By AVA TURNQUEST

Tribune Chief Reporter

aturnquest@tribunemedia.net

SCANDAL-hit cancer specialist Dr Arthur Porter died at a hospital in Panama after a more than two-year battle with lung cancer.

Dr Porter, former managing director of the Bahamas Cancer Centre and head of the country’s national task force on stem cell therapy, had been incarcerated in a Panamanian prison since mid-2013 as he fought extradition to Canada to face a litany of fraud charges.

He was 59 years old.

According to international reports, Dr Porter died at 11.05pm on Tuesday at the Instituto Oncologico Nacional (National Cancer Centre) in Panama.

Yesterday, local thoracic surgeon Dr Duane Sands offered his condolences to Dr Porter’s wife Pamela and four daughters: Gemma, Fiona, Adina and Charlotte.

Both physicians were part of the stem cell therapy task force in December 2012. The government-appointed team, led by Dr Porter, presented recommendations on stem cell research and therapy.

Dr Sands came out in support of Dr Porter as speculation over the veracity of the embattled physician’s health status mounted in the midst of calls for his arrest.

At that time, he maintained that his colleague, who had been diagnosed with metastatic lung cancer in the Bahamas, was “innocent until proven guilty”.

Yesterday Dr Sands said: “It’s a tragedy because one of the unfortunate lines to this whole story was the question of whether he was indeed even sick. There was never any substance to that allegation.

“Having actually been a part of the team that diagnosed the cancer, despite it all, he fought gallantly to the end. The fact that he would have died in prison before having his time in court is nothing short of a tragedy. People will perhaps never really know since he doesn’t have the opportunity to defend himself.

“My condolences go out to his family – he was really a colleague and a friend,” Dr Sands added.

Dr Porter was wanted in Canada to answer multiple charges, including fraud, conspiracy to commit government fraud, abuse of trust, secret commissions and laundering the proceeds of a crime.

In his 2014 memoir – The Man Behind the Bow Tie – Dr Porter wrestles with his rise and fall, and details his relationship with the Bahamas, which began in 2000.

According to a review of the book by journalist Larry Smith, Dr Porter also provided a firsthand account of meetings with Prime Minister Perry Christie and Canadian multimillionaire Peter Nygard over the latter’s demand for immediate government approval of his proposed stem cell institute in return for millions in political contributions during the 2012 election campaign.

Dr Porter said his job had been “to keep Nygard in check, or at least to try.”

The former hospital administrator at Montreal’s McGill University was accused in a $22.5-million kickback scheme for the construction of the institution’s $1.4-billion mega-hospital.

It was alleged that Dr Porter received millions in secret commissions for tipping the hospital contract to favour contractor SNC-Lavalin.

In January 2013, Dr Porter told The Tribune that he had late, stage-four cancer and was too ill to travel as allegations surrounding his business ventures, tenure and resignation from the McGill University Health Centre heightened.

Quebec’s anti-corruption squad issued an international arrest warrant for Dr Porter and his wife in February 2013.

The Porters were arrested in Panama City during a connecting flight from Nassau to Trinidad and Tobago on May 25, 2013.

Mrs Porter, nee Mattock, accused of conspiring with her husband to launder millions of dollars, was extradited to Canada and pled guilty to two counts of money laundering in connection with her husband’s case.

She was sentenced in December to 33 months in jail, according to media reports.

Dr Porter was transferred to Panama’s La Joya penitentiary, reportedly one of the top 10 worst prisons in the world, and had remained there until he was transferred to a hospital three months ago.

His physician and long-time friend Dr Karol Sikora, confirmed to Canadian media that Dr Porter died suddenly and alone.

Dr Porter was originally from Sierra Leone and moved to Canada in the 1980s.

He was named head of the McGill University Health Centre in Canada in 2004 and was later placed on Canada’s security intelligence review committee, which he chaired before resigning in 2011, according to international reports.