Dallas doctor found guilty of poisoning IV bags
DALLAS - Dr. Raynaldo Ortiz has been found guilty of injecting dangerous drugs into IV bags at the Baylor Scott & White Surgicare in North Dallas.
The 12-person jury returned guilty verdicts on all 10 counts. The jury reached the guilty verdict after about seven hours of deliberations.
Ortiz was wearing a mask and showed no emotion as the verdict was read.
There were 11 patients who suffered cardiac emergencies, and a fellow doctor, Dr. Melanie Kaspar, died from the IV bags.
"There's no closure. My best friend is gone," said John Kaspar, Dr. Melanie Kaspar's widower, shortly after the verdict. "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."
Video captured Ortiz repeatedly placing IV bags into a warmer minutes before nurses took bags out of the same location. Minutes after the bags were used, patients suffered cardiac emergencies.
Prosecutors said Ortiz turned IV bags into poison bombs that exploded on unsuspecting people.
Over the course of the case, prosecutors established a potential motive for the tampering. They believed Dr. Ortiz was retaliating for being disciplined in 2018 and again in 2021 and 2022.
In May 2022, records show one of his patients had to be resuscitated with CPR.
The prosecution said that Ortiz's two businesses were losing money and faced even more financial trouble if he was stopped from practicing at the Baylor Scott & White Surgicare in North Dallas. Prosecutors said that Ortiz put the dangerous drugs in IV bags to try to show emergency situations happen to a lot of doctors.
Ortiz's defense team tried to poke holes in the prosecution's case, saying that there are videos of many people at the facility handling IV bags and that other medical conditions could explain the emergencies.
Witnesses called to the stand in the case included the anesthesiologist who discovered the IV bags were to blame for the medical emergencies, a teen who went into cardiac arrest during nose surgery, and the widower of Dr. Melanie Kaspar, who died after taking an IV bag from the facility home.
Dr. Kaspar died after treating herself with one of the IV bags at home when she was sick.
In the trial, her widower testified how he tried to revive her with CPR before paramedics arrived, but was unable to.
"She went her whole life not being the center of attention, worked behind the drape in operating room," Kaspar said.
Kaspar said the past two years have been a struggle without his wife.
"Time stops. If you are lucky, you have a lot of friends who can shove you along. I've had many good friends. They've done exactly what was required of them. I thank every last one of them," he said.
Kaspar said one of the most difficult moments of the trial was seeing this newly released surveillance video of Ortiz filling up large syringes with a mix of different drugs.
"Him filling the syringes in the pre-op room, you can transpose what he did to Jack that day, to my wife. Tough to see," Kaspar said.
He then put the syringes in his pockets.
The video was taken the day before 18-year-old Jack Adlerstein received one of the tainted IV bags.
His doctors testified he nearly died on the operating room table.
Between May and August 2022, there were 13 patients who experienced similar unexplained cardiac emergencies.
Prosecutors only charged Ortiz with causing serious bodily injury to four patients in August.
That's because those are the patients they could tie Ortiz to through the surveillance video.
The director of Baylor Scott & White Surgicare testified the cameras had only been installed in May after a break-in.
"I'd like to give a thank you to whoever was breaking into the surgical center so they could install the cameras. Because they wouldn't have existed otherwise," Kaspar said.
Kaspar said he is thankful Ortiz will no longer have access to patients.
"Get to know your anesthesiologist. They are the ones keeping you alive on the operating room table while the surgeon is doing their business," he added.
TRIAL COVERAGE:
- Defense rests in Dallas doctor's IV tampering trial
- Dallas doctor IV bag tampering trial: Expert testimony suggests pattern of emergencies among patients
- Prosecution pushes Dallas doctor's struggling businesses as motive for IV tampering
- Anesthesiologist who realized IV bags were behind patient emergencies testifies in Dallas doctor's trial
- Teen who survived alleged tainted IV bag testifies against Dallas doctor
- Dallas IV tampering trial: Administrators 'desperately' sought cause of spike in patient emergencies
- Husband of Dallas doctor who died from alleged tainted IV bag gives emotional testimony about her death
- Trial begins for Dallas doctor accused of putting heart-stopping meds in IV bags
Ortiz has been in custody since September 2022.
The Dallas doctor's sentence will be handed down in two to three months.
Ortiz faces up to life in prison.