A Dallas anesthesiologist who injected dangerous drugs into patient IV bags, leading to one death and numerous cardiac emergencies will be spending close to 2 centuries in prison.

When we go see a doctor, we have the utmost trust that they will be professional and have our care as their top priority. Unfortunately, there are those who would violate that trust as we are now learning about a Dallas doctor who committed a heinous act towards patients in his care.

According to a press release by the Department of Justice, 60 year old Raynaldo Riviera Ortiz Jr. was a anesthesiologist with Surgicare North Dallas between May and August 2022. During that timeframe, numerous patients at Surgicare North Dallas suffered cardiac emergencies during routine medical procedures performed by various doctors.

About one month after the unexplained emergencies began, an anesthesiologist who had worked at the facility earlier that day died while treating herself for dehydration using an IV bag. In August 2022, doctors at the surgical care center began to suspect tainted IV bags had caused the repeated crises after an 18-year-old patient had to be rushed to the intensive care unit in critical condition during a routine sinus surgery.

A local lab analyzed fluid from the bag used during the teenager’s surgery and found bupivacaine (a nerve-blocking agent), epinephrine (a stimulant) and lidocaine (an anesthetic) — a drug cocktail that could have caused the boy’s symptoms, which included very high blood pressure, cardiac dysfunction and pulmonary edema. The lab also observed a puncture in the plastic shell that had been around the IV bag.

Evidence presented at trial showed that Ortiz surreptitiously injected IV bags of saline with epinephrine, bupivacaine and other drugs, placed them into a warming bin at the facility, and waited for them to be used in colleagues’ surgeries, knowing their patients would experience dangerous complications.

Surveillance video introduced into evidence showed Ortiz repeatedly retrieving IV bags from the warming bin and replacing them shortly thereafter, not long before the bags were carried into operating rooms where patients experienced complications. Video also showed Ortiz mixing vials of medication and watching as victims were wheeled out by emergency responders.

Evidence at trial showed that Ortiz was facing disciplinary action at the time for an alleged medical mistake made in his one of his own surgeries, and that he potentially faced losing his medical license.

At trial, doctors testified about the confusion they felt when their patients’ blood pressures suddenly skyrocketed. Reviewing medical records, they all noted the emergencies occurred shortly after new IV bags had been hung. Patients recalled waking up unexpectedly intubated in intensive care units they had been transported to via emergency medical transportation services, in pain and in fear for their lives.

Ortiz was charged by criminal complaint in September 2022 and indicted the following month on charges related to tampering with IV bags used at a local surgical center. In April, following an eight-day trial, a jury convicted him of 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.

He was sentenced on Nov. 20th to 190 years in prison by the judge who found that Dr. Ortiz caused the death of his colleague and called his other conduct “tantamount to attempted murder.”