Synopsis
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.
| Details | | Publication Date: | 1999-08-01 | | Narrated by: | Boyd Gaines | | Edition Description: | Abridged |
| Size | | Height: | 7.3 in | | Width: | 4.3 in | | Thickness: | 1.0 in | | Weight: | 6.4 oz |
Publisher's Note
In 1985, a young doctor named Michael Swango was convicted of poisoning five hospital co-workers in Illinois. Sentenced to five years in jail but paroled in 1987, Swango would work -- and kill -- within the medical community again, escaping detection until lying on a job application on Long Island almost ten years later. His story is a show-stopper that will make any one who hears it think twice before trusting just anyone in a white lab coat.
Industry Reviews
"The story falters a bit after this jarring beginning, with too much detail about Swango's background. His mother was emotionally distant and his father bitter, an alcoholic Vietnam veteran obsessed with violence. This stereotypical tableau might have been drawn with broad strokes rather than redundant detail. But once Mr. Stewart picks up the pace, he tells a riveting tale of terror, a true page-turner. The risk, of course, with such a story is that of descending into tabloid sensationalism. But Mr. Stewart, a contributor to SmartMoney, a Dow Jones and Hearst publication, and a former editor at The Wall Street Journal, deftly avoids this and has produced a work of substance, insight and importance."
Wall Street Journal - Jerome E. Groopman (08/20/1999)
"Readers who have never heard of physicians ignoring or covering up the wrongdoing of other physicians will probably have trouble accepting BLIND EYE as fact. But the facts gathered by Stewart are compelling. Stewart, who has written books exposing Wall Street corruption and presidential chicanery this time persuasively dissects the medical Establishment."
Weinberg
"Using the same investigative journalism tactics that have served him so well in the past, Stewart traces the murderous route that Dr. Michael Swango allegedly took in the 1980s and 1990s, cutting a swath through Illinois, Ohio, South Dakota, Long Island, and Zimbabwe."
O'Connell
"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."
Washington Post Book World - Abraham Verghese (09/19/1999)
"Part true crime, part expose, this disturbing book follows the trail of Michael Swango, 'the first alleged serial killer in this century to have emerged in the guise of a physician.'"
New Yorker (12/20/1999)
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