Dr. Michael Swango takes an oath to do no harm, but does just the opposite; suspicious illnesses and deaths follow the once-trusted physician-turned-killer.
doctors in zimbabwe. and there were many foreign doctors who came to practice because of the shortage. michael had come through the evangelical lutheran church, and there was a pathway for bringing foreign doctors over. when he got to africa, people at the hospital asked him, what is your background, why are you coming here? he would tell them, well, i ve been so blessed, i think it s time i gave back. and people were dying to hear that and believe it. swango was assigned to the hospital. the people he treated were mostly obstetric patients who were delivering babies. within a short period of time, the staff realized that he was deficient in some of the most basic medical procedures, certainly in obstetrics. and so that was the first sign of potential trouble. we learned he also might be connected to some suspicious deaths that occurred at the
dr. swango s murder spree spanned nearly two decades. how did this healer-turned-serial killer get away with this for so long? here s part two of dr. death you re next. michael swango. he just looks like the kind of guy you would want to be your doctor. i have tried my utmost to be the best person and the best physician i can be. and that s all anyone can do. he was a very polite, good-looking young man who was very articulate. a former marine. there was nothing that was not glowing about him. but people think swango may be using his brilliant mind and medical skills to play with people s lives. this was a person who should not be licensed to practice medicine. michael swango was a convicted felon. he had poisoned his
welcome back to very scary people. 1993, dr. michael swango, prolific poisner and suspected serial killer, vanished. many believed he fled the country. the fbi and interpol launched an international manhunt. after more than four years, his trail had gone cold. then authorities got the break they needed when michael swango tried to sneak back into the united states. i got a call from an fbi agent saying, do you know a person by the name of mike swango? my heart sank. because i thought, oh, god, what what s going on? i said, yeah, that s my case. he says, well, we have him here in chicago. michael swango was coming back into the united states.
but boy, i was wrong. because that s exactly what he did. this is a common scene at all three sioux falls hospitals. employees reviewing files. files of patients who were treated by dr. michael swank goe. the hospitals did their own investigations. and what they told me is that they looked at every case that he had anything to do with. and a review of all the patients did ultimately conclude that he had had nothing to do with anything that had happened here. but the fear with swango was high. we didn t know at the time if he was a danger to anybody but a patient. we had had a christmas party. the party was at, oh, one of our nurse s house. and her husband was a detective on the police force. and so he literally followed mike everywhere he went, to make sure that he wasn t putting