A Dallas anaesthesiologist could be looking at 190 years behind bars after being convicted last week of injecting a nerve-blocking agent and other drugs into IV bags – causing the death of a co-worker and cardiac emergencies for several patients.
A jury convicted Raynaldo Ortiz MD (60) 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.
Medpage Today reports that a sentencing date has not yet been set.
Evidence showed that numerous patients at Surgicare North Dallas suffered cardiac emergencies during routine medical procedures performed by various doctors between May 2022 and August 2022.
During that time, an anaesthesiologist who had worked at the facility earlier that day died while treating herself for dehydration using an IV bag.
Prosecutors said Ortiz, who was arrested in September 2022, had surreptitiously placed the tainted IV bags into a warming bin at the facility and waited for them to be used in his colleagues’ surgeries.
Evidence presented at trial showed that at the time of the emergencies, Ortiz was facing disciplinary action for an alleged medical mistake made in one of his own surgeries, prosecutors said.
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