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
Dark Medicine: The Swango Chronicles (Part 2)
Prepare yourself for a captivating journey into the life of Michael Swango, a man whose medical aspirations turned sinister. Once a promising physician, Swango's dark obsession with death took him on a harrowing global path filled with deceit, manipulation, and an alarming loss of life. In this gripping episode, we navigate through the shadows of his medical career—unraveling a web of chaos as patients mysteriously died under his care.
Swango's story raises uncomfortable questions about trust within the medical profession and the failures that allow evil to masquerade as healing. Through profound insights and a narrative rich with emotional depth, you will discover how a thorough investigation illuminated the complexities of his actions. As we uncover how institutional negligence perpetuated a cycle of malpractice, the dialogue extends beyond Swango's chilling tale to provoke deep thoughts about accountability and reform in healthcare.
Join us as we explore this crucial topic, featuring expert commentary and eye-opening observations on the delicate balance between trust and safety in medicine. You won't want to miss this engaging discussion—subscribe and immerse yourself in the staggering realities of one of medicine's most shocking cases!
References:
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC1118552/
https://murderpedia.org/male.S/s/swango-michael.htm
https://www.oxygen.com/license-to-kill/season-1/international-serial-killer (2019, Season 1 Episode 8)
Dr. Death. Life of Serial Killer Michael Swango. Author: Jack Smith
Don't miss a (heart) beat! Check out our Instagram @doctoringthetruth and email us your story ideas at doctoringthetruth@gmail.com. Don't forget to download, rate and review so we can keep bringing you more exciting content each week!
Stay safe, and stay suspicious...trust, after all is a delicate thing!
Amanda.
Speaker 2:Hi Jenna, hello how are you? Doing. I am great. How are you Good?
Speaker 1:I'm excited to welcome everyone to episode six.
Speaker 2:Welcome Episode six.
Speaker 1:Yay Part two of episode five listen, we have our brand new, and it's my fault, but we have a brand new section of the podcast that I'm entitling corrections section. Yeah, okay. So those of you who downloaded, like if you set your podcasts on automatic download, bless your hearts. We love that for you. However, however, um, there were, there were a little bit of a. There was a little, there was a lot of a glitch. Okay, the editor I don't know what she was doing. Anyway, it was bad. So if you are listening to episode five and we're talking on top of each other, just stop, don't torture yourself just, yeah, and just know if you delete it, there's a better version available that's not true for episode one.
Speaker 2:That's only true for episode five.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, but this time you get a chance to get a clean, nicely edited once. I figured out what I was doing um episode, so just don't despair. We know that happened. Thank you to those of you who let us know. Um. But yeah, if so, if, if the sound quality is really bad, just delete it and re-download and you'll be golden and thank you for your patience, as we had published and then pulled it and then edited, yeah, and basically my mom called me.
Speaker 1:She's like what the heck? And it pulled us. It sounds like I was like, oh my goodness, Okay, Thanks mom for listening.
Speaker 2:I hadn't gotten to that part yet. I was listening to it in the lobby for my appointment and I was like I think it sounds great. So I hadn't gotten to the train wreck part yet.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it was like a yeah. Anyway, it was a thing, we fixed it, so don't despair. Dear listeners, thanks for sticking with us.
Speaker 2:As one of my students says yeah, it's just trial and error, guys. Trial and error.
Speaker 1:Trial and error. Um. The second correction in this section is to our dear friend Richard, who was our first medical mishap writer and he wrote in about the mishap where he basically schnarfed a polo up his nose, um, polo being a like a lifesaver size mint for those of us in the US. Anyway, he wrote that he could you know that one would suck and crew on a mint. And I was like, oh, that must be a British thing. And basically he pointed out to me you goon, crew was meant to be chew, so it really wasn't a mystery. Crew was meant to be chew, so it really wasn't a mystery. Apparently the British also suck and chew on their mints, just like the rest of the world. So I apologize, dear Richard and the rest of the UK, for assuming there was something really mysterious and special about the way that you guys suck on mints.
Speaker 2:In your defense. It was written like crew, but have an r. That brings me to a question that has nothing to do with this podcast, but I've always wondered this is, and I don't, I don't know how to okay, so sometimes they will just like add an r at the end. You probably know the answer to this because you're dear old mama, but like so, the name emma will be like emmer, is that? What is that?
Speaker 1:um, yeah, that's vernacular, depending where you're from. In the uk they sometimes add a few consonants to just like help with that when I'm listening to an audiobook.
Speaker 2:It will. That will happen like frequently, and I'm like what is it with this r thing? I don't hate it, but I'm like is it?
Speaker 1:is her name emmer, or is it emma? Say that it's a common language separated by some ocean, um, and a lot of consonants. So, yeah, we're gonna. We're just gonna take it as we take each word as it comes and I love it yeah, I'm here for it. I appreciate richard pointing out that it wasn't crew, it was chew. I kind of, I kind of like chew our crew better. I was like I do too.
Speaker 2:I'm gonna go with crew, and that's why I thought with the addition of the r thing, I was like maybe crew was supposed to be chew I don't know, I'm gonna crew me mint um, anyway, richard, thanks again for sending your story. It was hilarious, yeah I loved it.
Speaker 1:um also speaking of uh places across the pond from the us, we have listeners in austria and ab Abu Dhabi now hey guys, welcome to the pod. So I would like to say to our friends in Abu Dhabi. So there you go.
Speaker 2:Snaps for Jenna Keep it coming people from the international areas. Thank you Also. Did you guys know my friend could speak so many languages?
Speaker 1:I can speak many languages badly, so that is what I bring to the table here. But, amanda, I am on the edge of my seat about this dude that we talked about last week. Can you tell us what's in store for us today?
Speaker 2:yes, I can. Um, before we start, I'll just uh, throw out some trigger warnings for this episode, which include miscarriage and, of course, murder. Um, references will be posted in the show notes and the book that I had referenced I don't know three or four times last time and never told anyone. Um, that book was titled dr death life of serial killer michael swango and the author was jack smith. So that will be there with the other references that I used. So, where we left off, last week, the FBI had learned of Swango and started to build a case against him, specifically for fraudulently entering a VA with inaccurate credentials. Ooh.
Speaker 2:No bueno, mm-mm. So we are in February of 1994, and the FBI was tipped off that Swango was located in Atlanta where he had been working as a chemist at a wastewater plant poison the water supply.
Speaker 2:The FBI contacted the facility and informed them of Swango's past and shockingly, not shockingly he was fired on July 22nd, Yikes, Despite a diligent investigation, slow bureaucracy meant that they couldn't get a warrant for his arrest issued until October 27th. However, Swango opted to take the advice of Dr Miller, If we remember from the last case what he had told him you know go off to some far away place that needs doctors desperately.
Speaker 1:The guy with no conscience that was like oh okay, you suck, um, why don't you take it to the third world country? That doesn't he's like you know?
Speaker 2:yeah, third world country, that doesn't. He's like you know, yeah, you can't work here, but why don't you just go somewhere where they need you more? You know that places you're not up to par here, but maybe somewhere else, like I have so many
Speaker 2:issues with that so that november um, he took that advice of dr miller and he was off to zimbabwe where he used forged documents to get a job at Mene Lutheran Mission Hospital. He found the job through an overseas job agency called Options. The agency's main mission was to fill medical positions with American doctors. And when he arrived in Zimbabwe he was asked by the director why would you choose to come to a rural area and make substantially less money? I mean swan yeah yeah sus sus sus.
Speaker 2:That's what the kids are saying. Um, so you'd make way less money. It's remote. And swango simply replied I love Africa.
Speaker 1:Oh, do you how? What do you know about Africa?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so the more the director got to know Swango and witness his work in the field, he realized that he seemed highly unprepared for even very basic medical tasks. And when questioned about this seemingly lack of preparedness, swango chalked it up to having practice in the field of neurosurgery.
Speaker 3:Okay, so he didn't have much experience outside of that very prestigious field For all of the basics.
Speaker 2:Yeah, for the bread and butter. So he was ordered to do five months rotation as an intern at mipillo hospital in bulloway to strengthen his skills, which good on the hospital, right, they're like well, you can stay, like let's get you some skills. You just work as an intern, get stronger, yeah, yeah. And by all accounts he had made friends and done well during this rotation, though of course there were still skeptics of why he chose to be there in the first place. Yep, as they should be.
Speaker 2:After the five months were over, he went back to Mine Lutheran Mission Hospital, but Swango had planned to return to Bulaway where, you know, he made friends once his contract was finished. So his plans to return would be halted because, you know, he just couldn't keep up the act of being a good old boy any longer. His dark obsession with death had a stronger pull. Patients once again, sadly, began dying under mysterious circumstances. He was witnessed giving patients unknown medications in their IVs, as well as extra treatments that they didn't need, just as it was in America. The nursing staff began to notice that he was up to no good. Patients cheated death while under the care of Soango. Some left paralyzed, others were not so lucky and unfortunately passed away. Again, these were patients who were dying unexpectedly for reasons completely unrelated to why they were at the hospital in the first place. That's disgusting. Despite the growing pile of evidence, hospital administrators didn't want to believe that the American doctor was truly causing these problems intentionally and, despite the suspicions, no firm conclusions could be made due to the lack of autopsies. That's so hard. That's so hard. Oh no, unfortunately for her. I mean not only losing your child that's nearly full term but she was also under Swango's care. Oh no, medical staff treated the pain with medication and worked to remove the fetal remains from the womb. The procedure was noted to be routine and completed without any complications. However, just days later she was found deceased. Oh, any complications. However, just days later she was found deceased.
Speaker 2:The medical director, dr Shiri, began to question medical staff about the procedure obtaining testimonies. It was reported to him by a nurse that Swango had injected the patient with something. Dr Shiri's seriousness in obtaining testimonies opened the door for nursing staff to be absolutely transparent about their growing concerns. They shared many stories of the extra treatments and patient reports of being injected with medications that they presumed were unneeded. Dr Shaziri also collected testimonials from these patients, which is amazing, those that were lucky enough to be alive still, for instance, a patient that woke up to Swango giving him a shot that left him paralyzed. Oh my goodness. Dr Shaziri was deeply disturbed by everything that he had learned. Obviously Fearful that he would continue his reign of terror, he transferred Swango to the neighboring Mizumi mission hospital. Until they could figure out what to do, which I don't know if that was the best answer. To just transfer him somewhere else? But yeah, just get him out of here.
Speaker 1:I mean it was something.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, dr Shaziri contacted the Lutheran Church headquarters and alerted the medical director of what had been going on. Contacted the Lutheran Church headquarters and alerted the medical director of what had been going on, and the medical director also wasted no time in alerting authorities, who obtained a warrant to search Swango's living quarters. There they found a stockpile of pharmaceuticals, syringes and various chemicals, and with that his license to practice in Zimbabwe was temporarily suspended, with privileges revoked until an investigation could clear him of any wrongdoing. The investigation was completed in October and he was terminated from Mine Mission Hospital.
Speaker 1:I mean that's the very least that should happen. I mean the guy should have been arrested for, yeah, wrongfully misrepresenting himself and treating these patients. But okay, carry on.
Speaker 2:Okay, Swango then went to the only other place that he knew in Zimbabwe. Back to Bulawayo he reconnected with a friend, Ian, that he had met during his five-month rotation. He told Ian the shocking story of how he was so wrongfully fired from Minet Hospital. Ian just couldn't believe it and directed him to a human rights lawyer that he knew confidently that he was treated misfairly. Swango linked up with the lawyer, who also believed there was a case for discrimination as the only American doctor at the brandis it was discrimination, normally, that if you were american you could do no wrong.
Speaker 1:So, come on, guys, they were like oh, you're an american doctor, you, you are the be-all, end-all of doctors, and he abused that. And so now they're using it to say oh, he wasn't given the benefit of the doubt because he was an american doctor.
Speaker 2:Oh, that's, that's, that's rich, okay so ian also went to the director of mipelo hospital and urged him to restore swango's privileges so that he could practice there. The director was pretty leery about the story and contacted dr shaziri to see why Swango had actually had his privileges revoked. That's good for him yeah.
Speaker 2:Yep, so good on you. Shaziri advised against hiring Swango and said that things were still under investigation so he couldn't really discuss any details with him, and so, unfortunately, the director of Mipelo Hospital assumed that it was just a personal dispute rather than medical negligence, and swango's rights were restored and he was hired at mipelo hospital amanda, do you know what they say about the word assume?
Speaker 1:if you assume, what happens?
Speaker 2:is that when um you know you're making, you're an ass out of you and me.
Speaker 1:Oh, shame me that whole thing, but honestly I mean I'm not trying to make light of this, but it's like obviously they couldn't conceive that someone would have nefarious intents or just be like this ridiculously unqualified and carry on.
Speaker 2:And right. They want this educated American doctor to help their patients. They don't want to just assume he's there with ill intentions. Like you said Exactly, there's a lack of resources in there, he's charismatic?
Speaker 2:Yeah, unfortunately, they want to believe that they usually are Mm-hmm. Yeah, he's really good. Yeah, unfortunately, they usually are Mm-hmm. Yeah, he's really good at playing the victim Any whoozles. So he's at Mapillo Hospital now and his killing spree would begin only weeks after starting. Oh, it was even easier for him to perform these heinous acts at Mapilo because he had 24-hour access, leaving little to no witnesses. Mysterious deaths occurred left and right, most overlooked due to the busy nature of the hospital. However, there would be a turn in the story when a journalist tracked Swango down at Mipelo Hospital. He was mid-request of the switchboard to page Swango so that he could interview him when, much to his surprise, swango was right behind him. Swango asked him who they were and what they wanted, and they explained that they were a journalist, and Swango immediately backed away with his arms in the air, proclaiming I can't answer that. You have to talk to my lawyer.
Speaker 1:And then he just ran away oh, methinks thou just protest really dramatically, and and therefore, uh, though thou hast something to hide, oh, my goodness, talk to my lawyer. Bye like what?
Speaker 2:oh, that's so obvious. So hospital staff were left staring like what the hell just happened and the journalist, not wanting to leave with nothing, found the director and began interviewing him on whether or not he was aware that swango was under investigation for several deaths. Obviously unaware this, the director initiated his own internal investigation and I'm sure you can guess what happened next Swango was told that his services were no longer needed at the hospital and he was fired Bye-bye, oh my god, can you imagine?
Speaker 1:Your own hospital is like outed by the press and you're like wait, what this guy's what?
Speaker 2:Okay, guess he shouldn't have assumed it was just a little.
Speaker 2:That's the ass part of you and me. Yeah, oh man, uh, yeah, so it was all now all over the news that the american doctor was accused of experimenting on patients. Swango, of course, stuck with the story that he was framed and he returned to Bulaway where he had an established relationships with those friends. So Ian fully took him under his wing. He totally believed that he was being pitted against and was like I got you, bro, which good on you, you, ian, to be a good friend. I have a friend, ian, ian, you are actually a very good friend, so shout out to my ian. But anyway, um, so swango, uh, then started staying with the mother of a gal, leanne, that he had previously met through Ian.
Speaker 2:Leanne was moving anyway and thought, you know, it might be nice to have the company at home with her mom, and her mom agreed. She did, of course, see Swango all over the news and asked Ian, are you sure about him? And Ian assured Lynette, who's Leanne's mom, that he was being framed and he's a good guy. So it's all good, nothing's going to happen. Things went generally well with the living situation. At first Lynette noted odd behaviors, but anytime things got weird, swango would just apologize, and so she just ended up brushing it off. Swango then met his newest love interest, joanna, while at dinner with mutual friends, and Joanna was recently divorced and had a couple of children. Their relationship progressed pretty quickly as he offered to help with the kids because you know, he doesn't have a job.
Speaker 1:So he's got time.
Speaker 2:What else are you going to do, dude? Yeah, so Joanna would drop the children off at Lynette's house when she went to work and Swango would watch them. But the more often that Swango was around, the more ill that they became.
Speaker 1:No, please tell me, Amanda, that this man is not poisoning the children. Oh my gosh.
Speaker 2:And they weren't the only ones falling violently ill. There were times where Lynette would fall suddenly ill and of course suspected Swango of messing with her food or drink, but these times were so far and few between she chalked it up to having bouts of the flu. She's like kind of like his ex-girlfriend or fiancée from the last episode. It's like am I going crazy or are you actually messing with me, as he did? Right.
Speaker 2:Mm-hmm. Last episode it's like am I going crazy or are you actually messing with me, right? Um, so lynette's maids, on the other hand, had other ideas. They were certain that he was tampering with the food in the home and later shared an example that there was a brand new jar of peanut butter and the seal had been tampered with, as if something was pushed down into the peanut butter. The maids were extremely concerned with Swango living there and began sleeping inside of the main house, and they shared that Swango would get up in the middle of the night and stand outside of Lynette's door Just standing there oh weird. They would make throat-clearing noises or start humming to alert him that like, like, hey, we're still awake and we're paying attention to what you're doing, and then he would like quickly go back to his room.
Speaker 1:like nothing to see here bye.
Speaker 2:Thank god for them freaking weirdo. Yeah, they shared the odd behavior with lynette and she asked him to leave, thankfully, and he was apparently so pissed that he couldn't mess with her anymore and or that he was kicked out undecided that he decided to tamper with her car instead and he poured a large amount of sugar into her gas tank. What a shithead.
Speaker 1:Oh, oh, my god, yeah, no, oh, he needs.
Speaker 2:So now he's kicked out. He's kicked out of lynette's house and so now he goes to live with joanna full-time. His days consisted of lounging around joanna's house until one day he received a phone call from the police, who informed him that they wanted to interview him in person. Of course, of course I'll show up for an interview, you know, but it's going to have to be the next day because I'm pretty busy watching children right now.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's pretty busy poisoning people and yeah, okay.
Speaker 2:So the police agreed shockingly and they were like, okay, come in. They agreed on August 29th and the story he told Joanna was you know, I just really need to get away from it all. And that he wanted to plan a hiking trip to a national park. And, as the understanding girlfriend that she was, she agreed that you know that will be really good for you and dropped him off at a Zimbabwean bus station. Oh man, and is this where we lose him again?
Speaker 1:I don't know, but it's time for a chart note Chart note that was more like a wolf or coyote howling than a nice musical segue.
Speaker 2:Sorry about that I know I loved that. Welcome to the chart note segment where we learn about what's happening in medicine and healthcare. Okay, so on back-to-back chart notes. So you know, I googled hot topics in healthcare today and I found an alarming amount of articles on mistrust that patients have for medical professionals.
Speaker 1:What Say it isn't so. That's what the premise of this whole show is.
Speaker 2:I know I said, hmm, that seems like an appropriate topic for this case, Because, hello, how can we say it's easy to trust when we had a Michael Swango going around poisoning people, Right? I mean, granted, this was a long time ago, but anyway. Um, however, the route and mistrust and veering of patients that I chose to focus on is how people are turning to social media platforms such as Tik TOK for health information and guidance. Yes, this is not a new idea.
Speaker 2:However, you know how long have we heard of people Googling their symptoms Guilty? But how are we to trust that the answers we're finding are reliable? And just because one's person, one person's experience, was shared online doesn't mean that will be the trajectory or experience that others will have. Right, Because everybody's different and studies show that many young people prefer to use social media in place of those traditional search engines like Google to seek answers, which I was kind of like that seems a little more dangerous. Right, Because now we just have a Joe Schmo like me being like hey, I had this surgery and this is what happened to me you know like no medical knowledge in that area at all.
Speaker 1:Exactly, and you know, anecdotal evidence is not as powerful as, you know, full-blown studies, but it's more powerful when I mean, even if you weren't online, if you talked to your auntie, who you know had the same thing, and she said this is awful, whatever, you're going to go with that instead of maybe that was an outlier situation, uh, yeah, yeah so I found a little study um so we have a rose dimitrianus dimitrianus um.
Speaker 2:She is a third year medical student at the University of Chicago. Pritz Pritzker, pritzker. That just caught me off guard, like I tripped on a curb on a sidewalk, sorry yeah, and there's a lot of consonants there, I'm just gonna go Pritzker.
Speaker 2:Pritzker School of Medicine and other UChicago researchers recently published a new study which systematically analyzed health information on TikTok to see if they could identify trends, such as how much misinformation is out there and does it come from specific types of content creators? They found that nearly half of the videos contained non-factual information, with a large proportion of misleading videos coming from non-medical influencers, like we already talked about, of course, there are endless amounts of health conditions that can be searched, so the researchers opted to focus on hashtag sinus talk for a more manageable analysis. For a more manageable analysis, they focused on this specific healthcare condition and performed their search during a single 24-hour period. To limit the effects of TikTok's ever-shifting algorithms, they searched the app using specific hashtags related to sinusitis, including hashtag sinusitis, hashtag sinus and hashtag sinus infection. The researchers found that nearly 44% of the videos contained non-factual information, with a significant proportion coming from non-medical influencers, who were more likely to spread misleading content. Medical professionals' videos were generally of higher quality, containing less misinformation, which I was like.
Speaker 1:44 that's a high, a high percentage, but at least it's less than him I know I'm also like, okay, so if we could just figure out who the medical professionals really are.
Speaker 2:I know, because if I made a TikTok right now, I could say I'm whoever you could say you're a medical professional.
Speaker 1:No one's going to know that You're not a medical sinus professional. Right, exactly.
Speaker 2:So many areas, so the researchers highlighted the dangers of health misinformation, such as ineffective or dangerous treatments being promoted, which could lead to confusion and harm. For example, a trend of putting garlic up the nose for sinus relief could cause harm despite appearing harmless and then increasing emergency visits to get garlic clothes out of one's binaries they just need that little tweezer that Richard talked about.
Speaker 1:Never mind the polo. What about the garlic? Okay, yeah.
Speaker 2:The study emphasized the importance of critically evaluating health information on social media and consulted trusting Nope Consulting trusted health healthcare providers. It also suggested that medical professionals should be more active on social media to help combat misinformation and improve the quality of health content available online, which is a great, a great idea. If you have time for that and you want to be on social media, yeah. So I'd like to just take a little special moment here to shout out to our ENT colleagues, because we work closely with you guys and we love you guys, love you, love you guys. Special shout out to shannon and gretchen love you guys, emily and isaac.
Speaker 1:Okay, yeah, okay, okay, back to the story.
Speaker 2:Okay, yeah this is where swango falls off the grid for a couple weeks again and resurfaces in zambia, zambia, why did I say zambia? Yeah oh okay, I just like, was like, felt like I said zombie for a second okay sorry it's getting late at night and my brain is getting squirrely.
Speaker 2:so he resurfaces in Zambia and he has a job at the university teaching hospital. If you're geographically challenged like me, I had to look up a lot of maps for this. So, for reference, zambia is a little over 20 hours from Bulawayo. That's really far away. When I lived in Washington, I was 26 hours away from Minnesota, so I don't know, I feel like that was a good distance.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's a long ways away. Yeah, I don't know, I feel like that was a good distance. Yeah, that's a long ways away, yeah.
Speaker 2:So after about two months of working there, the hospital had learned of Swango's pending charges he was facing from a bulletin that was sent out by Zimbabwe to all of the countries in Southwest Africa. Oh wow, officially fired on November 19th 1996. And knowing that he'd need to relocate again, and far away from the Southern region of Southern Africa that he had been reigning terror on, he reached out to another medical placement company, where he secured a position at a medical facility in Saudi Arabia.
Speaker 1:Oh, no, and and for reference again for those of us that are geographically challenged.
Speaker 1:Saudi Arabia is about 154 hours away by car and a 10 and a half hour flight from South Africa um, if you were american trained because now they have people that saudis that are, um they have sent for training in america and europe and whatever. But at the time in the 90s, they didn't send people over seats. So if you came with a training from america you were like, oh you know, play somehow over the training of people who had trained in the Middle East locally. So so he was already kind of on a pedestal when he applied there. Karina sorry.
Speaker 2:No, thank you for sharing that. I'm so sorry if you guys can hear this, but my dog just started snoring, so it's better than barking. But just enjoy the ambiance in the background.
Speaker 1:We're boring your dog, okay, no she's tired from daycare.
Speaker 2:'s a girl, okay anyway, um. So I'd like to also point out that we're talking about the mid-90s here, so it's not like people are opening up a social media app or a news outlet app on their phone and learning of this monster, leaving this trail of death behind him, like, like you said, he's already being set a tier above, even though he shouldn't be, and they just don't have the outreach with social media like we do now. So Swango was set to start at Royal Hospital in Duran in March of 1997. And this is where I'd like to take a moment to thank the Saudi government for a policy that they had in place.
Speaker 2:The policy was that all visas had to be issued in a visitor's home country. This meant that Swango would have to go back to the United States to get a Saudi visa to work. So Swango tried to argue that this policy you know, saying I can get the visa in South Africa. It's much closer for me to travel than go back to the United States. But they did not budge. So this guy was either desperate beyond belief or absolutely insane, because he chose to fly back to the U? S to get the work visa.
Speaker 1:There you go. I will say they are pretty resolute in their rules. I mean, they have a definite hierarchy of who comes from where, how much you get paid, what you can do, based on your country of origin. So that doesn't surprise me.
Speaker 2:On June 27th 1997, he landed at O'Hare International Airport in Chicago where he was detained by immigration officials and his passport was confiscated. Investigators knew that they would need more evidence to have a Loctite case against him for murder. But they had plenty of evidence against him to charge him with forgery. But they had plenty of evidence against him to charge him with forgery. They knew that the sentence for forgery would be short but that it would probably buy them enough time to continue gathering that evidence that they needed and knowing all the while that he'd be safely locked behind bars. Yeah.
Speaker 2:So, facing the threat of extradition to Zimbabwe, he agreed to plead guilty to the long-standing forgery charges against him. He entered a guilty plea for defrauding the government in March of 1998. Just a few months later, in July, he was convicted and sentenced to three and a half years in prison. While Swango might have believed that he'd soon be released and could pass the time in prison with hot meals and television, he was mistaken. While he was safely locked up, investigators were building a case that would ensure a much longer sentence for his other crimes. Documents were uncovered and bodies were exhumed no-transcript.
Speaker 2:Just as Swango was nearing the end of his three and a half year sentence, he was paid a visit by these agents, who presented the mounting evidence against him. He was hit with three counts of murder and several other lesser charges, and was formally indicted on these charges on July 17th. Of course, he initially pled not guilty, which is the same approach he had taken when he was accused of poisoning his co-workers in the 1980s. However, prosecutors made it very clear what was at stake. If convicted, swango could face the death penalty in New York or be extradited to Zimbabwe, where he was likely to receive harsher punishment. Yeah.
Speaker 2:It's unclear whether he feared death or the prospect of being imprisoned in Zimbabwe, but under the pressure, he once again relented and agreed to plead guilty. Ultimately, swango was sentenced to three consecutive life sentences for three murder charges, without the possibility of parole. While he was formally convicted of three murders, it is suspected that there were upwards of 60 murders.
Speaker 1:Oh my god 60?
Speaker 2:Right, that's so many. And now, in his 70s, swango remains imprisoned at ADX Florence, which is a maximum security federal penitentiary in Colorado where inmates have little to no contact with other inmates and or staff. He actually requested to be transferred to ADX because he believed it would be safer for him to live out the rest of his years there fearing what other inmates might do to him.
Speaker 2:Because, you know, he has other experience with being imprisoned and apparently he had faced threats from former fellow inmates when he was imprisoned before. Huh wonder why. Yeah, um, I didn't know this. Maybe I should have known this, but adx is home to some of the world's most notorious criminals, including mexican drug kingpin el chapo shoe bomber, rich Bomber. Richard Reed and Boston Marathon Bomber Jahar Sarni. Ah, dang it, jahar Sarniho. Yes, you guys. I even put a pronunciation key in there for me, tripped on the sidewalk again.
Speaker 1:Those are baddies. Baddies, I know baddies, I know bad bad, bad, bad.
Speaker 2:Since his incarceration, he has remained largely silent because he's a big anyway, refusing all interviews, requests or any other inquiries into his life behind bars. Despite pleading guilty to the charges that led to his indictment, swango continued to present himself as a victim of unjust persecution and seems determined to maintain that narrative until his death, because he's a big puke bag. Oh, come on, dude. So unfortunately, since he's choosing to remain silent, we'll probably never get a chance to understand why he did what he did. You know we often try to dissect if it was the old nature versus nurture situation, but by all accounts, he had a seemingly normal childhood. His parents were divorced and his mom did odd things like wrap their Christmas presents in paper bags and just stuck them under the tree. But is that enough for someone to turn into a serial killer? I mean, they had presents.
Speaker 2:I mean no, you had Christmas with presents, so it sounds pretty fortunate to me.
Speaker 2:He also has two other siblings that didn't grow up to be serial killers. So there's that he always seemed to have an obsession with death and dying from his overzealous enthusiasm for deadly EMT calls, standing by his patients coded without offering a helping hand, His fascination with making gory scrapbooks and his dark obsession of mixing chemical concoctions to experiment on his colleagues and patients with, it's like. Was he just obsessed with the effects that the chemicals may or may not have on people, or was his motive always to kill? He was also known for being manipulative and invasive, often trying to cover up his actions and any wrongdoing. Soango's killings spanned several states in the US and several countries, suggesting that his actions were not isolated incidents but part of a larger pattern. Professionals, including psychologists and criminologists, believe that Swango's motivations were driven by a desire for control, power and perhaps even a fascination with death, and have pointed out that he has demonstrated classic signs of a medical serial killer.
Speaker 2:so it's just scary that someone who could use their trusted position to inflict harm while evading suspicion like eek yeah the darkness within, yeah, the darkness within swango is difficult for the rest of us all to comprehend, which is a good thing, and we can only hope that there aren't many others like him working in our clinics and hospitals this is amanda.
Speaker 1:This is such an interesting case because, I mean, not everybody that goes into the medical profession, it does it for an altruistic reason. But like what? What do you think it was that um gave, that, spurred him on, that, gave him their the reason for doing what he did? Because I don't understand, I just don't get it like yeah why would?
Speaker 2:you yeah I think that he just like had a wire twisted weird upstairs because he was so obsessed with death and dying, and I do think that he truly I mean he was really good at chemistry. He won chemistry awards.
Speaker 1:Yeah, he seemed to be so intelligent. How? Can someone not? Intelligent, who was interested in healthcare and and putting all that it took to get that healthcare, education and graduate. How can they? What was in it for him? What was he getting out of it to kill these people?
Speaker 3:I honestly think that he just was like here's my new recipe.
Speaker 2:I'm going to see what it does to you.
Speaker 1:Kinda I don't know, it seemed like he was indiscriminate. It was like it could be my patients, it could be my co-workers. Like he wasn't just like trying to come up with a cure for something that didn't go well. He was just like, oh, check this, I can poison my co-workers at the same time as, like, kill my patients I I've never heard yeah, I've never heard of a case like this. I've never heard of a guy like this I had never heard of him.
Speaker 2:I highly doubt he'll ever hear this, but if you do, we're on the patient side and you're a puke oh my goodness, well, you did such a good job researching this and presenting this and we really appreciate that.
Speaker 1:And, um, again, this was I can't believe, given the the reach that this guy had, the amount of murders and poisonings and things that he's done.
Speaker 2:But I haven't heard of this, but thank you and I just always think, like all the second chances, like this guy was almost stopped so many times.
Speaker 1:God. And then we're like oh well, you know, you're not good enough for us soil because you're a bit of an ass, but maybe you can go overseas and spread your incompetence there. But the problem was, it wasn't incompetence, it was maliciousness. Mm-hmm, you know? Yeah, it was evil. It was just pure evil.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's been sick. Well great, I mean you know, know. No, we need to know these things. Um, and I appreciate you bringing that up, um, I'm gonna lighten the mood by uh reading another medical mishap I'm so excited for this this is a medical mishap listener email.
Speaker 1:Today's medical mishap is from Kevin, he writes thank you so much for starting this podcast. I truly appreciate your humor and the research you do to bring these cases to our attention. You've given me something to look forward to on Wednesdays now. Yay, happy holidays, thanks, kevin. Yay, kevin, attention. You've given me something to look forward to on wednesdays now. Yeah, thanks, kevin. Um, he says I'm writing about a medical mishap that happened many years ago, but it still makes me laugh to this day.
Speaker 1:My sweet elderly grandma, jean, saw an ent physician for her recurring sinusitis and an ear infection. He prescribed her a rinse solution for her sinuses and drops for her recurring sinusitis and an ear infection. He prescribed her a rinse solution for her sinuses and drops for her ear, with instructions to come back in two weeks for a follow-up visit. Her sinuses were clear two weeks later, but the ear infection had gotten worse. The ENT was puzzled and asked Jean if she'd used the drops as he'd prescribed. She was adamant that she'd followed instructions to a T and pulled the paper with instructions from her purse. Doctor, I've been putting this in my rectum three times daily for ten days, but my ear is still plugged, confused and perhaps horrified let's hope horrified, the doctor grabbed the prescription from her hands and read it over carefully. The note read instill five drops three times daily in the R period ear. Oh my gosh.
Speaker 1:So of course we never let her live that down. That is so funny. Never let her live that down, that is so funny. It's still a source of smiles and laughter as we remember our grandma at our family get-togethers over the years. Oh bless, I will say this was a time when patients unwaveringly followed the physician's instructions to a t and would never question what the doctor says. I think that this has changed over recent years and that's a positive thing, but listening to some of your cases, it seems we still have a way to go. Thank you for doing what you do and keep the episodes coming oh my gosh kevin.
Speaker 2:No, thank you, thank you kevin, oh, bless your heart.
Speaker 1:That was our right ear, yeah, rear. So she's putting ear drops in her butt. Oh no.
Speaker 2:Anyway.
Speaker 1:I'm sorry, ties into our chart note for today too.
Speaker 2:Again, shout out to our ENT colleagues Don't ever write R dot ear.
Speaker 1:Bless her heart. Can you imagine how uncomfortable the treatment was and ineffective, absolutely, and she's like. Well, who am I to question the? Doctor.
Speaker 2:And she's like, yes, of course I've been following these directions to a D. Oh, bless your heart, Grandma Jean. Thank you so much for sharing that. That's my favorite. Rest in peace.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so Okay, well, all best. And please. Yeah, so okay, well, all right, jenna.
Speaker 2:Yeah, what can our listeners expect to hear next week?
Speaker 1:Oh well, next week we're covering an episode entitled Nefarious Nurses the Lethal Lovers of Alpine Manor. Oh, stay tuned, listeners. Entitled nefarious nurses the lethal lovers of alpine manor. Oh, stay tuned, listeners, it gets pretty interesting next week. Um, don't miss a beat. Subscribe and follow doctoring the truth wherever you enjoy your podcasts, for stories that shock, intrigue and educate trust after all, is a delicate thing. We want to spend, we want to send. We don't want to spend, we want to send. A special thank you to our subscriber. Sandy show is the missing. Is that what I'm saying? Scow Show.
Speaker 2:Scow Sandy Huh.
Speaker 1:Scow Huh.
Speaker 2:Scow Scow. Just read it like a S-K-O-W Scow Scow Did I say it.
Speaker 1:Okay, you did, sandy Scow. Okay, thank you for support of our podcast, sandy Scow. Sandy, because she's subscribed to our podcast, will get to choose a topic for an upcoming episode. Oh boy, uh-huh, you too can subscribe to our podcast for as low as $3 a month. Your subscription will get you a shout-out on the show and a choice for a future episode. In addition, we're looking for other ways to bring our subscribers exclusive content and merchandise. So click the link under the rating view and subscribe today. You can also text us directly on our website at doctoringthetruthatbuzzsproutcom and definitely email us your story, story ideas, especially medical mishaps, at doctoringthetruth at gmailcom, and be sure to follow us on Instagram and Facebook at doctoringthetruth. And don't forget to download. We don't get credit unless you download rate and review, so we can be sure download folks, if you heard that download, download, download even if you don that Download, download, download.
Speaker 2:Download, even if you don't listen to it, just download it. Yeah, you can just download.
Speaker 1:Tell me, I mean, you want to listen, but yeah, download.
Speaker 2:I hope you want to listen but if you don't just download it, Listen to it later.
Speaker 1:Yeah, if you don't have time just download and then listen later. So if you do that, that we can be sure to bring you more content each week until then stay safe and stay suspicious. Bye adios I know I've also.
