A Doctor Allegedly Killed Patients: Why Justice Still Eludes Victims’ Families
HARARE, Zimbabwe — “It’s so unfair that he did not face justice in this country where he killed dozens of people whose lives were entrusted into his care,” said Jayne Hungwe, a villager in the Mberengwa area of Zimbabwe.
She was reflecting on the death of Edith Ngwenya, a friend who she believes to have been one of the victims of Michael Swango, the American serial killer doctor now serving three life terms in a U.S. federal prison for similar crimes he committed there.
Ngwenya worked as a house helper for Swango, only for her to end up on the prolific serial killer’s hit list.
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“I knew Edith personally; she was very excited that she was working for an expatriate doctor, only for that excitement to end in her sudden and tragic death,” Hungwe told Religion Unplugged of her late friend.
Swango’s criminal exploits both in the U.S. and in Zimbabwe resulted in him being dubbed “Dr. Death.”
Ngwenya was one of at least several people, estimated to run into several dozens, who are believed to have been poisoned by Swango when he, then a fugitive on the United States’ FBI most-wanted list, sneaked into Zimbabwe and went on to work at two hospitals in the country. He worked at both Mnene Mission Hospital, a rural outpost run by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Mberengwa, and Mpilo Hospital, one of the country’s main referral hospitals in Bulawayo, the country’s second-largest city.
Just as had been the case in the U.S., during his time at both hospitals, a common trend was observed: An unusually high number of deaths were recorded when Swango was on duty, especially the sudden death of patients with non-threatening conditions.
“When I heard that the doctor was killing people, I was scared and called my partner to come and sign me out of the hospital,” Irene Chinyere, 73, one of the survivors of Swango’s poisonings at Mnene, said of her ordeal in 1996.
“I remember I was admitted after falling ill, and the doctor injected me in my shoulder,” she said. “It was very painful. I then fell unconscious, only to be resuscitated by nurses. The doctor came and wanted to inject me again, but I knew that he had ill intentions, so I refused. I believe God saved my life.”
Sister Ncube, who worked at Mpilo Hospital — where Swango had an internship for five months in early 1995 — for 35 years before joining a private hospital, told Religion Unplugged that the exact figure of people that Swango killed in Zimbabwe would never be known, but it is no small number.
“He killed a lot of people, not just at Mnene, but also at Mpilo, but only he and God would know the exact figure,” she said. “We were all puzzled at the way patients were suddenly dying, but the authorities were slow to act, which is why it took so long to stop him,” she continued. “Most of us were disappointed that no conclusive investigations were ever done to reveal the extent of his actions … maybe someone feared that proper investigations would end up blaming [authorities] for being careless as to allow him to practice without doing thorough background checks on him.”
At Mnene alone, Swango is believed to have poisoned several dozen patients and others, killing as many as 25 of them between 1995 and 1996. A police search of his living quarters discovered 55 different types of drugs, some of them dangerous.
Later on, while he was fighting his dismissal from Mnene, Swango offered to work as a volunteer at Mpilo, where he had previously been interned, but the hospital’s then surgical resident, Abdollah Mesbah, firmly turned down the offer. Mesbah had previously suspected that the sudden deaths of some patients were due to Swango after repeatedly finding him snooping around mysteriously in the intensive care unit and general wards, even when not on call.
When he realized that the net was closing in on him, he fled Zimbabwe and went on to hide in Zambia and Namibia, prompting Zimbabwean authorities to issue an international arrest warrant against him for seven poisonings (five of them fatal) that police investigations positively linked him to. He was only arrested upon his return to the U.S. in June 1997, where he had returned to pick up a Saudi Arabian visa for a new job that he had landed in that country.
He avoided extradition to Zimbabwe, where he faced the possibility of the death penalty, by striking a plea deal with US authorities in which he admitted to four killings resulting in consecutive life terms without parole. He is now serving life sentences in a Colorado prison, leaving his survivors and the families of his victims in Zimbabwe still hoping for justice and closure.
Let down by the authorities
In the wake of a similar case in which survivors and relatives of the victims of John Smyth, the late former Anglican priest who was accused of committing sexual assaults on dozens of boys both in England and Zimbabwe, are seeking civil damages from the Church of England, families and survivors of Swango’s actions in Zimbabwe feel let down by authorities.
Prominent human rights lawyer David Coltart, who was tricked by Swango into representing him after his dismissal at Mnene in the aftermath of the mysterious deaths, has always maintained that both the Health ministry and the police did not do a thorough job in checking the American’s background as well as in their decision not to pursue the criminal charges against him to their conclusion.
Asked if families and survivors who are still hoping for justice and closure can still seek civil remedies, Coltart — now Mayor of Bulawayo — told Religion Unplugged that this is made tricky by the reality that Swango is serving consecutive life sentences without possibility of parole.
“In theory, yes, but he is in prison, so even if one got a judgment, it would be hard to enforce,” Coltart said.
He said, unlike the current actions related to abuses committed by John Smyth, which are against the Anglican Church, in the case of Swango, it may not be viable to sue the church that hired him or the hospital that he worked for.
“You can’t do that because Swango wasn’t supported by any church, and the hospitals he worked for suspended him.”
No help from the church
Michael Dube, the Presiding Bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Zimbabwe, which brought Swango into the country to work at Mnene, its rural mission hospital in Mberengwa, refused to answer any questions about what it had done to help the families and survivors find closure.
The church, which tried to keep the case under wraps at the time, has always been mum on the matter.
Some legal experts insist the church should have been held responsible for civil action, citing precedents set in the U.S. where action was taken against Swango’s former employers on account of negligent hiring resulting from failure to adequately check his background, references, and licensing status (which would have revealed his 1985 felony conviction for poisoning coworkers).
The actions have also been based on corporate negligence arising from ignoring clear red flags, complaints from coworkers, and internal data regarding abnormally high patient death rates while Swango was on duty.
Search for justice
Rebekah Read, the senior associate solicitor at Leigh Day, a U.K.-based law firm that is involved in litigating on behalf of survivors from the Global South in international human rights abuses, environmental justice, corruption and whistleblowing cases, expressed dismay that justice remains unserved for families and survivors of Swango’s actions.
“For the families and survivors affected by Swango’s actions, the absence of full accountability in Zimbabwe understandably leaves a deep sense of unfinished justice,” Read said in an email.
“While criminal avenues appear largely exhausted, there may still be scope to explore civil claims against individuals or institutions involved, depending on the applicable law in the U.S. and Zimbabwe. Ultimately, meaningful accountability may depend on renewed scrutiny of those who enabled his access to vulnerable patients.”
Cyril Zenda is a journalist based in Harare, Zimbabwe.