On September 9, the Texas Medical Board suspended the license of Dallas anesthesiologist Dr. Raynaldo Rivera Ortiz Jr., 59, referring to an ongoing investigation into “serious cardiac complications and death of a patient” at Baylor Scott & White Surgery between May and September. . Ortiz is accused of tampering with the facility’s IV bags. The board’s suspension decision alleges that surgery center surveillance footage showed Ortiz “depositing individual IV bags on the heater in the room outside the operating rooms” and that “shortly later a patient would suffer a serious complication.” Authorities say her anesthesiologist colleague Dr. Melanie Kaspar died in June shortly after returning home an IV bag to rehydrate when she was sick. While her obituary said she had suffered a heart attack, officials later determined that Kaspar died of accidental bupivacaine toxicity. “Laboratory tests were conducted on IV bags from the warmer, which showed visible tiny holes in the plastic wrap around the bags,” the order states. “These counterfeit bags contained bupivacaine but were not labeled as such.” How bupivacaine, an anesthetic, got into the IV bag is unclear. The board’s suspension petition concludes that Ortiz’s “continued medical practice poses a continuing threat to the public welfare.” Before his current legal troubles, Ortiz was accused and convicted of shooting his neighbor’s dog in the chest with a pellet gun. And, the medical board claimed in previous filings, he had a “history of violence against women.” According to court records in the animal cruelty case, Ortiz’s neighbor, Roxanne Bogdan, helped his ex-girlfriend move out of his home in December 2014 after police were called there for a domestic dispute. Bogdan will also later testify about that incident at a hearing for the woman’s protective order against Ortiz. Ortiz was convicted of misdemeanor cruelty to a non-livestock animal and sentenced to 25 days in jail, two years of community supervision and a $4,000 fine for shooting the dog. He was also ordered to pay $505 for the dog’s veterinary bill, attend anger management counseling and refrain from harassing or threatening his girlfriend, their children, his neighbors and their children. The Court of Appeals in Dallas upheld Ortiz’s conviction, and its opinion details some of the animal cruelty charges. According to the ruling, Bogdan believed Ortiz blamed her for his breakup with his ex-girlfriend. The day before the shooting in April 2015, Ortiz allegedly visited Bogdan’s home and argued with his girlfriend over the loudspeaker about a child custody agreement. “She then ran into her yard and saw her dog’s chest covered in blood.” The next afternoon, Bogdan was in her bedroom when she heard Ortiz’s “very loud sports car” peel into his driveway. She heard a gunshot and the yelping of her dog moments later. “She then ran into her backyard and saw her dog’s chest covered in blood,” the decision states. “Bogdan called a friend who came to take her and her dog to the animal hospital,” the filing continues. “The dog survived.” The affidavit says Bogdan called 911 on her way to the animal hospital and reported that she believed Ortiz shot her canine. She later testified that Ortiz often shot rabbits in his yard and that they ran into her yard and died. The daughter of Ortiz’s ex, who once lived with her mom and the doctor, also testified that Ortiz told her “hundreds” of times that he wanted to shoot Bogdan’s dogs and that he seemed bothered by their barking. “The circumstantial evidence in this case was sufficient to establish that appellant was the person who shot Bogdan’s dog,” the court’s January 2018 ruling states, adding that “there was evidence of animosity between” Ortiz and Bogdan after his breakup with his girlfriend and that he “blamed Bogdan for the breakup.” Bogdan declined to comment, and The Daily Beast was unable to reach Ortiz. The dog incident led the state medical board to reprimand Ortiz in October 2018 for “failing to notify all hospitals of his criminal misdemeanor charges” and ordering him to pay a $2,000 administrative penalty. A medical board file on that episode referred to Ortiz’s alleged “history of violence against women.” In an amended complaint, the board highlighted a 1995 arrest for assault causing bodily harm to a spouse. The document states that in 2005, a second female partner filed for emergency protection against Ortiz, and in December 2014, he was arrested for domestic violence assault involving a third partner. In August, the board again took action against Ortiz for failing to “meet the standard of care for a patient” during a November 2020 procedure at North Garland Surgery Center. According to the board, after Ortiz administered anesthesia, the patient required CPR and emergency care. The board ordered Ortiz’s practice to be monitored by another doctor and Ortiz to take a medical jurisprudence exam and pay a $3,000 fine. Baylor Scott & White Surgery North Dallas, where both Ortiz and Kaspar practiced, is temporarily closed pending a criminal investigation into the doctor. Texas attorney Bruce Steckler represents five patients who had medical emergencies in the surgery center after being given anesthesia for routine procedures. As ABC affiliate WFAA reported, those patients included an 18-year-old woman who had her gallbladder removed, an 18-year-old man who had nose surgery after a bicycle accident, a 21-year-old woman who had breast reduction surgery, and a man 39 years who underwent reverse vasectomy. Steckler said a fifth patient, a man in his fifties, had a heart attack during the procedure and staff stopped the procedure. The man was later told he had an underlying heart condition, but medical personnel could not determine why the condition occurred. Earlier this month, the Dallas Morning News reported that federal officials contacted the family of the 18-year-old man who underwent surgery for a diverted diaphragm on Aug. 24 and was possibly treated with a contaminated IV bag. “There is no reason for these IV bags to contain the drugs that were allegedly found in these bags.” The patient’s surgery was stopped halfway through because he experienced severe respiratory distress due to an increase in blood pressure. He was rushed to hospital to be intubated and put on a ventilator before being released five days later. Steckler told The Daily Beast he believes anywhere from 10 to 20 patients had to be intubated, ventilated and taken to an emergency room because of the IV bag breach. “When you go into surgery, you’re more vulnerable,” Steckler said. “You are completely unconscious, you don’t wear clothes for all intents and purposes but a dress and you trust your life to these people. So it is extremely frightening and you would hope that the unit was taking every possible precaution to make sure that only the most qualified people were on staff and that all medications were properly monitored and controlled.’ “There is no reason for these IV bags to contain the drugs that were allegedly found in these bags,” Steckler added. In a statement, the father of the 18-year-old male patient told The Daily Beast that he wants to make sure no other parent comes close to losing their child in routine surgery. “Our main concern was, and still is, to make sure something like this never happens to anyone else,” the dad said. “That’s why research is so important to us. It is of the utmost importance that we know how this happened so that we can learn what safeguards can be put in place to prevent it from happening again.”
