James B. Stewart - Blind Eye: The Terrifying Story Of A Doctor Who Got Away With Murder

Praise for Blind Eye

Blind Eye is a remarkable piece of reporting.Scott McLemee, Newsday

Swangos 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.Dr. Robert B. Daroff, The Plain Dealer (Cleveland)

Stewart has produced an extraordinary book.Steve Twedt, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

James B. Stewarts Blind Eye is a persuasive case against Dr. Michael Swango.R. Z. Sheppard, Time magazine

The facts gathered by Stewart are compelling. [He]... persuasively dissects the medical establishment.Steve Weinberg, Chicago Tribune

Is Blind Eye worth reading? Yes, Jim Stewarts books always are.Joseph Nocera, Fortune

Stewart tells a story that both grips and enrages.... Throughout Blind Eye , [he] shows how the medical establishment took the path of least resistance when it came to Swango. They didnt want to know.Ray Locker, The Tampa Tribune

If Swango is guiltyand author James B. Stewart builds a persuasive case against himStewart also makes a strong argument that he must share responsibility with a medical establishment that let him move freely from state to state, from hospital to hospital, without warning or punishment.Dale Singer, St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Best-selling author Stewart brings us inside the life of a killer who thrived in a medical establishment where doctors typically cover up for other doctors, where hospital administrators live in constant fear of litigation, and where regulatory agencies dont share crucial information.... Stewart writes skillfully. Kirkus Reviews

CONTENTS

CAST OF CHARACTERS

Michael Swango, M.D.

M URIEL S WANGO , his mother

J OHN V IRGIL S WANGO , his father

R OBERT S WANGO , his brother

J OHN S WANGO , his brother

R ICHARD K ERKERING , his half brother

R UTH M ILLER , his aunt

L OUISE S CHARF , his aunt

At Southern Illinois University

J AMES R OSENTHAL , medical student

k EVIN S WEENEY , medical student

D AVID C HAPMAN , medical student

D R . M ARK Z AWODNIAK , medical resident

D R . K ATHLEEN OC ONNOR , medical resident

D R . J OHN M URPHY , P ROFESSOR OF pathology and toxicology

D R . L YLE W ACASER , part-time professor of neurosurgery

D R . W ILLIAM R ODDICK , chairman, department of obstetrics and gynecology

R ICHARD M OY , dean of the School of Medicine

At Ohio State University

E DWARD J ENNINGS , president

D R . M ANUEL T ZAGOURNIS , university vice president, health services, and dean of the College of Medicine

R ICHARD J ACKSON , university vice president, business and finance

D R . M ICHAEL W HITCOMB , medical director, Ohio State University Hospitals

D R . L ARRY C AREY , chief, department of surgery

D R . W ILLIAM H UNT , director, department of neurosurgery

D R . J OSEPH G OODMAN , professor of neurosurgery

D R . R EES F REEMAN , chief resident, neurosurgery

D ONALD C RAMP , executive director, Ohio State University Hospitals

D ONALD B OYANOWSKI , associate executive director, business and finance

C HARLES G AMBS , assistant vice president, university public safety

J AN D ICKSON , R.N., associate executive director/nursing

A MY M OORE , R.N., head nurse

A NNE R ITCHIE , R.N.

R ITA D UMAS , R.N.

K AROLYN T YRRELL B EERY , student nurse

J OE R LSLEY , nurses aide

I WONIA U TZ , patient

R ENA C OOPER , patient

R OBERT H OLDER , associate attorney general, State of Ohio

A LPHONSE C INCIONE , partner, Butler, Cincione, DiCuccio, and Barnhart

In Quincy, Illinois

M ARK K RZYSTOFCZYK , paramedic

G REG M YERS , paramedic

B RENT U NMISIG , paramedic

L ONNIE L ONG , chief paramedic

D ENNIS C ASHMAN , judge, Eighth Judicial Circuit

C HET V AHLE , assistant states attorney, Adams County

R OBERT N ALL , sheriff

C HARLES G RUBER , chief of police

W AYNE J OHNSON , coroner

D AN C OOK , attorney

In Columbus, Ohio

M ICHAEL M ILLER , prosecuting attorney, Franklin County

E DWARD M ORGAN , assistant prosecuting attorney

P ETER H ERDT , chief of police, Ohio State University

B RUCE A NDERSON , police officer

R ICHARD H ARP , police officer

C HARLES E LEY , investigator, Ohio State Medical Board

J AMES M EEKS , dean of the College of Law, Ohio State University

In Newport News, Virginia

K RISTIN K INNEY , R.N.

S HARON C OOPER , her mother

A L C OOPER , her stepfather

In Sioux Falls, South Dakota

D R . R OBERT T ALLEY , dean of the University of South Dakota School of Medicine

D R . A NTHONY S ALEM , professor of internal medicine and director of the residency program

L ISA F LINN , R.N.

V ERN C OOK , hospital administrator

At the State University of New York-Stony Brook, Long Island

D R . J ORDAN C OHEN , dean of the School of Medicine

D R . A LAN M ILLER , professor of psychiatry, director of the psychiatric residency program

B ARRON H ARRIS , patient

E LSIE H ARRIS , his wife

D OMINIC B UFFALINO , patient

T ERESA B UFFALINO , his wife

In the Republic of Zimbabwe

H OWARD M POFU , director of hospitals, Evangelical Lutheran church

D R . D AVIS D HLAKAMA , medical director, Midlands province

D R . N ABOTH C HAIBVA , superintendent, Mpilo Hospital, Bulawayo

D R . I AN L ORIMER , resident

D R . C HRISTOPHER Z SHIRI , director, Mnene Mission Hospital

K ENEAS M ZEZEWA , patient

V IRGINIA S IBANDA , patient

P. C. C HAKARISA , superintendent, Zimbabwe Republic police

D AVID C OLTART , attorney, Webb, Low & Barry, Bulawayo

L YNETTE OH ARE , landlady

M ARY C HIMWE , her servant

E LIZABETH K EREDO , her servant

J OANNA D ALY , housewife

I observe the physician with the same diligence as he the disease.

J OHN D ONNE (15721631)

PROLOGUE

K ENEAS M ZEZEWA had dozed off for a nap that May afternoon, but was awakened at about two P.M . when he felt someone removing his loose-fitting pajama trousers. He lifted his head, still a bit groggy from sleep, and saw that it was Dr. Mike. The handsome American doctor had a syringe in his hand, and seemed about to give him an injection, so Mzezewa, eager to help, pulled down his trousers and turned on his side. Then the doctor plunged the unusually large needle into his right buttock. Mzezewa saw that after he finished the injection, the doctor concealed the used syringe in the pocket of his white medical coat.

Good-bye, Dr. Mike said softly, pausing briefly to look back at Mzezewa.

Then he left the hospital ward.

H OWARD M POFU , the director of hospitals for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Zimbabwe, liked the new doctor the minute he met him, in November 1994, when he picked him up at the Bulawayo city airport. Michael Swango looked like the American athletes Mpofu had seen on television. He was blond and blue-eyed, taller than Mpofu, with a ready smile. According to the rsum the church had received, he was forty years old, but he looked younger. Mpofu tried to help Swango with his duffel bags, but the doctor wouldnt hear of it. He quickly hoisted the heavy bags and insisted on carrying them to the car himself.

On the ride into the city, Swango was garrulous, flushed with excitement at his new assignment. Mpofu asked why Swango had wanted to come to Zimbabwe to take up a post that would pay him a small fraction of what he could earn in the United States. After all, Swango was an honor student; hed graduated from an American medical school and had completed an internship at the prestigious Ohio State University Hospitals, which meant he could go anywhere. All my life, Swango told him, I have dreamed of helping the poor and the disadvantaged. He said America had plenty of doctors, but in Africa, he would be truly needed. Mpofu couldnt argue with that.