Raynaldo Rivera Ortiz Jr: Who is He? “Anesthesiologist Killed Another Doctor”
The Dallas Police Department arrested a 59-year-old doctor named Raynaldo Rivera Ortiz Jr. on Wednesday in Plano, Texas. Check out Raynaldo Rivera Ortiz’s identity.
What Took Place?
A Dallas anesthesiologist was detained on Wednesday on federal criminal charges, according to a statement from the US Attorney’s Office, for allegedly injecting nerve blockers and other medications into patients’ IV bags at a surgery center, which resulted in his coworker’s death and numerous cardiac emergencies.
Raynaldo Rivera Ortiz’s Identity
Doctor Raynaldo Rivera Ortiz Jr., 59, was apprehended by the Dallas Police Department in Plano, Texas, on Wednesday, according to Dallas Police and the US Attorney’s Office. He is charged with tampering with a consumer product that resulted in death and purposely adulterating medications.
“A pattern of incidents is profoundly disconcerting, while a single instance of apparent intended patient injury would be concerning.
Chad Meacham, US Attorney, What Did He Say?
However, at this point, we believe that the problem is limited to one person, who is presently in jail, said US Attorney Chad E. Meacham.
The Department of Justice, along with our tenacious allies at the Office of Criminal Investigations of the FDA and the Dallas Police Department, will make every attempt to hold him accountable. In the interim, Dallas provides a safe atmosphere for anesthesia.
What Time Did The Incident Occur?
Ortiz will make his initial appearance before a US Magistrate Judge in Dallas on Friday at 10 a.m. If proven guilty, he risked serving a life term in prison.
As of Thursday afternoon, Ortiz has no listed attorney.
The Texas Medical Board claims that the cardiac arrest was brought on by a series of unforeseen cardiac events that took place from May through September at the Baylor Scott & White Surgicare North Dallas facility.
The Daily Beast has found that a Texas doctor who had his license temporarily suspended due to a criminal investigation into the murder of one of his coworkers has a troubling history of accusations of domestic violence and animal cruelty.
Raynaldo Rivera Ortiz Jr., a Dallas anesthesiologist, had his license suspended by the Texas Medical Board on September 9 due to an inquiry into “severe cardiac problems and one patient’s death” at Baylor Scott & White Surgicare between May and September. Ortiz is charged with tampering with the IV bags at the institution.
A patient would experience a significant problem immediately after Ortiz “deposited single IV bags into the warmer in the hall outside the operation rooms,” according to the board’s suspension order.
Authorities claim that Melanie Kaspar, a colleague anesthesiologist, passed away in June not long after bringing home an IV bag to refresh herself when sick. Kaspar’s obituary stated that she had from a heart attack, but officials eventually found that she actually had accidentally ingested too much bupivacaine. Laboratory tests were performed on IV bags from the warmer, and it was noted in the order that the bags’ plastic wrap had visible, microscopic holes in it. These tampered packages had bupivacaine inside, but they weren’t marked as such. It’s unknown how the anesthetic bupivacaine found its way into the IV bag.
Ortiz’s “continued practice of medicine constitutes a continuous hazard to the public welfare,” according to the board’s suspension filing.
Prior to his present legal issues, Ortiz was accused of using a pellet pistol to shoot his neighbor’s dog in the chest and was found guilty of the crime. He also had a “history of violence against women,” the medical board claimed in earlier filings.
The neighbor of Ortiz, Roxanne Bogdan, assisted his ex-girlfriend in leaving his home in December 2014 after police were called due to a domestic conflict, according to court documents in the animal cruelty case. Additionally, Bogdan would later provide testimony regarding this incident during a hearing for the woman’s restraining order against Ortiz.
After being found guilty of misdemeanor cruelty to a non-livestock animal, Ortiz was given a sentence for shooting the dog that included 25 days in jail, two years of community supervision, and a $4,000 fine. He was also told to attend anger management classes, pay the dog’s vet bill of $505, and desist from threatening or harassing his fiancée, their kids, or his neighbors’ kids.
The Dallas Court of Appeals upheld Ortiz’s conviction, and in its memorandum judgment, it describes some of the charges of animal abuse.
According to the decision, Bogdan thought Ortiz had held her accountable for his breakup with his previous fiancée. Ortiz allegedly went to Bogdan’s house the day before the shooting in April 2015 and engaged in a telephonic argument with his girlfriend regarding a child custody arrangement.
She quickly entered her backyard where she discovered her dog’s chest covered in blood.
Bogdan was in her bedroom the following afternoon when she heard Ortiz’s “extremely loud sports car” pull into his driveway. Moments afterwards, she heard her dog yelping and a gunshot. The verdict states that when the woman hurried into her backyard, she discovered her dog’s chest was covered in blood.
The petition says, “Bogdan contacted a friend who came to take her and her puppy to the animal hospital.” “The dog made it.”
According to the opinion, Bogdan called 911 while en route to the veterinary clinic to report that she thought Ortiz had shot her dog. Later, she claimed in court that Ortiz often shot rabbits in his own yard, which caused them to run into her yard and perish.
The ex-husband of Ortiz’s ex-girlfriend, whose mother and doctor she had shared a home with, also testified that Ortiz told her “hundreds” of times that he wanted to shoot Bogdan’s dogs and that he appeared irritated by their barking.
The court’s January 2018 decision states that there was “evidence of animosity” between Ortiz and Bogdan after Ortiz broke up with his girlfriend and that Ortiz “blamed Bogdan for the breakup,” in addition to the fact that the circumstantial evidence in this case was “sufficient to prove appellant was the person who shot Bogdan’s dog.”
Bogdan declined to comment, and The Daily Beast was unable to get in touch with Ortiz.
In October 2018, the state medical board reprimanded Ortiz for “failing to notify all hospitals of his minor criminal charges” and mandated that he pay a $2,000 administrative fine. This was because of the incident involving the dog.
During this incident, Ortiz is said to have a “history of aggression against women,” according to one medical board document. The board emphasized a 1995 arrest for violence resulting in physical harm to a spouse in an updated complaint. According to the paperwork, Ortiz was the subject of an emergency protective order filed by a second female partner in 2005, and he was arrested in December 2014 for assault and domestic violence involving a third partner.
For failing “to fulfill the standard of care for one patient” during a treatment in November 2020 at North Garland Surgery Center, the board took action against Ortiz once more in August. The patient needed CPR and emergency care after Ortiz administered anesthetic, the board claimed.
The board mandated that Ortiz take a medical jurisprudence exam, pay a $3,000 fine, and have another doctor oversee his or her practice.
The temporary closure of Ortiz and Kaspar’s former workplace, Baylor Scott & White Surgicare North Dallas, coincides with the ongoing criminal investigation of the physician.
Five patients who experienced medical emergencies at the surgery center while under anesthesia for routine procedures are being represented by Texas attorney Bruce Steckler.
These patients included a 39-year-old guy who received a reverse vasectomy, an 18-year-old man who underwent nose surgery following a dirt bike accident, a 21-year-old woman who had her breasts reduced, and an 18-year-old woman who had her gallbladder removed. According to Steckler, a cardiac episode occurred during surgery on a fifth patient, a man in his fifties, and personnel had to stop the treatment. The individual eventually learned that he had a cardiac issue, but the cause of the incident was unknown to the medical professionals.
The Dallas Morning News reported earlier this month that federal officials had been in touch with the family of the 18-year-old patient who underwent surgery for a deviated septum on August 24 and may have received care from a tainted IV bag.
“There’s no reason why these IV bags with the allegedly discovered drugs should include such medications,”
Due to the patient’s significant respiratory distress brought on by a rise in blood pressure, the procedure had to be stopped halfway through. He was sent to a hospital right away, intubated, and put on a ventilator. Five days later, he was discharged.
According to Steckler, between 10 and 20 patients may have needed to be intubated, ventilated, and taken to an emergency hospital as a result of IV bag tampering, The Daily Beast said.
You’re most vulnerable before surgery, according to Steckler. “You’re giving these people your life while you’re entirely unconscious, with the exception of a gown, and you’re not wearing anything else but this gown. Therefore, it is very unsettling, and you would think that the facility was taking all reasonable precautions to ensure that only the most qualified individuals were on staff and that all the medication was dutifully monitored and examined.
The drugs that have allegedly been discovered in those IV bags shouldn’t be there, Steckler continued.
The father of the 18-year-old male patient told The Daily Beast in a statement that he wants to ensure that no other parent loses their child in a routine procedure.
The father added, “Our biggest worry was, and still is, making sure that something similar never occurs to anyone else.” “For this reason, the investigation is crucial to us. It is essential that we understand how it happened so that we can put measures in place to stop it from happening again.
Note from the editor: Raynaldo Rivera Ortiz Jr. has not been charged in connection with Melanie Kaspar’s death, an anesthesiologist. His status as a subject of an investigation has been updated in this report.
Has Anyone Died as a Result of Anesthesia?
For instance, Dr. Melanie Kaspar, a 55-year-old anesthesiologist at the surgery center, passed away in June, according to CNN affiliate WFAA.
According to the criminal complaint, she experienced a medical emergency and promptly passed away after treating her own dehydration with an IV saline bag that she and Ortiz had taken from the surgery center where they both worked. An autopsy report issued on or around August 24 said that she died from a fatal dose of bupivacaine, a common nerve blocker used during anaesthetic delivery.
According to the complaint, a procedure for a patient, who was 18 years old, went awry on August 24 as well, necessitating several days in the hospital.
According to the complaint, detectives obtained multiple IV bags from the operation center and found two of them to have small puncture holes in the clear plastic packaging.
Exists a Comparable Complaint?
According to the complaint, Ortiz was connected to several incidents based on video evidence. For instance, the complaint claims that on August 4 Ortiz left an operating room and went to a bag warmer. He put one IV bag inside, rapidly left, and then quickly looked down the empty hallway.
The lawsuit claims that a bag from the warmer was used during a 56-year-old woman’s scheduled cosmetic procedure immediately after she had a cardiac episode.
The complaint asserts that there would likely be video evidence of another person handling IV bags if they were in charge of these instances at the surgical facility instead of Ortiz. The report claims that instead, “the camera evidence shows Ortiz oddly placing solo IV bags in the warmer immediately prior to the disastrous events under investigation.”
What is the Grievance?
The complaint states that Ortiz was under investigation by the surgical center on May 19 for allegedly exceeding the standard of care with a patient.
The first cardiac emergency allegedly occurred after Ortiz was told of the disciplinary investigation on May 24 according to the lawsuit.
In February 1991, Ortiz reportedly acquired his medical license and started working as an anesthesiologist at surgical facilities in Dallas, according to the criminal complaint.
What Was Said By The Texas Medical Board?
A disciplinary panel of the Texas Medical Board allegedly learned of the claims on September 9 and, “after deciding that his continued medical practice poses a continuing threat to the public welfare,” temporarily suspended Ortiz’s Texas medical license.