A Texas anesthesiologist convicted of injecting heart-stopping poison into patients' IV bags has been sentenced to 190 years in prison.
Raynaldo Riviera Ortiz, Jr., 60, once dubbed a "medical terrorist," was found guilty on 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 after an eight-day trial in April of last year.
Sentencing was handed down by Chief U.S. District Judge David Godbey, who ruled Ortiz’s actions equivalent to attempted murder and U.S. Attorney Leigha Simonton seemingly agreed.
"This disgraced doctor acted no better than an armed assailant spraying bullets indiscriminately into a crowd. Dr. Ortiz tampered with random IV bags, apparently unconcerned with who he hurt. But he wielded an invisible weapon, a cocktail of heart-stopping drugs, concealed inside an IV bag designed to help patients heal," said Simonton.
TEXAS DOCTOR FOUND GUILTY OF POISONING PATIENTS BY PUTTING DANGEROUS DRUGS IN IV BAGS
Simonton continued: "On at least nine separate occasions, he essentially attacked unconscious patients lying on an operating table, and even killed a colleague. I am so proud of our office’s work in bringing Dr. Ortiz to justice and bringing a measure of solace to his victims and their families."
During the trial, doctors said they were confused when their patients’ blood pressures were suddenly spiking, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney's Office, Northern District of Texas. After reviewing medical records, one thing in common with each incident was that these emergencies took place after new IV bags had been hung.
Evidence presented in the trial showed that patients at Surgicare North Dallas suffered cardiac emergencies during routine medical procedures in 2022. The evidence showed that it was not done by any particular doctor.
TEXAS DOCTOR ACCUSED OF POISONING PATIENTS BEGS FOR BAIL, GIVES NEW DETAILS ABOUT DOG SHOOTING
After the unexplained emergencies, a fellow anesthesiologist treated herself for dehydration using one of the tainted bags and died that day. Her husband, Dr. John Kaspar, told the court the memory of seeing his wife’s "lifeless eyes" still haunts him and will never leave him. She was "my life" and "the strongest woman" he’d ever met, he said.
During the sentencing, families and patients spoke about the "life-altering" pain they had endured at the hands of Ortiz. A son of one victim said that because of what happened, his 10-year-old son did not trust doctors anymore because "a doctor tried to kill Pops."
Another victim said after the cardiac incident he woke up feeling "all chewed up" and has not been the same since.
Ortiz waived his rights and was not present to hear the sentence or the statements from his victims.
