current events

The most important thing to keep in mind while reading this book is that its subject, Michael Swango, is a serial killer. He is an aberration. That being said, the idea of medical care professionals being killers is a nightmare that our medical system has to make even more impossible and rare.

Mr. Stewart shows how Swango was abetted by the system's clubby nature to protect its own against charges and suites, how he used the desperation of the more outlying medical facilities for doctors, and how psychopaths can charm and persuade those around them that the evidence to the contrary, their eyes are deceiving them.

This is a good read, but in some ways a very difficult one. It is interesting and compelling and yet it feels like being caught in a horrifying dream. Just as hard cases make bad law, these rare but horrible events make us want to do something, anything, in order to allow us to believe this could never happen again. But the reality is killers kill.

There are things the medical establishment could and should do in order to better weed out bad doctors, nurses, and others who staff our health care system. But to think in terms of a major restructuring in order to avoid something so extremely rare is as unrealistic as doing nothing.

The book ends with the possibility that Swango would be released a few months from the publication date. However, Swango has since pleaded guilty to four murders in order to avoid the death penalty and extradition to Zimbabwe. So, he is in prison for four consecutive life sentences. Thank heaven for that!

If this topic is interesting to you this is a very good book. But be prepared for reading about a very sick person and the horrible things he did to innocent and trusting people.

I just finished reading this book the other day. Being a patient will never be the same again. To read how the medical community either covered up for Michael Swango, or just didn't want to believe a doctor could be capable of poisoning patients, is unsettling to say the least. Nurses, hospital workers, and patients were all discounted by some physicians as just "gossips." Even a conviction of trying to poison co-workers wasn't enough to stop Swango from getting employment. There were some who knew Michael Swango was bad news even in medical school, but their concerns went unheeded. Its frightening. Every person, whether in the medical field or not, should read this book.

And to think that this guy is about to get out of prison!

My wife started reading this first (actually it was a book on CD). She didn't know it was real. When I told her it wasn't fiction she was visibly stunned. You cannot believe what the fraternity of the medical community will do to protect its own... while this whackjob calmly knocks of dozens of people. It is an incredibly well researched, well written account of The System gone nuts. You will be scared, frustrated and educated as to How Things Really Work in medicine, colleges, etc. And you will never look at a(n unfamiliar) doctor the same. A fabulous book... 10 stars.