A Texas doctor has been sentenced to 190 years in prison after being convicted of injecting heartbreaking poison into patients’ IV bags.
Raynaldo Riviera Ortiz Jr., 60, was branded a “medical terrorist” when he was caught puncturing IV bags with a toxic cocktail, turning them into what prosecutors called “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 contaminated bags to treat her dehydration and died suddenly.
Prosecutors found that the doctor had previously targeted at least nine other patients, and several more came under suspicion after experiencing random and unexpected heart problems.
Evidence shown at his trial also included surveillance footage showing Ortiz filling syringes with multiple medications, and a fellow anesthesiologist testifying that 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 indiscriminately spraying bullets into a crowd.”
‘Dr. Ortiz tampered with random IV bags, apparently not caring who he was hurting. He wielded an invisible weapon, a cocktail of heartbreaking drugs hidden in an IV bag meant 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, and his significant prison sentence was determined when a judge ruled that his crimes “amounted to attempted murder.”
Raynaldo Riviera Ortiz Jr, 60, seen in chilling footage showing him puncturing patients’ IV bags in hospital, has been sentenced to 190 years in prison
Ortiz was branded a “medical terrorist” when he was caught puncturing IV bags with a toxic cocktail, turning them into what prosecutors called “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 aroused when their patients’ blood pressure spiked abnormally high.
After examining the hospital records, it turned out that each incident had the same common denominator: they all occurred after new IV bags had been hung.
The incidents occurred between May and August 2022 and were complex as the victims were targeted during various medical procedures conducted by different doctors.
About a month after the unexplained medical emergencies began, one of Ortiz’s colleagues, Dr. Melanie Kaspar, became ill and decided to treat herself for dehydration.
She took home one of the IV bags into which Ortiz had injected a potent cocktail, before tragically dying later that day.
A toxicology report found that her body contained the same drug in the IV bags Ortiz handled, while a medical board report found that the IV bag that killed Kaspar was one handled by Ortiz.
One of Ortiz’s colleagues, Dr. Melanie Kaspar, was the only one of his victims to die after treating herself for dehydration with one of Ortiz’s spiked IV bags.
Melanie’s husband Dr. John Kaspar (pictured together) heartbreakingly told the court he is still haunted by looking at his wife’s ‘lifeless eyes’, saying Melanie was ‘my life’ and the ‘strongest woman’ he ever met had met.
Her husband, Dr. John Kaspar, heartbreakingly told the court he is still haunted by looking at his wife’s “lifeless eyes”, saying Melanie was “my life” and the “strongest woman” he had ever met.
Despite the moving testimony, Ortiz didn’t even appreciate it, as he waived his rights and did not attend the sentencing hearing.
Not long after Kaspar’s death, doctors in August 2022 began to suspect that spiked IV bags were the cause of the repeated emergencies, especially after 18-year-old Jack Adlerstein had to be rushed to the intensive care unit during routine sinus surgery.
He was left in intensive care and his parents were told he only had a 50/50 chance of survival, although fortunately Aderstein 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 drug – 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 in April, and he was sentenced this week to a massive prison sentence after a judge ruled his crimes “amounted to attempted murder.”
Ortiz’s victims included 18-year-old Jack Adlerstein, who went into cardiac arrest in August 2022 during routine nasal surgery at Baylor Scott and White SurgiCare.
Adlerstein survived after his parents were told he had only a 50/50 chance of surviving, prosecutors said
In a video shown in court, Ortiz can be seen watching a 57-year-old patient being wheeled away by paramedics in the middle of her medical emergency after contaminating one of her IV bags.
The lab also discovered a leak in the plastic casing of the IV bag, evidence that someone had injected substances into it with a syringe.
In addition to the footage of Ortiz preparing syringes, prosecutors also played a video of him mixing prescription bottles as emergency responders ran past him with his victims.
After Ortiz was found guilty in April, Kaspar’s husband addressed him in court and told him that because of his actions, “my best friend is gone.”
“I don’t think he’s ever looked me in the eye… It’s almost like you have so many emotions that you can’t filter them out anymore, you’re overwhelmed.”