Psychopathic Physician (A true, terrifying story)

[wazupshah]

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Has anyone read "Blind Eye"?
It's the terrifying true story of a physician (Mike Swango) who is believed to have killed between 30-60 of his patients throughout his unbelievable career {he was finally caught just a few years ago}. I'm not talking euthanasia here.... I'm talking Murder. The FBI considers him to be perhaps the most prolific serial killer in American history.

Anyway, I'm just finishing the book, and I'm wondering if anyone else has read this freakin' horrifying book, and what their thoughts are on the novel are. It really opened my eyes to some of the realities of medicine in this country!

 

[ckent]

I saw a dateline or 20/20 special about that guy. The real scary part was that all of these hospitals suspected that he was killing their patients and would fire him for it, but none of them "dared" to tell the next hospital that he would apply for a position for what they suspected for fear of being sued. It seemed like the only reason that he got caught was because he became so brazen, trying to poison co-workers in addition to his patients. I always use his case when pre-meds on this board try writing about how great adcom's are at picking out "good" people. I believe that he graduated from Southern Illinois University.

 

[womansurg]

He did hid internship for neurosurgery residency at Ohio State. Some of the nurses still remember him. Apparently he was nicknamed 'Dr Death' as an intern, because everytime he 'evaluated' a patient s/he would die. They said they got to where they wouldn't leave him alone in the room with patients. The theory was that he was giving them potassium injections, which cause cardiac arrest. Consequently, at about every hospital now, potassium is no longer available on the nursing units but must be obtained through pharmacy.

They could never nail him on anything, but he was encouraged to leave the university. I don't remember where he went after that, but more people died.

 

[wazupshah]

The scariest part of the whole thing was the lengths that other physicians went to defend Swango when all the nurses and patients were accusing him of doing something. I mean, even after he was "dismissed" from several residency programs, he still got GOOD recommendations from physicians which he used to procure residency positions at other medical schools hospitals.

 

[mikecwru]

Originally posted by wazupshah
The scariest part of the whole thing was the lengths that other physicians went to defend Swango when all the nurses and patients were accusing him of doing something. I mean, even after he was "dismissed" from several residency programs, he still got GOOD recommendations from physicians which he used to procure residency positions at other medical schools hospitals.

But I think a big part of the book was that the ability to jump from hospital to hospital was not deliberate on the part of his superiors, but because of the lack of a centralized network, not being able to look up alot about the doc's past, only hearing from the last place worked. Another part of this was that he was supposed to be very charming to certain people. As I recall from the book, not a lot of docs "covered up for him" once they saw what was going on. The other doctors were dealing with the "Mike they knew," versus what he was accused of. I believe he was only in a few states in the US then he went to Africa.

I don't think this story is as amazing as other people think it is.... note: it's disgusting, just not amazing. Docs can be nuts just like anyone else... just like they can be druggies, alcoholics, wife beaters, child molesters, and every other form of societal scum. Medical school is a period of intense training... it is not some holy transition. I think it's very naive to be suprised that a doctor is capable of this.

mike

 

[siempre595]

I'm actually from the town where Swango grew up, went to high school, and attempted a couple of his murders. Yea, the cute little midwestern Illinois hideaway that breeds serial killers!! hehe.
Anyhow, I agree that there was much too much defense of him throughout his career. Also, combined with that was a lot of laziness. Ohio State did virtually nothing and that's the truth, later they said something like, "gosh, if we'd known it was a SERIAL killer." Come on. ALso, there was little going on in the realm of background checks on him. He was put in jail here early in his career for attempting to poison two paramedics. Yet he went on with his career after he got out. Hello!
He's got quite a brillant mind too. Went to my high school, came out valedictorian, was known as kind of an odd ball though. One of my friend's fathers was in his class, apparently the guy could beat everyone at any mind game ever known, I think he was some chess club master.
Guess we should watch out for those smart ones.......😛

 

[kidmel45]

yep, he graduated from SIU. one of our profs was talking about him a while ago. he said swango had some difficulty dealing with patients in med school. I guess he's in jail in NY now for killing patients? an African nation wants him back to,well...really, kill him for the deaths he caused there. He's lucky he's stuck in a prison here and not shipped off to Africa.

 

[mikecwru]

Originally posted by siempre595
I'm actually from the town where Swango grew up, went to high school, and attempted a couple of his murders. Yea, the cute little midwestern Illinois hideaway that breeds serial killers!! hehe.
Anyhow, I agree that there was much too much defense of him throughout his career. Also, combined with that was a lot of laziness. Ohio State did virtually nothing and that's the truth, later they said something like, "gosh, if we'd known it was a SERIAL killer." Come on. ALso, there was little going on in the realm of background checks on him. He was put in jail here early in his career for attempting to poison two paramedics. Yet he went on with his career after he got out. Hello!
He's got quite a brillant mind too. Went to my high school, came out valedictorian, was known as kind of an odd ball though. One of my friend's fathers was in his class, apparently the guy could beat everyone at any mind game ever known, I think he was some chess club master.
Guess we should watch out for those smart ones.......😛

Supposedly, in the book, he cheated a lot in med school. So, he probably wasn't that brilliant.

mike

 

[badassy]

I remember watching a show on TLC about a family practioner in London. He killed around 100 people with Morphine and they suspected he killed 60 more but they couldnt prove any relation in those 60 deaths. They said he used Morphine because his mother/father who died in the hospital, the last drug they received was Morphine. Weird.

 

[Kovox]

Ack, just the mention of his name brings chills down my spines. For those who don't know who we are talking about, here is a site about him:

http://www.crimelibrary.com/serial6/swango/index.htm

 

[Katie]

um, I don't think anyone on here said anything particularly naive, that was actually quite rude mike. I think the vast majority of people on here are aware that physicians are capable of the same evils as others. to assume that other pre-meds and med students have never read anything like Lord of the Flies (the premise is that man is inherently evil) or heard of Dr. Hannibal Lecter is just really condescending and ignorant. not all of us are nearly as socially and mentally ******ed as you seem to think we are, and one individual even admitted that his mind was opened by reading the book about the doctor who murdered people.