Raynaldo Riviera Ortiz Jr., a 60-year-old anesthesiologist in Dallas, Texas, was found guilty of injecting a drug cocktail into patients' IV bags.

A Dallas anesthesiologist could spend nearly two centuries in prison after being convicted in federal court Friday for “injecting dangerous drugs into patient IV bags, leading to one death and numerous cardiac emergencies,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.

Raynaldo Riviera Ortiz Jr., 60, was charged in the Northern District of Texas in September 2022 for tampering with IV bags used at a local surgical center, a Justice Department news release said. The anesthesiologist was found guilty by a jury after eight days of trial and seven hours of deliberation, according to the release.

Ortiz 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, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.

Ortiz’s crimes even led to the death of a fellow anesthesiologist who was using an IV bag to treat herself for dehydration, according to federal authorities.

    • HeartyOfGlass@lemm.eeEnglish
      41·
      7 months ago

      They really buried it in there -

      Ortiz was facing disciplinary action during the time of his crimes due to an “alleged medical mistake” he made during one of his surgeries that resulted in his patient not breathing during a routine procedure, the criminal complaint shows. Ortiz was at risk of losing his medical license due to the mistake, according to prosecutors.

      Ortiz believed the surgical center was trying to “crucify” him for the mistake, particularly when he would be financially devastated if he lost his job, the criminal complaint said.

      Sounds like he was trying to sabotage the whole place because he made a mistake during a surgery & was mad at possibly losing his license.

      • Hugin@lemmy.worldEnglish
        8·
        7 months ago

        Or to make or look like he was the first to have his patient get one of a batch of bad iv bags. Either way spending the rest of his life in jail seems deserved.