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Blind Eye: How the Medical Establishment Let a Doctor Get Away with Murder
by James B. Stewart
Product Group: Book
Publisher: Simon & Schuster (1999-08-17)
ISBN: 0684854848
EAN: 9780684854847
Dewy Decimal #: 364.15230973
Hardcover: 334 pages
Release Date: 1999-08-17
SKU: 07090170
Condition: Like New Like New
Comments: Hardcover. Like new cover and text. Like new dust jacket with very minor shelfwear. Near Fine condition. Beautiful book.
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Editorial Reviews
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Product Description
Young, blond, handsome Dr. Swango seemed a godsend wherever he was hired to practice medicine. But acclaim would turn to disbelief, dismay, then horror, as the evidence mounted that he could actually be murdering his patients. Then, Dr. Michael Swango would leave that hospital -- only to be rehired at another. Today the FBI believes that Swango may be the most prolific serial killer in American history. In his brilliant, bestselling Den of Thieves, James Stewart exposed crime on Wall Street in the Roaring Eighties. Now, in Blind Eye, he takes readers into the closed world of America's medical establishment, where doctors repeatedly accept the word of fellow physicians over that of nurses, hospital workers and patients -- even after the horrible truth emerges. With prodigious investigative reporting, Stewart's mesmerizing account moves from the hospital rooms of the prestigious Ohio State University Hospitals to Illinois, South Dakota, New York and finally to a remote missionary hospital in Zimbabwe. There Stewart tracked down survivors, relatives of victims, shaken hospital workers -- and the evidence that may finally lead Swango to be charged with murder. Stewart brings to riveting life the story of a psychopathic physician and those who protected, trusted, pursued and, in some cases, loved him. There were powerful doctors who allowed Swango to practice even following an incident in which a patient was paralyzed after a nurse saw him inject the patient's I.V. There were hospital officials who failed to collect crucial evidence, making it impossible for a prosecuting attorney to pursue Swango for murder. Another doctor admitted Swango to a medical residency when he knew that Swango had been convicted of poisoning coworkers. Stewart recounts the story of a New York woman who saw Swango inject her husband, after which he lapsed into a coma and died. An attractive, vivacious nurse fell in love with Dr. Swango, became his fiancée, and may have learned too much about him. Blind Eye shows us the danger we face in a hospital system that too often puts appearances, reputation and potential liability ahead of patients' welfare -- and tells us what needs to be done to stop it. It exposes the alarming failure of a national policy that is supposed to monitor incompetence and misconduct in the medical profession, as well as the weakness of the federal legislation that is intended to protect the public. Dr. Michael Swango slipped easily through the cracks. Hospital doctors, often strangers when we meet them, are the people who will care for us and our loved ones. If Michael Swango could repeatedly slip through, who else has? James Stewart adds to his reputation as one of the country's most intrepid investigative reporters with this exposure of a dangerous doctor and a failed system.
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Amazon.com 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 center, hospital administrators sympathized 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 (nonfatally) poisoning several of his coworkers, 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 reenter 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 behavior 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
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Customer Reviews
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No improvement in policing physicians
Rating  (5)
Date: 2008-09-04
1 out of 1 customers found this reveiw helpful
I have been in health care for over 35 years & have encountered very poor practitioners in every discipline. It is shocking that medicine does not police itself better. It certainly polices non-physician providers. One would think that physicians would require the highest standards in all physicians & would assist those whose care is substandard & even dangerous to unsuspecting patients. Nothing has changed since this story was written. I say to all people to be very careful in selecting a healthcare provider.
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A Must Read For All Hospital Boards & Administrators
Rating (5)
Date: 2008-06-01
0 out of 1 customers found this reveiw helpful
This is a gripping tale of what happens when organizations don't do their jobs. I know the parents of one of this mass-murder's victims who was able to conceal his crime because of the once common arrogance of hospital's and their medical staffs. As a hospital administrator, I can report that much has changed in the physician credentialing process because of the death and mayhem wrecked by the murderer Jeff Swango!
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Black Eye for the Medical Profession
Rating  (4)
Date: 2007-01-28
3 out of 3 customers found this reveiw helpful
This is a fascinating story about how the medical establishment did not detect a psycopath in their midst. Even after detection, they allowed him to continue as a doctor.
Even more upsetting was the failure of the faculty of the college of medicine at Southern Illinois University to detect and fail incompetent students. These students, including Michael Swango, were allowed to continue; even after episodes of total incompetence. If these policies are common at other medical schools, it offers an explanation for the large number of substandard physicians.
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Great Book
Rating (5)
Date: 2007-01-09
2 out of 2 customers found this reveiw helpful
Not only was this book a great read, it also displays the significant truth about the world of medicine. This type of behavior (ignoring what's in front of you) happens everyday in medicine. All credentialing personnel should be required to read this book.
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Required reading for anyone who receives medical care
Rating (5)
Date: 2006-11-28
3 out of 3 customers found this reveiw helpful
I was given "Blind Eye" when I first began working at a physician monitoring program as a clinician. At the time, I was under the impression that because physicians have so much responsibility to "do no harm," they would automatically report themselves or fellow physicians if they believed they were impaired mentally, physically or emotionally. How wrong I was!
"Blind Eye" represents the epitome of how our medical system supports physicians, even when they are dangerous to themselves and others. Through a painstaking and exhaustive review of the life and career of Dr. Michael Swango, James B. Stewart illustrates how easy it was for a medical doctor to manipulate nurses, colleagues, administrators, patients, and even his own family into believing that he was a competent physician. Stewart further demonstrates how the "good old boy" system is alive and well in America, in which doctors look the other way when something seems wrong, even when evidence to the contrary is right in front of them.
If I had not read this book, knowing it is a true story, I probably would not have believed that a physician could truly get away with murder; now I am truly convinced that this is, unfortunatly, the case. "Blind Eye" should be required reading for every person who works with or sees a personal physician.
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