Anesthesiologist goes on trial for 'tampering with IV bags' that contained ... trends now
The Dallas anesthesiologist accused of poisoning IV bags with dangerous drugs in 2022 has hit trial in federal court.
Dr. Raynaldo Rivera Ortiz Jr., 61, appeared at the US District Court for the Northern District of Texas Tuesday, more than a year after a fellow anesthesiologist died after taking home one of the tainted bags.
He subsequently saw his license revoked and himself arrested - after 11 patients suffered cardiac emergencies after being treated with other tainted bags.
Among them were teenagers, one of whom's parents were told he had just a 50/50 chance of surviving.
He did, the administrator at the Baylor Scott and White Surgicare testified Tuesday - before recalling how the cardiovascular crisis, like several others, came during a routine outpatient procedure 30 minutes after an IV bag was taken into the OR.
Dr. Raynaldo Rivera Ortiz Jr., 61, appeared at the US District Court for the Northern District of Texas Tuesday, more than a year after a fellow anesthesiologist died after taking home one of the tainted bags
During proceeding, prosecutors produced clips of Ortiz's alleged handiwork, showing him handling bags brought into an OR moments before a medical emergency broke out
'We were perplexed because the incidents were happening under different doctors and nurses,' said Ashley Burks, as prosecutors produced clips of Ortiz checking on the IV bag warmer moments before another blowup that month.
Choking back tears as she spoke, she recalled how the hospital had repeatedly had equipment tested, but could find no source for the incidents.
Citing slew of near-deaths seen between May and August 2022, she said: 'We were desperately trying to figure out what was going on.'
Burks said in that year before, there were just five transfers to hospitals for complications or emergencies.
That number, however, shot up to 14 during that stretch, she said - including the teen's cardiac emergency.
Becoming emotional as she remembered the day involving the 18-year-old , she recalled how she told the center's governing chair at time, 'It is f**king happening again,' before cops eventually cuffed Ortiz.
Prosecutors proceeded to have the witness walk jurors through a surveillance clip that showed Ortiz approaching where the alleged poisoned bags were put, the IV bag warmer, to either check on them or take bags in or out, prosecutors said.
After the close call, Burks testified, she and other officials looked at the IV bag and found a hole in it - a discovery that eventually led her and others to hone in on Ortiz.
'We were stunned,' she said.
In one video - one of several showed Tuesday, though not all are publicly available - Ortiz is seen watching as a 57-year-old patient is wheeled out by paramedics in the midst of her medical emergency.
Shortly before, he was filmed taking drugs out of the medicine cabinet, taking a bag out of the warmer, and then coming back and putting a bag into the warmer - where prosecutors said the poisoned bags were regularly kept
Hospital brass also testified that on August 24, staff were left even more befuddled by inexplicable cardiac episodes when an 18-year-old man's surgery also suddenly went south, similar to the woman's and a nearly a dozen others
He survived, after suffering the ordeal during a routine outpatient procedure for a nose defect
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Included in her testimony was the video from August 4th, the day of another cardiac crisis event involving a 57-year-old woman who went unnamed - but still took the stand Tuesday to describe her ordeal.
