Doctoring the Truth
Welcome to Doctoring the Truth, a podcast where two dedicated audiologists dissect the world of healthcare gone rogue. Explore jaw-dropping stories of medical malfeasance, nefariousness, and shocking breaches of trust. The episodes provide deep dives that latch onto your curiosity and conscience. It's a podcast for truth-seekers craving true crime, clinical insights, and a dash of humor.
Doctoring the Truth
The Sinister Journey of Michael Swango: Medicine’s Nightmare
Are we putting too much trust in doctors? This week, we delve into the chilling narrative of Dr. Michael Swango, known as the "Doctor of Death." Following his seemingly normal upbringing, Swango’s twisted journey into medicine reveals unanswered questions and checks our faith in the healthcare system.
His medical career began with promise but quickly revealed alarming elements that would later escalate into widespread horror. Colleagues began to notice irregularities during his training—unusual patient deaths and a disturbing penchant for poisons. His antics didn't stop there; after being expelled from the residency program due to his apparent negligence, he sought new opportunities cloaked in lies. Swango's job as an EMT further escalated the dread surrounding him when his coworkers reported widespread illness after interactions with him.
The shocking revelation about his arrest and poisoning of colleagues only scratches the surface of his manipulative journey—one that continued even after he served time for his crimes. His marriage to nurse Kristen Kinney unveils even more darkness as suspicions and tragedies unfold swiftly.
Prepare for a rollercoaster of emotions as we unpack a narrative filled with twists, red flags, and the deeply troubling reality of a healthcare system failing to protect victims from disguised predators. Join us as we break down how Dr. Swango created a facade of trustfulness while engaging in deadly deception. Don’t forget to subscribe, share your thoughts, and leave a review—your engagement is crucial and keeps us moving forward!
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Stay safe, and stay suspicious...trust, after all is a delicate thing!
Amanda, hello, hello, hello.
Speaker 2:How you doing. I'm doing good. It's Monday. How are you? I'm great.
Speaker 1:You know what this is. Episode five Five. Can you believe it? I know we're like we graduated from a toddler to like a full-grown kindergartner. At this point as a podcast, I know, look at us go.
Speaker 2:We're growing up so quick.
Speaker 1:We're growing up so fast. We are growing up so fast and you know what listeners. We love you, we love your feedback and I do want to say we're listening. Okay, we are listening to your feedback and I hope that everyone appreciates the fact that, after we got some very good feedback about how long the intro was, yours truly figured out how to whittle it down, so we went from two minutes to 40 seconds. Please appreciate that your feedback matters and we do try to make changes and make this better, and I think it's getting better every single episode. What do you think?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think so. You guys listen to us, we listen to you and, of course, we can only get better every time, right? Yeah, only if you keep giving us feedback friends, yeah, so don't stop Keep going.
Speaker 1:I love how many people are downloading and commenting and emailing. It's fantastic.
Speaker 2:It is really fun. I actually really look forward to this part of the week.
Speaker 1:Yeah, same. So keep it coming, guys, because we want to stick around. So you know, let us make this what you want in your ears.
Speaker 2:Thanks for letting us have a hobby.
Speaker 1:So, speaking of what's going into people's ears, amanda, oh boy, what can listeners expect today? Because a little bit, so yeah, I'm a little bit excited about what we're going to hear, even though it's terrible.
Speaker 2:But what you got, yes, well, as mentioned in our brief little what to expect for next week. Last week I told you that we were going to be exploring the unsettling case of the notorious doctor, uh, dr michael swango. He, he is known as the Doctor of Death, not to be confused with Dr Death. The case of Christopher Dunst, which we all widely know, because I think it was on what Netflix?
Speaker 1:I think it was on everything at one point or another.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that was that was big, oh my gosh. But yeah, not him. There's another creep um who was coined with a similar nickname. Uh, trigger warnings for this case include mental health suicide, alcohol abuse and, of course, murder moida, most foul moida moida.
Speaker 2:Um. So dr sw, you know big bad man. He had a career in medicine that spanned over a decade and you know it's hard to imagine how someone that's so trusted with the lives of people could end up taking them. But Dr Swango wasn't just treating his patients, he was poisoning them, oh no. And it wasn't just his patients' friends, it was also his colleagues. What? Oh no.
Speaker 1:And it wasn't just his patients' friends, it was also his colleagues. What, oh? Okay, I'm going to have to buckle up for this one, because I'm already mad. I can't believe this. I haven't heard of this case.
Speaker 2:He's a monster. I hadn't either. All right, let's get into it, all right. Okay, so for some background, michael Joseph Swango, born James Michael Swango. He was born on October 21st 1954 in Tacoma Washington, to Muriel and John Swango. Okay, he's a Libra and was raised in Quincy, illinois.
Speaker 1:He's a Libra born in the same place as me. Oh, but I'm not a killer doctor. I was going to say, you know that because you're a Libra. I'm not a killer doctor, though. Oh, I hate that you share that?
Speaker 2:No, you're not. Can confirm. He was the middle of three children and, by all accounts, his mother, Muriel, tried to create a loving home for the kids, but this wasn't always easy because she was left to do it by herself most of the time. Her husband, John, was rarely home because he served as a career officer in the United States military. The timing of his career was during the Vietnam War and upon return to the States, John became depressed. Did you hear that start echoing? Okay, I'm going to redo that sentence.
Speaker 2:Upon return to the States, John became depressed because of how he was treated and perceived by his fellow citizens and eventually turned to alcohol. This created turmoil between him and Muriel and they eventually divorced, With his father out of the picture. Michael was very dependent on Muriel and some even described him as clingy. He constantly wanted to impress her and have her approval. So he excelled in school and became an accomplished musician, learning to play the piano and playing the clarinet in high school band he made A's and B's throughout his high school career and was even the valedictorian of his graduating class of Quincy Catholic Boys High School in 1972.
Speaker 2:By all accounts, he was a very well-adjusted and really popular kid. There were no reports of problems with classmates or teachers, and he was even elected class president. He began working toward a career in healthcare and his ambition to become a doctor soon took hold. To say the least, his path to becoming a doctor was atypical.
Speaker 1:Can I just say also play the clarinet, I'm happy to report.
Speaker 2:I think this is where the similarities end Similarities between me and this guy.
Speaker 1:I don't, I'm not looking report. I think this is where the similarities end Me and this guy.
Speaker 2:I'm not looking forward to how this plays out, because I don't think he's the good one in this story. So shortly after high school he began attending Milliken University, which is a small liberal arts college in Decatur. I did that so many times and I was like I'm going to nail this. And then here we are time to shy. Decatur, illinois.
Speaker 2:That was only a three-hour drive from his hometown. With his great grades and SAT score he could have attended school just about anywhere, but he reportedly wanted to stay close to home. At Milliken he had a 4.0 GPA GPA. But things changed for him sometime around his sophomore year when he reportedly had a really messy breakup with his first serious girlfriend.
Speaker 1:I know, yeah, I mean especially if it's your first breakup.
Speaker 2:I mean who doesn't have that Like your first serious person.
Speaker 1:Messy relationship, messing up with your grades yeah.
Speaker 2:So obviously, as we kind of mentioned, this had a big impact on him. Yeah, his friends said that he started to act and dress differently.
Speaker 2:He had previously dressed really preppy with polo shirts and khaki pants, and was reported to then wear military attire post-breakup. Yeah, and this is also notable because it was a controversial decision for the time, because of the negative reputation of the military being at the height of the Vietnam War, where many people were burning draft cards and attempting to stay as far away from anything military-related as possible. Yeah, yeah. So, needless to say, this gave him a lot of unwanted attention. He abruptly dropped out of college and you know joined the Marine Corps.
Speaker 1:They were doing that, yeah.
Speaker 2:He excelled in the military, earning the special rank of a sharpshooter. He received a number of medals and distinctions, including the Meritorious Mast and Defense Service Medal. Despite never having gone to war, his reasons for leaving the service were about as unclear as they were for him joining in the first place, but he was given an honorable discharge in 1976. After the Marines he enrolled full-time. Okay, I'm gonna do that again. After the Marines he enrolled as a full-time student at Quincy University in Quincy, illinois.
Speaker 2:He continued to stick out from his peers because of the military mannerisms and the way he dressed. He was reportedly a loner while he was at Quincy University. It was later discovered that he embellished his military record on his application to Quincy. And oh, we'll come to find that he also excels at lying Shocking. He has a GPA of 3.89, which mine was higher, but he did double major in biology and chemistry. I didn't double major, so it's just a casual doctorate, big deal. Um, and this is where he began to express an interest in attending medical school. His only real extracurricular activity or hobby perhaps was spending late nights in the science lab to conduct chemistry research and other experiments sorry, I'm sorry, I'm just, he was a loner, right, I watched breaking bad.
Speaker 1:I'm just saying weird, right? Oh, sorry guys, sorry guys, listen, if that's how you spend your Saturday night, please.
Speaker 2:I'll backtrack to any of our lab friends out there listening to our, but also get a hobby okay and then you ended up using it for good. We love ya. Love ya, all of our pathologists out there.
Speaker 2:Okay, Okay, Anyway. So I'm going to call the next thing that I share with you. You know nothing but red flag number one. Same yeah, His senior thesis discussed the assassination of Georgie Markov. That meant nothing to me when I first read it, so I had to look it up. But the story goes that Georgie was waiting at a bus stop to go to work and suddenly felt a sharp pain in his leg. He turned to see a man next to him fumbling with an umbrella. The man said oh sorry, and went on his way.
Speaker 1:Oh my gosh, that's so creepy.
Speaker 2:The umbrella man and it was assumed that he simply brushed into him. But when he got to work he started to become deathly ill and was rushed to the hospital. He died a few days later and the cause of death was determined to be a lethal dose of ricin which had been injected in his leg.
Speaker 1:Yeah, ricin, oh my gosh. Okay, can I just say I'm sorry I'm interrupting you, but when I was in kindergarten I was on a school bus and somebody punctured my leg, my the back of my calf you know how you sit like. I was on the window seat and there was a uh, my kid behind me. I was like a kindergartner and this was like a fourth grader and they poked my leg with their umbrella and lacerated it. Oh my god, I can't believe. So I remember I didn't feel it because it must have been a really clean cut and I remember the bus monitor coming down and there was a trail like a little rivulet of blood going from basically my area down the rest and then it started and she was like where is this coming from?
Speaker 1:and I was like oh my gosh, where's this coming from? And nothing hurt until I figured out it was coming from my leg I'm glad it didn't contain a lethal dose of anything. Yeah, apparently these kids have been scratching my leg with this umbrella. Oh my god, what if it was right? I'm, yes, I am lucky to be alive. This was such a lesser issue than this poor man who lost his life, but the uh and now, officially, this is where the coincidence is Similar.
Speaker 2:So similarities, I didn't know about the bus story.
Speaker 2:Um so they they found the lethal lethal dose. Um, and you know, coincidentally, these were precisely the chemicals that Swango had been experimenting with in the science lab. Uh-huh, a little foreshadow action from Quincy University in 1979, with an award from the American Chemical Society for Academic Excellence, and quoting Jack Smith, the author of the book, I read that I forgot to tell you about that. I read, so I will post that in the show notes. But he quoted if only they knew that Michael Swango's excellence would be used one day for murder. If only they knew that Michael Swango's excellence would be used one day for murder.
Speaker 2:Swango was then accepted into the Southern Illinois University School of Medicine that same year. He was again an ideal student and took a special interest in courses such as pharmacology, toxicology and pathology. What that set him apart, it was his study habits. It was reported that he would begin to take a test and then make an excuse to go into the hallway to cram his notes before he would come back into the classroom to answer the questions. Well, he's too busy playing chemist in the lab at night to study, I guess. Despite his differences with his peers, he was making it through med school and by his final year he had chosen neurosurgery as a specialty. While in medical school, though, the faculty and his peers began to notice that more patients than usual seemed to pass away while Swango was administering the treatment, some of the other med students started calling him Double-O Swango, in reference to the James Bond movies, in which Double-O agents were licensed to kill.
Speaker 2:Yes, oh my gosh Swango was nearly dismissed from medical school in his last month when it was discovered that he had been fudging all of his history and physical reports. During his OBGYN rotation at the hospital, he was observed to go into a patient's room for less than 10 minutes and come back with full reports, which normally took someone about 30 to 45 minutes that's crazy.
Speaker 1:Which normally took someone about 30 to 45 minutes, that's crazy.
Speaker 2:I freaking, know it, but you know, after some investigation it was proven that his H&P reports had been fabricated.
Speaker 1:but this wasn't grounds enough to have him expelled. Oh well, they did.
Speaker 2:they did hold a hearing to determine what to do with him and there was just one voting member who thought they ought to give him a second chance. And needing a yep, needing a unanimous, vote to expel a student, he was able to proceed and finish medical school, graduating in 1983. Oh no, I don't know. So you're right, that is grounds enough to expel a student but it has to be a unanimous vote.
Speaker 1:Mm-hmm and we'll find that he's afforded maybe more than one second chance too many. Come on, ohio state. Come on, we have friends there.
Speaker 2:They do better. So this second chance afforded his medical career to take that sinister turn that we're about to start unraveling. Despite all the red flags and nearly getting kicked out of medical school and having obviously poor letters of recommendation, he was accepted into the neurosurgery program at Ohio State University Medical Center. They've gotten better. They learned their lesson with Swango. He signed an agreement that would grant him residency in neurosurgery after a 12-month internship in general surgery that would begin on July 1st 1983. Shortly after he arrived, many of his patients you know, I, I don't know became deathly ill out of nowhere, with some even dying. Nursing staff noted that there was an unusually high amount of code blues that were called, and it was when he was assigned to the patients I mean, isn't he required to?
Speaker 2:he was observed to be allegedly messing with people's IVs with unknown syringes. There were yeah, this next part is sick. There were instances where he would see someone getting CPR during a code blue and he would just casually walk away rather than trying to be the hero and save the day.
Speaker 1:First of all, they have barriers. And second of all, how did you become a doctor with this lack of compassion for preserving human life?
Speaker 2:You're obviously so. There was a story that I read and this nurse was like you have to come and help and he was like that's disgusting, like referencing doing CPR, like putting mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.
Speaker 1:Mm-hmm.
Speaker 2:No, nope. So this obviously, yeah, this obviously started gossip amongst hospital staff that, perhaps due to either gross negligence or flat-out incompetence, he had been adversely affecting patients. These suspicions increased when the head of nursing staff, amy moore, witnessed refusing to give respiratory aid to a patient who was having obvious difficulty breathing. He insisted that the patient needed to have her heart monitored.
Speaker 1:Despite the patient's heart being just fine, it was the breathing that was not fine. The nurse had to physically intervene because of his refusal to perform life-saving efforts. Hippocratic oath, whatever cratic oath like seriously. He couldn't even pretend enough to like jump in there as they should nope, definitely not.
Speaker 2:Um.
Speaker 1:So then comes our classic case of nursing staff reporting concerns to administrators, but you know they were told that they were just being paranoid.
Speaker 2:Come on, the complaints like this started to pile up, and the hospital was forced to conduct an internal investigation. Unfortunately, though, they could not find any direct evidence of wrongdoing, so all the cursory investigation did was clear him from any wrongdoing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, maybe he can kill a whole, nother different population of patients.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was just word of mouth. Yeah, so this was their solution. So this was their solution. They moved him to another wing at the hospital with hopes from administration that this might resolve the issues, thinking maybe it was just a matter of misunderstanding and personality conflicts with the staff. Yeah, so we already know that this was of course not the case.
Speaker 2:Wherever he was moved, patients would begin to mysteriously die Evil. It was not only the patients that would become ill. Swango's co-workers would mysteriously fall ill as well, and through my research I found that this was a way for him to not only practice his chemical concoctions on people, but also for revenge to those that told on him chicken. So an incident that was noted in the book that I read that again I forgot to tell you about. I'm so sorry. I'll link it in the show notes. Um, but it highlighted swango offering to buy everyone lunch and he took individual orders and came back with kentucky fried chicken what I love, kentucky fried chicken. But okay, yeah, for real, except, uh, you know, the only trouble was that his chicken was laced with poison. The charges should have been brought against him.
Speaker 2:Shortly after eating, everyone became violently ill, throwing up and getting high fevers. Because of all the anecdotal claims and rumors surrounding Swango Ohio.
Speaker 1:Medical Center decided, you know, not to bring him back to finish his residency.
Speaker 2:Mm-hmm. Well, this unfortunately did not stop Swango from getting his medical license and he now had a license to practice medicine.
Speaker 1:He received his medical license in September 1984 and moved back to Quincy to find work, a diploma.
Speaker 2:He, of course, lied to all of his family and friends about why he left all the wonderful opportunities in Ohio, saying he simply didn't get along with the medical staff, and he just chose not to return when actually he wasn't allowed to return.
Speaker 2:This is crazy, yeah. And and all that aside too, like, oh man, you weren't even a good student, all of us studied our butts off and you cheated. So in quincy he got a job as an EMT out of a local medical facility called Blessing Hospital. You know and this was a pretty big demotion from being a medical doctor that he took work as an EMT. So we're now in July of 1984, and we are back in Quincy where Swango is working as an EMT with Adams County Ambulance Corporation.
Speaker 2:His co-workers soon took notice that he was a little too enthusiastic about death. They noted an unbridled enthusiasm that he exhibited when they happened upon a fatality. Yeah, they, oh, yeah. It seemed as though the sight of a dead body was exhilarating for him. He would get excited and he would often remark quote wasn't that great End quote. After deadly run-ins on the job, he told his partner Brent, this is chilling, oh, wow, okay. So he said my ultimate fantasy ambulance call is when a busload of children are hitting head on with a tanker truck filled with gasoline and hitting it head on and then it blows up. And then he describes seeing the scene as kids hanging over barbed wire fences with their charred bodies hanging out of the windows.
Speaker 1:Okay, okay, hello. Someone needs to call behavioral health. This guy is disturbed. I don't even talk about don't know.
Speaker 2:So brent, his partner, was obviously very disturbed by the things he was saying and he was like listen, we're out here trying to save people and he's describing scenes where there's no life left at all. Like what the heck? The paramedics? The paramedics had even seen that he was making scrapbooks that were filled with newspaper clippings, photos of natural disasters, crime scenes, traffic accidents and various other forms of gory death.
Speaker 1:Yeah, he would literally share this scrapbook with his coworkers, which obviously made them very uncomfortable.
Speaker 2:Oh wow, they chalked it up to him having a dark sense of humor, but his macabre behavior was just a little too much and they were just outright creeped out by him.
Speaker 1:No.
Speaker 2:Yes, yeah, red flags be flying this entire time.
Speaker 1:I mean flags abound here, Flags abound.
Speaker 2:So not only were their stomachs turning from uncomfortability, but they were also turning due to becoming violently ill. Peculiar illnesses coupled with his strange obsession with death left his colleagues suspicious that he may be messing with their food and drink. Yeah, and I was like I feel like he kind of liked these ones, his co-workers, like at the hospital. He was doing it to punish people that told on him. But but here I'm like they were being nice to you, bro, what are you doing?
Speaker 1:yeah yeah.
Speaker 2:so there was one morning that swango brought in donuts for his colleagues. After about 20 minutes, those that enjoyed a tasty treat found themselves violently ill, throwing up in the bathrooms. They thought it was super strange and tried to eliminate what might have caused so many of them to fall ill so suddenly, and they deduced it must have been the donuts, but oddly the donuts were nowhere to be found. The box had disappeared. The paramedics reached out to the shop where the donuts were purchased to see if anyone else had reported people falling ill, and they said uh no, never heard of that happening to anyone else. Shortly thereafter, swango and his partner Brent volunteered to work at a high school football game. I don't think I knew this. Maybe I knew this, but they're required to have an ambulance at high school football games. Did you know that? After I read that I was like, well, I guess I did see an ambulance there usually, but I didn't know that anyway.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So they volunteered to go do that, I know. And Swango and Brent were there. And Swango says to Brent you know I'm going to run to the concession stand, can I get you anything? And Brent was like you know, sure, I'll take a pop, thanks bro. He did not say bro probably, but he agreed he would take a pop.
Speaker 2:So by the third quarter of the game Brent was violently ill again. He thought that he must have the flu or something like what could be going on. And all of these guys are like medically inclined right, they're doing life-saving efforts, but they're all. Why are we falling ill so suddenly? They couldn't figure out what's going on. Yeah, so there was another instance. Back at the what do they call it? The ambulance bay. There was two guys that made themselves some iced tea and then they got called on a call. So they couldn't enjoy their iced tea, went to go save some lives, came back and one of them took a sip of their iced tea and was like whoa, this was really sweet. So this guy that thought it's really sweet, he was diabetic. He never sweetened his iced tea. So he told his partner hey, this is really sweet, you taste it sure?
Speaker 1:enough it was sweet.
Speaker 2:So then they run into another colleague who told them hey, I just witnessed the oddest thing. Swango was just in here and left shortly after. I watched him pull out of here. After you guys started pulling up, he whipped it around and took the alley out of here, almost like he didn't want anyone to know that he had been here. Wonder if he had something to do with the iced tea.
Speaker 1:So this was a breaking point.
Speaker 2:His colleagues definitely suspected him of messing with their food and drink. They covered the iced tea and requested that it be tested, and, sure enough, the tea was found to have arsenic. Yep, those that had fallen violently ill in a sudden manner offered hair and nail samples to be tested, and they were also found to have traces of arsenic. In October, swango was arrested by the Quincy Police Department after arsenic and other poisons were found in his home. The main drug he used on his colleagues was an ant poison called Taro, and it contained arsenic. They found tons of the stuff in his home, as well as ants. They did find ants there, wow. But after further investigation they found that the species of ants that were in his home did not belong to the region. Yes, they were. What?
Speaker 1:He brought them to his home. Okay, so the ants were from Florida, where Swango had recently gone to visit his mom.
Speaker 2:Well, okay, so the ants were from Florida, where Swango had recently gone to visit his mom, and apparently he thought that bringing a ton of ants back from Florida would be enough to justify the amount of poison that he had.
Speaker 1:Yep, and so he could say he just had a little ant problem. Okay, okay, mm-hmm.
Speaker 2:Hitchhiking all the way to Illinois, destination Swango's apartment. They were hitchhiking on my way to Illinois, destination Swango's apartment.
Speaker 1:they were hitchhiking on my suitcase on the way back.
Speaker 2:I know so on August 23rd 1985 he was convicted of aggravated battery for poisoning his coworkers and was sentenced to 5 years in prison and you know we've always got an early release for good behavior. And was sentenced to five years in prison, mm-hmm. And you know we've always got an early release for good behavior, yep. So he was released from prison in 1989 for only serving two and a half years of his sentence. Help me. Upon release he had a difficult time finding employment in a hospital, no shit. He eventually took a job as a counselor at a career development center in Virginia. It wasn't long before he began messing with his colleagues again and they would become ill. Suddenly they became even more alarmed. I'm sorry.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm not sure what his qualifications for getting hired were. Did he say he had a job as a counselor, Like what the I mean?
Speaker 2:Maybe a little plug on ants, I don't know.
Speaker 1:And like fail at life. Okay, yeah little plug on ants.
Speaker 2:I don't know and like fail at life okay, yeah, um, so they his colleagues would see him perusing his scrapbooks in periods of downtime, so obviously they're becoming a little concerned. Yeah, and you love when a counselor just loves bruising death scrapbooks.
Speaker 2:So obviously there was a lot of pressure for him to leave the job and he eventually parted ways with the Career Center. In May of 1989. His colleagues at the Career Center informed local police about his strange activities and the unexplained illnesses. His colleagues at the career center informed local police about his strange activities and the unexplained illnesses. The investigation followed Swango back to Ohio where Virginia police sought to collaborate with their counterparts in the state in order to find some reason to charge Swango. Digging into Swango's activity attracted attention from local news and a story surfaced that he was under investigation. Once again, nothing came from the investigation, but all of this prompted Swango to change his name. On January 18, 1990, he had his name officially changed from Joseph Michael Swango to David Jackson Adams, joseph Michael.
Speaker 1:Swango to David.
Speaker 2:Jackson Adams. At this time he also married his longtime girlfriend, rita. On July 8th 1989. Swango and Rita decided this was a time to reestablish himself and start a new life. Rita and Swango were only married for less than two years before they finally divorced. No sure didn't. Throughout his marriage, he was working as a lab technician at a premier coal company in Virginia called Atta Coal Services and by all accounts, he was an ideal employee. However, after his marriage crumbled, so did his behavior on the job.
Speaker 1:Oh, was you sad, was you naughty. Yeah, little buddy, the ruse.
Speaker 2:Didn't have any counselor. Friends from your old job, oh no, did you have anybody to poison, yeah. So his coworkers began to have the same telltale signs of poisoning. And after his divorce was finalized in May of 91, swango went back to Ohio and applied for admission to the Ohio Valley Medical Center. He submitted a completely fraudulent application in which he claimed his license had been suspended due to felony battery conviction over a fistfight at a local bar. We of course know this is not the case.
Speaker 1:Hmm, also something. Yeah, we of course know this is, uh not the case. Also something. Yeah, that's not something you should be proud of either, but he's like it just goes to show how horrible his actual, the actual truth was that a fist fight at a local so much better, despite it's like a paper cut, compared to what you did the better option, like let me lie about this, you know. I mean, either way, do you want your physician to be someone who's yeah, yeah, definitely no mention of?
Speaker 2:poisoning or patients and colleagues who had been left, you know, dead or ill because of him. He had some big sob story of being at the wrong place at the wrong time and he fell victim to a heavy-handed judge who just had it out for him Mm-hmm Classic, I know he's a victim Very original swango.
Speaker 2:I've never heard this before, yeah, so he had gone a little too far with his deception and even created false legal documents, such as fake prison discharge sheets and forged docketing statements.
Speaker 2:He used these documents to support his claims that he had been imprisoned over that minor fight rather than premeditated poisoning of his colleagues. He even went so far as to type up a letter from the governor of Virginia stating that the governor had moved to completely restore all of Swango's rights as a citizen. Dr Jeffrey Schultz was the hospital director that couldn't wait to bring Swango on board to give the young man a second chance. However, these documents and other doubts began to wait on him. He reached out to the police in Quincy, illinois, to find out the truth. Of course, he found out that, you know, everything was all a lie. Dr Schultz immediately suspended Swango's application process and authorities in Illinois were alerted to the fact that Swango was forging documents, which is a serious criminal offense. Prosecutors then began exploring the possibility of charging Swango with forgery, but by the time they could build a solid case, he had already moved on Chart note.
Speaker 2:Welcome to the chart note segment where we learn about what's happening in medicine and healthcare. Okay, so I've recently been hearing a lot about using AI to help how do I say, write notes at work. Have you been hearing about this? Yeah, yeah, that so.
Speaker 1:I first heard about this from Adam.
Speaker 2:He was saying that a local hospital was going to start trialing this, or they already were. So basically what that looks like is they use this AI platform and the platform listens to the entire encounter and then helps summarize and come up with a chart note for you, and then you only have to look, look it over, make sure it's accurate. So I wanted to look a little more into this Um. So I found um at the university of Pennsylvania that they did a study on this. So the study was on clinician experiences with ambient scribe technology to assist with documentation, burden and efficiency, and this study was actually just published in the JMA network open. You talked about JMA in your last episode and in my head I was like doesn't everyone just call that jama? Is that just a me thing? Yeah, oh yeah, I guess if it's offensive, sorry, I mean I want to call it I don't want to offend anyone, but that's pretty cool acronym so okay, just a brief overview of the study um.
Speaker 2:It explored how ai scribe technology could reduce the time doctors spend on documentation, thus improving their interactions with patients. The AI tool listens to doctor-patient conversations and accurately transcribes notes into electric health records. The study involved 46 clinicians and showed a 20% reduction in time spent interacting with EHRs during and after patient visits, including a 30% reduction in. This is cute pajama time, I know, so they called. Pajama time is known as work done after hours. I mean, I hate work after hours, but I love that they call it pajama time.
Speaker 1:Mm-hmm.
Speaker 2:Yeah, clinicians gained around two extra minutes of face-to-face time with patients per visit and 15 minutes of personal time each day. One doctor reported saving about two hours of documentation time each week.
Speaker 1:Yeah, these time savings allow doctors to focus more on patient care, which is critical for both the clinician-patient relationship and physician well-being.
Speaker 2:One doctor noted that the AI scribe drastically reduced their documentation burden and helped them engage with patients without distraction, which I feel like I could resonate with. That, because when I was in clinic, compassion fatigue is a real thing. When you're burned out, it just, it drains every ounce in every corner of you.
Speaker 1:So yeah, yeah, and you're busy thinking okay, how am I going to? Quantify this or qualify this in writing and did I ask all the the points that I'm required to ask?
Speaker 2:it's a lot, it's a lot. Get this down, but still get this um, so at the end of the study, most clinicians rated the system as fairly easy to use, with 65% either recommending or passively recommending it. The study's co-authors emphasize that the technology is improving daily and is likely to transform how outpatient primary care providers operate. Penn Medicine's goal is to use tools like this to strengthen the clinician-patient relationship, reduce cognitive burdens and restore valuable time for both providers and patients.
Speaker 1:I love this because I mean they're already doing it with co-pilot for Microsoft Teams meetings, where the minutes are just getting written. I mean you can always go back and be like the minutes are just getting written. I mean you can always go back and be like, oh, that wasn't quite right, but a lot of times it's scarily on point and better than someone who's trying to run a meeting and write notes at the same time. So I can imagine it's a similar thing with. I mean, we've had medical scribes, but still that's another person who has to be, you know, educated in the medical field and sit there and take notes and we have to pay that person. And yeah, that takes time from the. You know that allows the physician to have more time, but it's still another physical person that you have to employ who has to have a certain skill set.
Speaker 1:So if we're going to use AI, I mean I say, bring it. But then, you know, part of me is like, yeah, they're going to bring it and they're going to go not so that we can keep up with the status quo. Now they're going to say, oh well, now that you have that, you can do something in a quarter of the time and it's like, oh god, that's not true because we're already overextended. So yeah, I know, yeah yeah, it's.
Speaker 1:It's like we've relieved a bit of this burden now how?
Speaker 2:can we add some more? That was kind of my concern with it.
Speaker 1:But if it's just, it sounds amazing to relieve some of that, right, I, I would have killed for that quantity, for quality then, but that's not buying us anything. Yeah, yeah yes, and that's what I was gonna say is like I just got so burnt on sacrificing quality for quantity.
Speaker 2:So as long as it doesn't turn into one of those and maybe that just is dependent on where you're at yes, write in listeners. Yeah, but anyway, that's another story for another day. But I would be curious to know if anybody is already using this. Do you like it? Do you hate it? What are your fears? I feel like AI is coming and going to be utilized more and more and more and more whether we want it or not.
Speaker 1:So we better just lean into it, and I know what the answer is, you know, and a lot of times they'll get something that's not the right answer. So it's like it's only as good as yeah, exactly yeah, it's only as good as yeah, exactly yeah, it's definitely Wikipedia stage.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, I think it has potential, as long as it's quality that it's like it's kind of at its. Wikipedia stage Like how do we get it better?
Speaker 1:Anything.
Speaker 2:So I don't know what the answer is, but anyway, that's a bigger thing, but I'm so yeah, well, and also they talked about, or so we had some training one time and now we're rambling. But, um, I'll make this as short as possible. Um, but we had this thing on ai and it was like you can't put students personal information, or so, let's say, patients personal information in there, etc. Because once it's out in ai, it's kind of like out in the world.
Speaker 1:So that was another thing, is like if this ai tool or scribe or whatever is literally a part of your appointment, is that?
Speaker 2:kind of going to be lost in cyberspace like your personal, personal information.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, I agree, that's part of it. Yeah, agreed, private or not.
Speaker 2:So that's a little scary. Okay, back to the story. All right, folks, we are now at the University of South Dakota where, with the same forged documents, swango had applied and been accepted. This is also where he met nurse Kristen Kinney. Nurse Kristen Kinney, kristen was engaged at the time to a local doctor, but was immediately enamored by the charisma of Swango and all of the attention he was showing her. Feeling like Swango had more to offer, she broke off her engagement. Their relationship progressed very quickly and Kristen's parents were eager to meet the man that Kristen was so impressed with. For the most part, they felt the same. However, they did notice some red flags, such as the fact that there were about three years of Suango's life that he just couldn't account for, from about 1984 to 1987,.
Speaker 1:He drew a complete blank about his life. I was like what, where are you going with that?
Speaker 2:Okay, oh, could those be the years that he was incarcerated for poisoning his co-workers.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So another red flag to her family was the fact that he supplied little to no information about his own parents and family. He was the most forthcoming about his father's military career and background, which is odd because, as we know, he did not have a relationship with his father. He said next to nothing about his mother, though he was actually the closest with her. He simply said that she was living in a nursing home in Missouri, which actually was true. So shortly after he went to prison, she developed an acute case of Alzheimer's and was placed in an assisted living center. Despite all the red flags flying everywhere all the time, kristen could see no wrong and the couple was engaged to be married in May of 1992. See no wrong. And the couple was engaged to be married in may of 1992. Kristin's mother was quoted to say this is either the most wonderful thing in the world for kristin or he's some kind of nut, I know, yeah. So the year 1992 seemed to be a comeback year for Swango. He was happily engaged and has a residency at the University of South Dakota. Him and Kristen moved to Sioux Falls and both worked at Royal C Johnson Veterans Memorial Hospital. Swango seemed to have turned a page. There were no mysterious illnesses and he was reportedly doing well as a doctor. He was oh my god, you're doing your job. Oh, what a good boy. He wasn't fabricating any HMP charts and doing everything by the books. By all accounts, he was a competent and hardworking doctor with no troubled history at all. Author Jack Smith, in that book that I forgot to tell you about, wrote that Swango may have even convinced himself of this false narrative because he actually sent in an application to the American Medical Association Idiot. After applying, he realized that this might raise old red flags and he tried to quickly withdraw his application. However, it was too late. Not only did the ama reject him, they immediately contacted the administration at the hospital. The hospital was extremely concerned and determined that Swango would have to go immediately. They wanted to keep their findings under wraps, as hospitals often do, and they found out this information right before Thanksgiving and decided to wait until the holiday to let him know of his fate. Right as they were trying to quietly sweep their findings under the rug, the Discovery Channel aired a documentary about Swango's case on their true crime series, justice Files. I know Several doctors, nurses and other members of the hospital's medical staff saw this episode and recognized Dr Swango.
Speaker 2:The airing of the episode of course started the old gossip mill at every nurse's station, with everyone spilling the beans on what had aired regarding Dr Swango. Dr Anthony Salem, the director of the hospital's medical residency program, quickly canceled Swango's access to the pharmacy and terminated him as a resident. Dr Salem contacted Swango and told him he did not need to come to his next shift, but rather he should come and meet with him. The next day. Swango showed up as scheduled, but with Kristen, which I thought was weird. But he was just acting like he had no idea what all the fuss was about. He said I had an ant problem I was trying to deal with. Dr Salem then played a recording of the episode for him, but he continued to act indignant and incredulous about the whole ordeal. He stuck with his story that he was convicted wait, that his conviction for poisoning his colleagues had been a great miscarriage of justice, which was completely railroaded by that biased judge and prosecution. Poor boy, this was a pretty eye-opening for Kristen. She had absolutely no idea of his dark past.
Speaker 2:The media was, of course, all over the story and following Swango and Kristen around. She was very torn because on one hand she wanted to support her partner, but on the other hand she didn't feel like she could trust him. Eventually she met up with an old colleague to share her frustrations and everything that had been going on, and she told her friend I need out and asked if she could live with her and her husband for a while. She also disclosed that Swango had been discussing the idea of moving overseas so that he could work somewhere far away from the charges that were haunting him. She began to self-medicate with Prozac and drink heavily, but she also began to grow suspicious that Swango had been slipping something into her drinks. She started to have strange headaches and migraines that came out of nowhere. She feared she was having the same symptoms that Swango's previous victims had, likely due to a combination of everything going on and Kristen just dealing with this the best she could. She felt like she was losing her mind.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and on a very cold night in late October of 93, she was found by police walking down a very busy street in Sioux Falls without any clothes on. This earned her a trip to the psychiatric ward, where she was held for four days before she was deemed stable enough to be released. She stayed with Swango for a few weeks following discharge before she decided to pack up her things and head back to her parents in Virginia. Kristen's parents were so relieved that she came back and hoped that this would be the end of their relationship. Her headaches also seemed to disappear once she was no longer in Swango's presence. Shocking, but less than two weeks later, on April 23rd of 93, swango and Kristen arrived at her parents' house arm in arm.
Speaker 2:He came to Virginia to share the great news with Kristen that he received a residency, this time for a psychiatric position, at the State University of New York at Stony Brook on Long Island. Well, yeah, so Dr Alan Miller was the director of the resident psychiatry program and he had an in-person interview with Swango and other faculty members who were just all so impressed by him. Swango did reveal to them at the interview that he had served time in jail and that he just wanted to be forthcoming, and he wanted them to know that. Yeah, he used the same old lies that he used in South Dakota that he had been incarcerated not for poisoning but for a bar brawl. He used the same forged legal documents to bolster the claims and, of course, they did a cursory check of his references, but superficial cross-checks between institutions failed to raise any red flags and I'm not done with this yet. Any red flags and not done with this yet. So I'm sure you could guess how his uh, psychiatry, a psychiatry residency was going.
Speaker 2:Patients began dying under mysterious circumstances. These patients yeah, I know. So, yeah, the patients would present so he's at a VA hospital and the patients would present to the clinic with symptoms similar to a severe cold or pneumonia and end up being hospitalized for conditions that were completely unrelated to why they went there in the first place. Presume, like maybe if you're impatient at the hospital, they have, like psychiatry, come around just to like check on you yeah, well, especially because otherwise why are you impatient at all?
Speaker 1:But if he's going into psychiatry, like that was his focus, how are you killing psychiatric patients, like I understand if someone comes in with a disease or like a cardiac?
Speaker 2:issue. Well, you know just, uh, his same old antics. These Well, you know just his same old antics. These people are coming in with mental health issues.
Speaker 2:I don't know that we've really got much into yet but Physical, there were patient family interviews and the patients would tell their family members that there was a doctor that would visit them late every night and tell them you're next. Families later shared yeah, I'm just like picturing him, like pointing and being like you're next. Families later shared in interviews that sadly, they thought that their family member was just hallucinating because they were sick. But it turned out to be so much more than that he was. Yeah, he was also said to be badgering patient spouses to sign do not resuscitate directives. So two weeks after he began at Stony Brook, he placed a call to Kristen back in Virginia. At Stony Brook he placed a call to Kristen back in Virginia.
Speaker 2:It's not entirely clear what went on during the conversation, but Kristen's next door neighbor heard a lot of hysterical crying and shouting through the walls of the apartment. Kristen called her mom and was noted to seem strangely devoid of emotion. Kristen calmed her by telling her mom I'm fine, I love you. But Kristen's mom had a gut feeling that something was wrong and wanted to check on her right. Yep, and a little plug to my mom. Uh, my mom calls this the mom worry button, and she said it. It never goes away. So swango had even called kristen's mom saying you know you should go check on her. She pretty upset. Despite her gut feeling and growing concerns, her husband told her she's 27. Give her some space. And this is like no fault to him saying this right Like. But at the advice of her husband she decided to give Kristen space. The next night they received a phone call from police requesting they come down to the station for an incident involving their daughter.
Speaker 1:A phone call from police, requesting they come down to the station for an incident involving their daughter.
Speaker 2:They arrived at the station and learned that Kristen had been found dead, slumped against a tree. She had apparently taken her own life. There was a note addressed to her parents. That was extremely odd and it read I love you both so much, I just didn't want to be here anymore. Found day-day living a constant struggle with my thoughts I'd say I'm sorry, but I'm not.
Speaker 1:I feel that sense of peace, peace of mind that I've been looking for. It's nice, I'll be seeing you from beyond the grave. Oh, come on.
Speaker 2:Someone who's about to take my life doesn't write like that.
Speaker 1:No what an ass. Oh my gosh.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'll be seeing you like no yeah no, not at all no, no and and just ending it, I'll be seeing you when she just had called her mom no, oh yeah. Her parents never believed she would or could commit suicide and couldn't help but wonder if it was the constant psychological pushing and shoving from Swango that driven her there. An autopsy, though, revealed that she had been poisoned with lethal doses of cyanide, and again, my research showed that this was two weeks after he had been in New York. So I don't know if it's like how he finally got a two-week lethal dose I mean, nobody does that to themselves, I don't know but clearly he was the culprit of having that in her system?
Speaker 1:I don't know.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So this is where things take a little bit of a turn again for swango. So through the grieving of kristin's mother, she found correspondence with one of kristin's former co-workers at the hospital in south dakota and it was because of their exchanges that the folks in south dakota were tipped off that swango's latest residency was in New York. She was horrified to learn that someone with Swango's history was allowed to continue practicing medicine. The news of his residency eventually reached the dean of the University of South Dakota Medical Center and he alerted the dean of Stony Brook, jordan Cohen. After all of the disturbing details were shared with Cohen, he immediately notified the department chair, who contacted Dr Miller, and then Dr Miller arranged an immediate meeting with Swango to question him about the allegations.
Speaker 2:Dr Miller suspended Swango's residency Finally, and Jordan Cohen sent warning letters to every single medical school in the nation. And Jordan Cohen sent warning letters to every single medical school in the nation detailing Swango's disturbing background and advised them not to consider his applications. So he was eventually blacklisted at every hospital in the United States. Thank God, states, thank God. Swango showed back up at Miller's office the next day, begging and pleading for him to be lenient and not suspend his residency Wah wah wah. Miller knew he couldn't let him stay at Stony Brook, but he did offer him some advice, saying go somewhere that really needs a doctor somewhere.
Speaker 2:that's desperate. Miller suggested swango make a trip overseas to some impoverished region of the developing world where competent doctors were scarce resources. Yeah, with being blacklisted at every hospital in the united states, he basically had no choice but to leave the country if he ever wanted to practice medicine again, or should I say, continue his killing spree. Yeah, this is the point where the FBI enters the story.
Speaker 2:They got involved due to his falsifying documents and using fraudulent credentials to enter a VA hospital, but of course, swango was nowhere to be found in New York, and this is where I leave you listeners to end part one. That's right, this is a tubata.
Speaker 1:Ugh.
Speaker 2:I was going to disclose at the beginning that it was going to be a tubata Amanda.
Speaker 1:But I decided to wait for the end. Are you going to disclose?
Speaker 2:at the beginning that it was going to be a two-pata, amanda, but I decided to wait for the end.
Speaker 1:You're going to drop us here, I was hoping you were going to say, and they nabbed him and put him away to rot in solitary confinement forever and ever. Amen and no no, this guy's about to get a new lease on life.
Speaker 2:Why the hell wasn't he I have. So I know honestly it probably could have been like a four or five parter. There's just so much to the story. Again, I will have everything in the show notes, but I highly encourage people to, not before I finish part two, but to go look it up and like do a deeper dive, because it's just crazy and there's no way I could have done this in one part. How many second chances.
Speaker 1:This guy's a nightmare I don't understand how he was allowed to get even to this point, let alone. It seems like there's going to be more right. Second, third, fourth, way too fourth, way too many. Um, okay, well, I'm not going to wallow in this too much, because I'm hoping that next week we're going to have some restitution, some feeling of like. I hope this guy gets nabbed and suffers. So, um, if that doesn't happen, we're going to hear some more from me, but at this point I'm going to. We're going to hear some more from me, but at this point I'm going to, I'm going to bite my tongue. Um, I can't wait for part two and I'm going to bring up our new, brand new medical mishaps for our last section. So just lighten the mood, because medical mishaps oh, that happened unplanned.
Speaker 1:I loved it message was an email from our friend who thought of the segment to begin with, richard marsh from the uk. Yeah, thank you, richard. He writes hi. Dr jenna and dr amanda. Oh, loving the podcast. However, that third episode featured that chap I mean yeah, thanks, richard, love the idea accent that that third episode featuring that chap operating or false diagnosing just to make money while spitting false hope and life-charging disabilities.
Speaker 2:Please do, please do.
Speaker 1:What a guy, what a cad. I mean, could you be more British, Richard? Could you be more British? He goes. I think everyone would have been so saddened and gone blimey listening to that one.
Speaker 2:I'm obsessed. I'm obsessed.
Speaker 1:Maybe your podcast listening moment of fun would be an uplifting end to the show featuring funny medical mishaps supplied by us listeners. So let's get the ball rolling with this one, which I've called nasal invasion. Called nasal invasion he's gonna hate me for this accent because it's it's definitely not cornwall, but I, it's all I can do, richard, it's all I can do, baby okay, richard, I'm obsessed with you, suck or crew on a mint okay, I don't know what crewing it sounds great to me thing.
Speaker 1:Is that what you english people do? I need to ask my mother. I know you can suck on a mint, but how do you crew on it? I don't know. Maybe he'll tell us. Anyway, he says for me, one of my favorite with an o-u-r-i-t glass and still is even after this medical mishap is the good good old polo. A polo is a round mini mint. It's about two centimeters. I mean, we're gonna just have to wing it. For those of us in the non-metric system in damso with a hole in the middle, the art of successfully enjoying a mini is to suck on it until the last possible moment before it breaks and dissolves.
Speaker 1:If he was in my late teens that whilst attempting this challenge, um, it all went a bit wrong and I ended up in the yard. I think he was saying he was in his late teens, I think that's what that meant and he ended up in the emergency room. Oh no, was I choking on it? Was I asphyxiating myself? No, no, I had in fact managed to get a piece of this mint lodged into my left nasal cavity. What, what, how the hell did you manage that? It all came about as, during enjoying the mint, I started to sneeze and, whilst having a loud sneeze, I bit down on the mint, causing it to break up or, at the same time, having a sharp intake of breath, causing a bit of the mint to go towards the back of my throat and then, as I sneezed against it, went up and into my left nasal cavity cavity where it became well and truly stuck.
Speaker 1:No amount of aggressive blowing, snorting, blocking the right side of my nose, etc. Would budge the pesky polo. Uh, only one thing for it uh, seek professional assistance, if you will. So turns out, it was quite a straightforward procedure, if you know what you're doing. Um, have you know a minor set of tweezers to extend up your nose in a steady hand? Bit like playing a game of operation. Do you remember that, apart from my nose, uh, my nose was a buzzer in that situation? Uh, many thanks to the nurses and doctors for keeping a straight face whilst undertaking the procedure yes, I'm sure they've seen and dealt with worse and more interesting objects than a patient's nose.
Speaker 1:Did it hurt? Well, I wouldn't add it to your bucket list and um, but you do have a minty fresh flavor in your nose for a while. There you go, and that was from Richard. Thank you, richard, and I'm so sorry for slaughtering your accent. I can only do posh, richard, only posh.
Speaker 2:Thank you, richard, that was amazing. Thank you, richard, that was amazing.
Speaker 1:Thank you for sending that in, and we have had several others written in to us since then.
Speaker 1:Yes, medical mishaps, yes, yes. So, please, please. This is what makes this fun and engaging. We want to hear from you, so email us your medical mishap. I didn't even know. I'm so excited. Doctoring the truth at buzzsproutcom Uh, don't miss a beat. Subscribe or follow doctoring the truth wherever you enjoy your podcast, for stories that shock, intrigue and educate. Trust After all, is a delicate thing. You can support the show this is new by clicking on a subscriber link. When you look at your podcast episode, there's a subscriber link and you can support us for as low as three dollars a month and we'll give you a shout out on the show, and we're always looking for ways to bring you more rewards in the future. This might include exclusive content, early access to episodes, fun merch and more More. Be sure to follow us on Instagram at Doctoring the Truth, and Facebook at Doctoring the Truth. Right, amanda, I paused on that one and more. There we go. But also, please, we get credit for downloads, so download.
Speaker 2:If you ever wonder what it's called, it's just doctoring the truth at whatever platform you're on, until then stay safe and stay suspicious.
Speaker 1:Bye, I can't stop bye see you next week, friends, why am I not able to stop? I'm still going, okay.
