Negligent hiring of a doctor who murdered his own patients

Captions | Facts | Case

Captions:

 

Estate of George Siano v. the State of New York
Estate of Thomas Sammarco v. the State of New York
Estate of Aldo Serini v. the State of New York

 

---

Facts:

 

Michael Swango, M.D. was hired by the State of New York in July 1993. Dr. Swango was accepted to a four-year medical residency program in psychiatry. Dr. Swango was assigned by the State of New York to work at the Veterans Administration Hospital in Northport, New York, as part of his psychiatric residency rotation for internal medicine.

During the application process, Dr. Swango informed officials at the State University Hospital at Stony Brook that he had been previously convicted of a crime. Dr. Swango apparently “lied about the circumstances and convinced the admission staff he suffered a miscarriage of justice.”

“But had hospital officials checked the details of that 1985 conviction, for which he served two years, they would have learned that while he was working as a paramedic in Quincy, Ill., some of his colleagues became ill after he laced their tea, coffee and doughnuts with arsenic-based ant poison. And if they checked further they would have found that Ohio authorities concluded in 1986 they had circumstantial evidence linking him to several patient deaths - though not enough to sustain criminal charges.” (Michael Slackman, A Poison Past - Stony Brook Fires Doctor Guilty in ‘85 Arsenic Case, Newsday, October 20, 1993, A3.)

“Stony Brook could have found out about Dr. Swango’s record for $2 and a phone call to the Texas-based Federation of State Medical Boards. ‘I’ve got a file here that’s an inch thick on this guy` said Dr. James Winn, the federation’s executive vice president.” (Slackman, A Poison Past - Stony Brook Fires Doctor Guilty in ‘85 Arsenic Case, Newsday, October 20, 1993, A3)

Stony Brook learned of Dr. Swango’s true past only after being contacted by the Dean of the University of South Dakota Medical School, where Dr. Swango was previously employed as a resident doctor until officials there saw a television show highlighting his case. Dr. Swango was then fired by Stony Brook.

Approximately one week after Dr. Swango was fired, Dr. Alan Miller, the Director at STONY BROOK’s psychiatry residency program resigned. Hospital officials “said he failed to conduct any check into Dr. Swango’s background even after Dr. Swango admitted to spending time in jail.” (Rebecca Blumenstein, Stony Brook Program Head Quits - Hired Convicted Poisoner as Doctor, Newsday, October 27, 1993, at A6.)
Jordan Cohen, the dean of STONY BROOK’s medical school made several admissions upon announcing the resignation of Dr. Miller.

“What happened was a lapse in judgment by a very experienced physician.”

“There were gaps in [Dr. Swango’s] record, and the gaps were not investigated. That is a routine part of every application process.”

Dr. Cohen then wrote letters to “every medical school dean in the nation warning them about Dr. Swango.”

After Dr. Swango’s dismissal and Miller’s resignation, representatives from the Suffolk County Medical Examiner’s office and the Federal government reviewed patient records from the Veterans Hospital where Dr. Swango was assigned by STONY BROOK. (Michele Salcedo, Dr. Swango’s VA Record Examined, Newsday, October 23, 1993, at A10.) It was at the Veterans Hospital that Dr. Swango came to “care for” and ultimately kill by poison injection Aldo Serini, Thomas Sammarco and George Siano.

At the time of Dr. Swango’s termination in 1993, officials with the Veterans Administration announced “[t]he rate of complications did not change during Dr. Swango’s tenure.” Dr. Swango saw 148 patients at the Veterans Administration Medical Center between July 1993 and October 1993.

It was revealed in July of 2000 that Aldo Serini, Thomas Sammarco and George Siano did not die from disease or illness but from toxic injections from Dr. Swango.

That month, Dr. Swango was indicted for the murders of George Siano, Aldo Serini and Thomas Sammarco at the Northport VA Hospital in 1993. In September of 2000 Dr. Swango pled guilty to the murders of George Siano, Aldo Serini and Thomas Sammarco. He also pled guilty to the murder of Cynthia McGee in Ohio on October 18, 2000.

The case led to the publication of “Blind Eye - The Terrifying Story of a Doctor who got away with Murder” by James B. Stewart, published by Simon & Schuster in 1999. “Blind Eye” is an investigative case study of Dr. Swango’s odyssey from hospital to hospital and the trail of death left in his wake.

“Blind Eye” was published one year before Dr. Swango was indicted in the murders of George Siano, Aldo Serini, Thomas Sammarco and Cynthia McGee. At the time of its publication, it was detailed in a Newsday book review article. “It chronicles the life of Dr. Michael Dr. Swango, who is a suspect in the poisoning of scores of patients and colleagues during his tenure as a practicing doctor. What’s most frightening about this story is that Dr. Swango, who made his way from Ohio to Illinois to South Dakota to Long Island and finally to the Republic of Zimbabwe, raised suspicions throughout his medical career in the 1980's and 90's. Stewart said the FBI - still in the throes of an investigation to see whether there is enough evidence to charge Dr. Swango with murder - believes the doctor may have been responsible for the death or poisoning of at least 60 people throughout the world.” (A review of “Blind Eye” published in Newsday on August 31, 1999.)

 

---

Case:

 

On the recommendation of another attorney, Edward Nitkewicz was retained to prosecute the wrongful death claims of the estates of Aldo Serini, Thomas Sammarco and George Siano.

The State of New York argued that the cases should be dismissed as untimely because they were commenced after the statute of limitations expired.

Nitkewicz successfully argued that the announcements made by representatives of the hospital after Dr. Swango mislead the families into believing that he harmed no patients. The misinformation, it was argued, extended the period of time for commencement of the claims.

The Court agreed with Nitkewicz and ordered that the claims may proceed to trial. All three claims were immediately thereafter settled.