Blind Eye

How the Medical Establishment Let a Doctor Get Away With Murder

by James B. Stewart

In this account of crime, investigative journalist James B. Stewart recounts the 1985 conviction of Michael Swango, a doctor who allegedly murdered five of his colleagues. Assuming that Swango was guilty, Stewart examines reputable, yet secretive medical establishments that he believes helped Swango evade arrest. A New York Times Notable Book of 1999.

Editions of Blind Eye

ISBN 9780783889344	Binding/Format Hardcover	Publisher Thorndike Pr	Date 2000	Price $9.15	Used - Good
ISBN 9780671044213	Binding/Format Audio Cassette	Publisher Simon & Schuster	Date 1999	Price $1.99	Used - Good
ISBN 9780684854847	Binding/Format Hardcover	Publisher Simon & Schuster	Date 1999	Price $1.00	Used, Very Good

Publisher Notes

Stewart penetrates the secretive world of the medical establishment to report in astonishing detail how this could have happened. Respected physicians, hospitals, and prestigious medical schools took the word of a fellow physician and passed him on, unwittingly helping him elude capture and leaving law enforcement officers seething with frustration. Stewart exposes how patient safeguards--including a national monitoring system meant to prevent this--failed. In this terrifying story of a criminal at large in our hospitals, where patients are at the mercy of their doctors, Stewart makes clear that time and time again Swango's patients were exposed to mortal danger as fellow doctors, administrators, and hospital boards turned a blind eye.

Media Reviews

"BLIND EYE is a true thriller, but it is also an indictment of protectionism within the medical profession. Despite the existence of a data bank on incompetent physicians to which hospitals are supposed to report and to check with prior to hiring, a study by the Department of Health and Human Services revealed that compliance with this requirement is poor. The American Medical Association, Stewart tell us, when "offered an opportunity to comment on the HHS study, attacked the methodology and the conclusions and continued to wage its rear guard action against any federal monitoring or reporting on incompetent or criminal physicians.' If physicians cannot or will not police themselves, it subjecting doctors to close scrutiny, and perhaps creating their own data bank."

Excerpt

Howard Mpofu, 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 résumé 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 wouldn't hear of it. He quickly hoisted the heavy bags and insisted on carrying them to the car himself.

First Line

Keneas Mzezewa 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.

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