For putting medications into IV bags, which resulted in at least one death, a Dallas anesthesiologist received a sentence of 190 years in federal prison.
Five counts of purposeful drug adulteration, four counts of tampering with consumer products that caused significant bodily harm, and one offense of tampering with consumer products were the charges against Dr. Raynaldo Ortiz in April.
In a statement following the sentencing, U.S. attorney Leigha Simonton of the Northern District of Texas likened Ortiz to a shooter “spraying bullets indiscriminately into a crowd.”
“But he wielded an invisible weapon, a cocktail of heart-stopping drugs, concealed inside an IV bag designed to help patients heal,” Simonton stated.
In federal court on Wednesday, Ortiz was given a sentence of 2,280 months, which the judge mandated he serve consecutively.
According to Ortiz’s public defender, the defense “respectfully disagrees” with the decision and plans to use Ortiz’s right to appeal.
According to the U.S. attorney’s office, a number of patients at Baylor, Scott & White SurgiCare North Dallas suffered cardiac crises during standard operations between May and August 2022.
One of the practice’s anesthesiologists, Dr. Melanic Kaspar, died soon after using an IV bag to treat her own dehydration during that period.
After an 18-year-old patient’s condition deteriorated after a routine sinus procedure in August 2022, doctors started to suspect a problem with the IV bags, according to the prosecution. Prosecutors claimed that a lab investigation of the IV bag used during the treatment revealed indications of a medication cocktail consisting of an anesthetic, a stimulant, and a nerve-blocking substance.
During the trial, prosecutors said that Ortiz had inserted epinephrine, bupivacaine, and other medications into saline bags used for IV drips before putting them in a warming bin for use by coworkers.
Prosecutors alleged that Ortiz was seen on video repeatedly taking IV bags out of the warming bin and putting them back in just before the bags were carried into surgery.
According to the doctors’ testimony, the medical emergencies happened soon after the procedures involved hanging new IV bags.
At Ortiz’s sentence, a number of people provided victim impact statements, including John Kaspar, Kaspar’s husband, according to NBC Dallas-Fort Worth.
Ortiz killed his wife, Kaspar told the channel. He claimed it wasn’t done maliciously. It was done solely by calculation.
In connection with Kaspar’s death, Ortiz has not been charged.
Ortiz killed her, according to U.S. District Judge David Godbey, who also called his other actions “equivalent to attempted murder.”
The prosecutor’s office stated in April, using information given at trial, that Ortiz was facing disciplinary action and the possibility of losing his license at the time of the cardiac events due to an alleged medical error made in one of his own procedures.
In September 2022, Ortiz’s license was suspended by the Texas Medical Board “after determining his continuation in the practice of medicine poses a continuing threat to public welfare.”
Although his suspension was stated as temporary, no further board steps have been taken to alter the situation.
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