picture of your life.

Dr. Humphrey: 8:55

Like I mean, how old were you when he told you that Like you know, you know you bring it thing back to mine now I was by the time mom moved me down from Berserk over to Grand Dance. I was like 13 years old, yeah, and at that time, to tell you the honest truth, I had difficulties even spelling my name. My middle name was, like, sebastian, I didn't even able to spell my name.

Carlene: 9:18

I didn't even realize that that's your middle name until.

Carlene: 9:20

I read it out, I was just like oh, sebastian, I'm like, now I know why Sebastian has his name. That makes sense. You know, sebastian's my cousin, uncle Diego's son. But yeah, it's wow, what a story.

Carlene: 9:32

I find it so interesting to hear the things that we did when we were children. Right, I was telling someone about me and Grenada and I didn't skip school, but I did something. I just remember writing about this today, uncle D I actually there were snacks in school. I remember this uh vaguely, but I think you pay like a quarter for the snack and somehow, because it was so good, I use my bus fare to buy another snack. And then, when it came time for me to go home, I don't know if I had to walk or if I had to ask I think maybe the principal or someone had to give me money to get on the bus.

Carlene: 10:11

And I think I've gotten so much trouble when I got home after that because they're like why did you use? Like I use my extra money, right, because they give you money for your, your recess snack and for your bus fare and I just use both. I'm like, oh my gosh, you know like the things that I did when I was younger. So it's just interesting that you weren't even going to class. You're kind of playing like Tom Sawyer, but that was.

Dr. Humphrey: 10:35

You know that was the young age, yeah 13. That's so yeah, after that when mom, when mom brought me down to Grand Dance, it was a total different story. Then I was so serious. I tell you, the teacher, didn't, you know, pay attention to what they were doing? I would go home and complain to mommy. You know that teacher is not doing right. You know you should send me to a different school, yeah. Oh my gosh, that's so interesting Wow.

Carlene: 11:02

Talking about memories, like I, because you grew like you were growing up in the 80s. Do you remember the invasion in Grenada?

Dr. Humphrey: 11:11

The invasion time I was in England.

Carlene: 11:14

Oh, you were.

Dr. Humphrey: 11:15

Yeah, that was 83. Yeah, that's where I was doing my clinical rotation then. Now I do remember the one I was in shape of school in the 70s. We had a lot of demonstration at that time we participated in. I participated in some of them, you know, but the invasion time now was in England at that time.

Carlene: 11:35

So the part I think I want to understand is med school, because you said you only did two years and that was it. Did you do four?

Dr. Humphrey: 11:43

years. That's treatment, that's treatment.

Carlene: 11:45

Okay, so for those of us who don't understand med school. I for me, I understand. I think I thought med school is four years, Right.

Dr. Humphrey: 11:55

It is yeah.

Carlene: 11:56

Okay, so four years. So explain to me the four years before you actually have to go and do clinical and so on.

Dr. Humphrey: 12:04

The first two years is like mainly theory Right, you know. So you're in a classroom, you do biochemistry, you do anatomy and all these subjects are, you know every stage you've got to go through them, yeah, and so towards the latter part of that two years you start getting ready for preclinicals. You know you start doing like some of the students in Greenator they will be going to the hospital under a clock ship. You know they're working with the doctors in the hospital. But it's starting like the medical students starting to learn how to take history from the patient, how to get information from the patient in the hospital or in the clinic, for example. So like, when I go down there I even have some medical student rotate with me both in the hospital and in the office in the clinic down there.

Dr. Humphrey: 12:56

But then that would take about two years. And then the other two years is really detailed hospital clinical rotation. That would carry you through all the different specialties. So you do surgery, you do medicine, you know in the different areas in in total medicine itself. You know pulmonary and nephrology, neurology, etc. Different rotations in different ways.

Carlene: 13:20

Okay.

Dr. Humphrey: 13:21

And then when you graduate, finally you just get your MD or your degree, or DO you know, depends on what program you go through and then after that you go through fellowship like oh no, no, residency Right, and that's where you really channel yourself into whatever area that you might be interested in.

Carlene: 13:39

I remember us having this conversation and you said to me it's the amount of study and you did to specialize in the heart, like to become a cardiologist, is 15 years. That's a lot of time to study.

Dr. Humphrey: 13:52

Yeah, so that's it. For example, after you get your degree right, finish all medical school, so that's that. First four years there you go through internal medicine, and so that's where the residency come in. So that would be actually, I think that's like three or four years, and then you would go into fellowship and that fellowship is where you start cardiology or whatever, whatever special area that you want to go into. So that's where all these years come in.

Carlene: 14:21

And then just the funding for it, because you said you had some challenges along the way. It's like because you were part of the first program and not necessarily getting the funding Like I mean med school is like a lot of money and even at that time when you were studying, just getting the funds together right, Because you cannot work and go to med school, Were you?

Dr. Humphrey: 14:43

able to work.

Carlene: 14:43

There's no way right.

Dr. Humphrey: 14:45

No, I couldn't do that. I mean it's a nice thing, it's a big struggle, so part of it. But this scholarship was part of the scholarship in the sense that I had to, and that's why after graduation I went down to Grenada and I was down there for two years. You know, after graduation, oh, ok, yeah, to pay back the government that scholarship that I was given. You know, that was granted. I should say we are four people. I mean there's no way.

Carlene: 15:10

It's a little bit of passion and a little bit of perseverance and clear determination, Uncle Diego and that's the very reason why I couldn't flunk auto medical school.

Dr. Humphrey: 15:20

You know when I want to, what it took. I was going to make it, you know. If you didn't, you know what else you know.

Carlene: 15:28

But you didn't want to just become like a family doctor. You wanted to study cardiology. When was the time when you were like this is my specialty. I want to do this.

Dr. Humphrey: 15:40

That's a very good question actually. And again, he came back to me with an instant, while I was in England doing one of the I think it was the ICU rotation you may have heard while in the hospital, the cold blue they would call it cold blue. Yeah, you know. So there was this arrest that we, the patient, arrested in intensive care unit with, you know, the heart stopped and you know flat line and breathing thing, you know. And then they have this cold blue team, so a number of doctors, the pulmonology or the EKG technician, everybody runs to that patient and do they? They look part. And then the cardiologist came in and he said you know, do this, do this? And he calls some medicine and stuff. And then the next thing, after they put that medicine in, the patient is shocked and the heart rate came back and that person, you know, started to breathe and stuff and said God, that's what I want to do.

Dr. Humphrey: 16:44

You know, that's where the idea that's where the idea from cardiology came Once I got into residency, which is the general medicine itself. After the three years of training, I applied to get into a cardiology fellowship.

Dr. Humphrey: 16:59

And where did you get into that was in Philadelphia, and Episcopal Hospital, which had a joint program with the Medical College of Pennsylvania, and that's where I did that residency and fellowship. Even when I left Grenada in what, 86, what was happening, to tell the honest truth, even though that I was working on the ward, I was a junior officer is what they, what they told us, because we worked under the British system, you know, like house officer, and you know the bigger doctors or the trained doctors would be. I don't remember exactly what the name was.

Carlene: 17:38

Yeah, well, I mean, you were going back, we're going back in history, right? So yeah, the Buddha law was.

Dr. Humphrey: 17:44

The was over us, and then the graduates of SGU and I was the only one there at that time coming back with our MD. There was no uproar for me, you know, I just had to be there. And even University of the West Indies is really what trained our doctors in Grenada, like the Caribbean doctors, yeah. And then they never recognize as our school. As yet the St George's University was not recognized by them, so our trained doctors couldn't really advance into the that program, if you may. So all I was able to do is just be a house office or work a doctor on the ward. Thank you for listening to Nutmeg Nation with Carline Humphrey.