Dallas physician convicted of tampering with IV luggage linked to coworker’s loss of life and different emergencies
DALLAS (AP) — A Dallas anesthesiologist was convicted Friday for injecting a nerve-blocking agent and different medication into luggage of intravenous fluid at a surgical middle the place he labored, which led to the loss of life of a coworker and induced cardiac emergencies for a number of sufferers, federal prosecutors stated.
A jury convicted Raynaldo Riviera Ortiz Jr., 60, of 4 counts of tampering with shopper merchandise leading to severe bodily damage, one rely of tampering with a shopper product and 5 counts of intentional adulteration of a drug, prosecutors stated. A sentencing date has not but been set for Ortiz, who faces as much as 190 years in jail.
“Dr. Ortiz cloaked himself within the white coat of a healer, however as an alternative of curing ache, he inflicted it,” U.S. Lawyer Leigha Simonton for the northern district of Texas stated in a video assertion.
Prosecutors stated that proof offered at trial confirmed that quite a few sufferers at Surgicare North Dallas suffered cardiac emergencies throughout routine medical procedures carried out by varied docs between Might 2022 and August 2022. Throughout that point, an anesthesiologist who had labored on the facility earlier that day died whereas treating herself for dehydration utilizing an IV bag.
Prosecutors stated Ortiz, who was arrested in September 2022, had surreptitiously positioned the contaminated IV luggage right into a warming bin on the facility and waited for them for use in his colleagues’ surgical procedures.
Proof offered at trial confirmed that on the time of the emergencies, Ortiz was dealing with disciplinary motion for an alleged medical mistake made in certainly one of his personal surgical procedures, prosecutors stated.
