Former Reggae Boyz team physician Dr Carlton “Pee Wee” Fraser is dead.
Fraser, who was said to be the first Rastafarian medical doctor in the country, passed away at a hospital in Miami on Sunday morning. He was 74.
Fraser was the personal physician and a close friend of reggae legend Bob Marley who died in 1981.
A past student of Wolmer’s Boys’ School, Fraser studied at Howard University in Washington DC and interned at University Hospital of the West Indies in St Andrew.
In the 1970s, he was based at the St Ann’s Bay Hospital and as news spread of a Rastafarian doctor, he was summoned to a meeting with the Twelve Tribes of Israel and subsequently became a member and the organization’s doctor. St Ann’s Bay hospital also became the medical place of choice for all Rastafarians.
However, in 2013, Dr. Fraser was banned by football’s world governing body FIFA for four years after administering a banned substance, dexamethasone, to Reggae Boyz midfielder Jermaine Hue who tested positive for the drug after a World Cup qualifying match against Honduras.
Dr Fraser always maintained that he was unaware that the drug that landed Hue in trouble was on the banned list of substances.
Nevertheless, he was well-loved by the Reggae Boyz for his unconventional methods.
Howard Walker
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