Blind Eye: How the Medical Establishment Let a Doctor Get away with Murder - Hardcover

Stewart, James B.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0684854848 ISBN 13: 9780684854847

Publisher: Simon & Schuster, 1999

Synopsis

In 1985, a young doctor named Michael Swango was convicted of poisoning five hospital co-workers in Illinois. Sentenced to five years in jail but paroled in 1987, Swango would work -- and kill -- within the medical community again, escaping detection until lying on a job application on Long Island almost ten years later. His story is a show-stopper that will make any one who hears it think twice before trusting just anyone in a white lab coat.

About this title

Review:

From the moment he entered medical school in the late 1970s, people around Michael Swango thought he was a little odd. But even though he expounded upon his obsessions with violent death and serial killings to anybody within earshot, almost nobody connected him to the string of deaths among patients under his care. When an investigation finally took place at the Ohio State medical centre, hospital administrators sympathised with Swango--against the direct testimony of patients and nurses--and seemed more concerned with how revelations of a murderous doctor might affect their public image than with the safety of their clients. And, remarkably, even after being released from prison in Illinois, where he had been convicted of (non-fatally) poisoning several of his co-workers, Swango was able to obtain positions at hospitals in South Dakota and New York. When American authorities finally started to pursue his case, he fled the country and began plying his trade in Zimbabwe. In June 1998, after being captured during an attempt to re-enter the United States, he was sentenced to 42 months in federal prison--on fraud charges related to his employment in New York.

The truly frightening aspect of Blind Eye is not the relentless chain of murders but the ease with which Swango was able to repeatedly slip through the cracks in the medical system, simply by lying about the nature of his felony conviction. James B. Stewart methodically traces every step of Swango's career, laying out a straightforward narrative with all the suspense of a well-crafted thriller. Although attempts to "explain" Swango's behaviour through psychopathology and a historical rise in the incidences of serial killing derail the ending somewhat, Blind Eye is still a must-read for true crime buffs--or anyone who enjoys good journalism. --Ron Hogan

Review:

Ellen Clegg

"The Boston Globe"

Stewart penetrates the hermetically sealed world of medicine. In the process, he exposes the arrogance and the fraudulent professional courtesies that allowed Swango to move ahead unchallenged. In other words, Stewart does the work that hospital administrators and supervising physicians in Ohio, South Dakota, and New York should have done.

Scott McLemee

"Newsday"

A remarkable piece of reporting.

Steve Twedt

"Pittsburgh Post-Gazette"

Stewart has produced an extraordinary book.

Joseph Nocera

"Fortune"

Is "Blind Eye" worth reading? Yes, Jim Stewart's books always are.

Jerome E. Groopman

"The Wall Street Journal"

Stewart tells a riveting tale of terror, a true page-turner.

R. Z. Sheppard

"Time" magazine

James B. Stewart's "Blind Eye" is a persuasive case against Dr. Michael Swango.

Steve Weinberg

"Chicago Tribune"

The facts gathered by Stewart are compelling. [He]...persuasively dissects the medical establishment.

Dr. Robert B. Daroff

"The Plain Dealer" (Cleveland)

Swango's odyssey is so compelling that I became riveted. I needed to know when and how he would be caught, and what ultimately happened to him.

Lance Morrow

"The New York Times Book Review"

Chillingly thorough....Wonderfully done....An elaborate journalistic reconstruction that has the fascination of an acutely observed and troubling novel.

Lance Morrow "The New York Times Book Review" Chillingly thorough....Wonderfully done....An elaborate journalistic reconstruction that has the fascination of an acutely observed and troubling novel.

About this edition

• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0684854848
• ISBN 13: 9780684854847
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 334