Blind Eye: The Terrifying Story of a Doctor Who Got Away With Murder (49 page)
Read Blind Eye: The Terrifying Story of a Doctor Who Got Away With Murder Online
Authors: James B. Stewart
Tags: #Current Events, #General, #Medical, #Ethics, #Physicians, #Political Science, #True Crime, #Murder, #Serial Killers
Durant, Susan. “Swango’s Reaction to Death Rapped,”
Columbus
(Oh.)
Citizen-Journal
, Feb. 7, 1985.
Meeks, James E. “Report to the President Regarding Incidents in the Ohio State University Hospitals Related to the Internship of Dr. Michael Swango and the University Handling of Those Incidents,” 1985.
Morgan, Edward. “Report to the Prosecuting Attorney, Franklin County, Ohio,” 1986.
Sharkey, Mary Anne. “Swango Probe Botched, OSU Says,”
The Plain Dealer
(Cleveland), April 3, 1985.
——— and Gary Webb. “OSU Faces State Probe on Swango,”
The Plain Dealer
(Cleveland), Feb. 10, 1985.
Webb, Gary, and Mary Anne Sharkey. “Medic Probed in OSU Deaths,”
The Plain Dealer
(Cleveland), Jan. 31, 1985.
———. “OSU Covered Up, Poison Prober Says,”
The Plain Dealer
(Cleveland), Feb. 1, 1985.
On Swango in Quincy:
Cullumber, Jim, and Michael Snellen, “Cashman Finds Swango Guilty,”
Quincy
(Ill.)
Herald-Whig
, May 3, 1985.
Hagan, John F. “Swango Guilty of Poisonings,”
The Plain Dealer
(Cleveland), May 4, 1985.
Skaugen, Cindy, “Swango’s Associates Saw a Studious Loner Under Stress,”
The State Journal-Register
(Springfield, Ill.), Feb. 10, 1985.
Thrasher, Donald K., producer, “A Trail of Poison,”
20/20
, Feb. 13, 1986.
On Swango in Virginia:
Berens, Michael. “Swango Is Suspect in New Poisonings,”
The Columbus
(Oh.)
Dispatch
, June 8, 1989.
Dewitt, Dan. “Newport News Probing Poisonings,”
Newport News
(Va.)
Daily Press
, June 9, 1989.
Ruth, Robert. “Co-worker’s Tip to Police Started New Swango Probe,”
The Columbus
(Oh.)
Dispatch
, June 10, 1989.
On Swango in South Dakota:
Associated Press. “Swango: ‘I’m a Good Doctor,’ ” Sioux Falls
Argus Leader
, Dec. 7, 1992.
Gutch, Charley F. and Noel Ann English. “Review of Events of Admission of Dr. M. Swango,” University of South Dakota, 1992.
Walker, Carson. “Fighting the Memories,” Sioux Falls
Argus Leader
, Dec. 13, 1992.
———. “Medical Resident Suspended,” Sioux Falls
Argus Leader
, Dec. 1, 1992.
———. “USD Dismisses Swango,” Sioux Falls
Argus Leader
, Dec. 3, 1992.
———. “USD Knew of Swango’s Past,” Sioux Falls
Argus Leader
, Dec. 2, 1992.
On Swango on Long Island:
Slackman, Michael. “Poison in His Past,”
Newsday
(N.Y.), Oct. 20, 1993.
Smith, Estelle Lander and Michele Salcedo. “Swango Patient Dies at VA,”
Newsday
(N.Y.), Nov. 9, 1993.
Yan, Ellen. “Trail of Poison?”
Newsday
(N.Y.), Sept. 14, 1997.
On Swango in Africa:
Dongozi, Foster, “Bodies of Five Mberengwa Villagers Exhumed,”
Bulawayo Chronicle
, Nov. 21, 1998.
———. Maid Relates Swango’s Strange Behaviour,”
Bulawayo Chronicle
, Nov. 25, 1998.
Ziana. “Ministry Dismisses Doctor,”
Bulawayo Sunday News
, Mar. 24, 1996.
On Donald Harvey:
Clark, Paul and David Wells. Gannett News Service, Aug. 27, 1987.
Wells, David. Gannett News Service, Sept. 19, 1987.
On the National Practitioner Data Bank and the Wyden legislation:
Adler, Robert S. “Stalking the Rogue Physician,”
American Business Law Journal
, winter 1991.
Brown, June Gibbs, Inspector General, “Hospital Reporting to the National Practitioner Data Bank,” U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, February 1995.
Budetti, Peter. “Title IV, Public Law 99-660: Background and Implications,”
Federation of State Medical Boards Bulletin
, Dec. 1987.
Iglehart, John K. “Health Policy Report,”
New England Journal of Medicine
, April 9, 1987.
Jost, Timothy. “The Necessary and Proper Role of Regulation to Assure the Quality of Health Care,”
Houston Law Review
, May 1988.
St. Paul Fire & Marine Insurance Co., “Physician and Surgeon’s Update 1985: a Special Report,” 1985.
House Subcommittee on Health and the Environment, “Hearings on a Bill to Encourage Good Faith Professional Review Activities of Health Care Entities,” March 18 and July 15, 1986.
ENDNOTES
1
The day of the week was changed to Thursday in 1998.
2
Ohio State denies that there is any rule or policy preventing nurses from initiating a conversation with attending physicians, but every nurse I interviewed insisted that such a practice prevailed.
3
Dr. Goodman later explained that he didn’t know the syringe had been found in a room from which Swango had just emerged. He said he was also under the impression that it had been found the next morning, not the night of Cooper’s respiratory arrest.
4
The doctor received psychiatric treatment, and there have been no further incidents reported at Ohio State. The doctor remains on the medical faculty.
5
Moore declined my requests for comment.
6
The Ohio statute is R.C. 2921.22(B). A later investigation by Ohio State concluded that there was no need to report the incident.
7
When I asked him about this, Carey said he had no recollection of the letter, but said that “the people who read these [would] know” that he was trying to warn them about Swango. The later Ohio State investigation concluded that Dr. Carey “cannot be faulted for his handling of the recommendation to the State Medical Board.”
8
Later it was concluded that “someone involved, probably Dr. Carey, should have alerted the State Medical Board.”
9
Later, Anderson denied that his job was ever threatened.
10
The medical school later claimed that Tzagournis hadn’t lied, but had responded “no” to the question, “Was there an investigation of Swango by police or highway patrol while he was here?,” which was a correct answer, albeit a misleading one, focusing on the phrase “while he was here.” The reporter, however, maintained that her question was whether there had been a police investigation of Swango at any time, up to and including the present. Her question was passed through two intermediaries before it reached Tzagournis, which may account for the confusion.
11
The board repeatedly rebuffed my requests for information about their investigation of Swango and Ohio State’s handling of the matter, on grounds of confidentiality.
12
Dr. Miller concedes that he did not check all three references. He said the one or two people he reached spoke highly of Swango and confirmed that he had gotten a bad rap in Illinois. One of these people may have been Robert Haller II, the National Emergency Service VP who’d testified at Swango’s sentencing hearing and whom Swango was continuing to use as a reference. Haller recalls some such conversation, but says he had by now changed his mind and believed Swango to be guilty.
13
Zshiri says that Dhlakama told him not to discuss Swango while the matter was under investigation because “they should establish the facts before anyone spoke out.”
14
Of course, while under investigation for murder, Swango had not been charged. Thus the embassy statement was inaccurate.
15
Elsie Harris and relatives of two other patients who died sued Swango, the Veterans Administration, and University Medical Center at Stony Brook for wrongful death. Andrew Siben, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, said the cases were dismissed because they could not prove that Swango had caused the deaths.
16
D. Abrahamson,
Confessions of Son of Sam
(New York: Columbia University Press, 1985), as quoted in J. Reid Meloy,
The Psychopathic Mind
(New York: Jason Aronson, 1988), p. 113.
INDEX
Abrahamson, D.,
291
n
Adams County Ambulance Corps (Ill.),
57
,
90
–103
Adams County Health Department,
97
,
102
Adams County Sheriff’s Office,
103
Agency for International Development, U.S. (AID),
41
–42
AIDS,
226
Alcorn, Michael,
132
Alzheimer’s disease,
176
America Ambulance,
29
,
30
,
47
,
57
,
226
American Board of Neurological Surgery,
73
American Medical Association (AMA),
157
,
161
,
163
,
165
,
172
,
178
,
297
,
299
National Practitioner Data Bank opposed by,
166
–67
Swango’s application to,
181
–83,
287
Anderson, Bruce,
106
–7,
110
,
112
–14,
117
,
121
,
123
antitrust laws, medical profession and,
165
–66
Ant-Kil,
282
arsenic,
85
–86,
97
–105,
131
,
145
,
149
,
195
,
282
–83,
296
,
304
Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital,
71
Association of American Medical Colleges,
28
,
48
,
309
,
313
Aticoal Services,
156
,
157
,
302
,
306
Auden, W. H.,
283
Baliles, Gerald L.,
159
,
171
,
205
Banerjee, Chandra,
22
Banks, William C.,
156
Barnes, Eric,
194
Baroway, Malcolm,
310
–11
Barrick, Ruth,
61
–65,
76
,
77
,
79
,
120
,
146
,
149
Barrows, Howard,
59
–60
Beery, Karolyn Tyrrell,
65
–69,
84
OSU Hospitals investigations and,
72
,
79
,
82
,
125
,
127
–28,
147
Swango suspected of Cooper’s paralysis by,
66
,
67
,
79
,
147
Berkowitz, David,
290
–91
Berter, John,
297
Blessing Hospital (Quincy, Ill.),
35
,
91
,
92
,
102
Boyanowski, Donald,
70
,
75
,
76
,
80
,
116
,
118
,
119
,
123
,
129
–30,
144
,
311
Bright Shining Lie, A
(Sheehan),
41
Brinkman, Lynnette,
70
Brody, Michael Prince,
160
–62,
166
,
168
Buffalino, Dominic,
209
,
219
,
304
,
307
Bulawayo Central Presbyterian Church,
227
,
228
,
229
,
243
,
244
,
248
Bulawayo
Chronicle
,
254
–57,
276
,
280
Bulawayo Legal Projects Center,
243
Bulawayo
Sunday News
,
248
–49,
256
–57,
261
,
262
–63,
270
–71
Bulgarian secret police,
27
Bundy, Ted,
191
,
268
,
269
,
274
,
292
,
306
Bush, George W.,
296
medical board recommendation written for Swango by,
89
–90,
107
,
114
,
117
,
127
,
152