By Daily Mail (U.S.) | Created at 2024-11-21 16:26:55 | Updated at 2024-11-21 20:47:19
4 hours ago
A Texas doctor has been sentenced to 190 years in prison after being convicted of injecting heart-stopping poison into patients' IV bags.
Raynaldo Riviera Ortiz Jr, 60, was branded a 'medical terrorist' as he was caught spiking IV bags with a toxic cocktail, turning them into what prosecutors dubbed 'poison bombs' waiting to be attached to a patient.
Ortiz, an anesthesiologist, came under suspicion after a colleague died when she took home one of his tainted bags to treat her dehydration and suddenly died.
Prosecutors found the medic had previously targeted at least nine other patients, with several more suspected after they suffered random and unexpected cardiac emergencies.
Evidence shown at his trial also included surveillance footage showing Ortiz filling syringes with multiple drugs, and a fellow anesthesiologist testified there is no reasonable explanation for his actions in the video.
He was found guilty in April, and at his sentencing this week, U.S. Attorney Leigha Simonton said his crimes were '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. He wielded an invisible weapon, a cocktail of heart-stopping drugs, concealed inside an IV bag designed to help patients heal,' Simonton said.
He was convicted of tampering with consumer products resulting in serious bodily injury and intentional adulteration of a drug, with his significant prison term decided as a judge determined his crimes were 'tantamount to attempted murder.'
Raynaldo Riviera Ortiz Jr, 60, seen in chilling footage showing him spiking patients' IV bags in hospital, has been sentenced to 190 years in prison
Ortiz was branded a 'medical terrorist' as he was caught spiking IV bags with a toxic cocktail, turning them into what prosecutors dubbed 'poison bombs' waiting to be attached to a patient
During Ortiz's trial, doctors who had worked with him at Surgicare North Dallas hospital said their suspicions were raised when their patients' blood pressures were anomalously spiking.
After reviewing hospital records, it was found that each incident had the same common denominator - they all took place after new IV bags had been hung.
The incidents occurred between May and August 2022, and were complex as the victims were targeted during a variety of medical procedures under various doctors.
Around a month after the unexplained medical emergencies began, one of Ortiz's colleagues, Dr. Melanie Kaspar, fell ill and decided to treat herself for dehydration.
She took one of the IV bags that Ortiz had injected with a powerful cocktail home with her, before she tragically died later that day.
A toxicology report found her body contained the same drug in the IV bags Ortiz handled, while a Medical Board's report found that the IV bag that killed Kaspar was one that had been handled by Ortiz.
One of Ortiz's colleagues, Dr. Melanie Kaspar, was the only one of his victims to die after she treated herself for dehydration with one of Ortiz's spiked IV bags
Melanie's husband Dr. John Kaspar (pictured together), heartbreakingly told the court that he is still haunted by watching his wife's 'lifeless eyes', and he said Melanie was 'my life' and the 'strongest woman' he'd ever met
Her husband, Dr. John Kaspar, heartbreakingly told the court that he is still haunted by watching his wife's 'lifeless eyes', and he said Melanie was 'my life' and the 'strongest woman' he'd ever met.
Despite the harrowing testimony, Ortiz did not even heart it as he waived his rights and was not present at his sentencing hearing.
Not long after Kaspar's death, in August 2022 doctors began to suspect spiked IV bags were the cause of the repeat emergencies, particularly after 18-year-old Jack Adlerstein had to be rushed to the intensive care unit during a routine sinus surgery.
He was left in intensive care and his parents were told he had just a 50/50 chance of survival, although thankfully Ad;erstein survived the ordeal.
When teams analyzed fluid from the IV bag used in the teen's surgery, they found a toxic cocktail of bupivacaine - a nerve blocking agent - the stimulant epinephrine, and the anesthetic lidocaine.
The DOJ said this combination can cause 'very high blood pressure, cardiac dysfunction and pulmonary edema.'
Ortiz showed no emotion when he was found guilty back in April, and he was sentenced to a huge prison stretch this week as a judge determined his crimes were 'tantamount to attempted murder'
Among Ortiz's victims was 18-year-old Jack Adlerstein, who went into went into cardiac arrest during routine nose surgery at Baylor Scott and White SurgiCare in August 2022
Adlerstein survived after his parents were told he had just a 50/50 chance of surviving, prosecutors said
In one video shown in court, Ortiz is seen watching as a 57-year-old patient is wheeled out by paramedics in the midst of her medical emergency, after tainting one of her IV bags
The lab also discovered a puncture in the plastic shell of the IV bag, evidence that someone had been injecting substances into it with a syringe.
Along with the footage of Ortiz preparing syringes, prosecutors also played video of him mixing vials of medication at the same time emergency responders raced past him with his victims.
After Ortiz was found guilty in April, Kaspar's husband addressed him in court, telling him that because of his actions 'my best friend is gone.'
'I don't think he ever looked me in the eye… It's almost like you have so many emotions you can't sift them out, you get flooded.'
