Baylor Scott & White Surgicare North Dallas. Photo by Renee Umsted.
A federal grand jury found Dallas anesthesiologist, Dr. Raynaldo Rivera Ortiz Jr. guilty on 10 counts of poisoning IV bags that led to one death and numerous cardiac emergencies.
After eight days of trial and seven hours of deliberation, a Dallas grand jury found Ortiz guilty on four counts of tampering with consumer products resulting in serious bodily injury, one count of tampering with a consumer product and five counts of intentional adulteration of a drug.
Ortiz faces a maximum penalty of 190 years in prison.
“Dr. Ortiz cloaked himself in the white coat of a healer, but instead of curing pain, he inflicted it,” U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas, Leigha Simonton, said. “We saw the patients testify. Their pain, their fear and their trauma was palpable in that courtroom.”
About one month after the unexplained emergencies began, anesthesiologist Melanie Kaspar, a Lakewood resident who worked at Baylor Scott & White Surgicare North Dallas earlier that day, died while treating herself for dehydration using an IV bag.
A local lab analyzed fluid from an IV bag used during a teen’s surgery and found bupivacaine (a nerve-blocking agent), epinephrine (a stimulant) and lidocaine (an anesthetic). Together, it could combine high blood pressure, cardiac dysfunction and pulmonary edema. The lab also found a puncture in the bag.
Ortiz would inject IV bags with the poisonous cocktail and leave them in the warming bin for colleagues to distribute to patients, knowing it would lead to dangerous complications. Surveillance video from the hospital shows Ortiz repeatedly removing IV bags from the warming bin and replacing them.
In August 2022, doctors at the surgical care center began suspecting IV bags were being tampered with after an 18-year-old patient was rushed to the intensive care unit in critical condition during routine sinus surgery.
During the trial, a video showed Ortiz mixing vials of medication and watching as victims were wheeled out by emergency responders.
Medical records reviewed during the trial noted emergencies occurring shortly after new IV bags were hung. Patients recalled waking up unexpectedly “in pain and in fear for their lives.”
Doctors testified about their confusion when patients’ blood pressures would suddenly skyrocket.
“Patients expect that their doctors will use only safe and effective medical products during their surgeries. When illicit tampering occurs, serious harm and even death can result,” said Special Agent in Charge Charles L. Grinstead of the Food and Drug Administration’s Office of Criminal Investigations (FDA-OIC). “Working with our law enforcement partners, we will continue to monitor, investigate and bring to justice those who would risk patients’ health and safety.”
Ortiz previously had his medical license revoked by the Texas State Medical Board and has been arrested multiple times, including for domestic violence and for shooting a dog with a pellet gun.
