North Texas doctor deemed 'threat to public' has license suspended after patient's death
The Texas Medical Board temporarily suspended the license of a North Texas doctor on Friday calling him practicing medicine a "continuing threat to public welfare".
Anesthesiologist Dr. Raynaldo Rivera Ortiz, Jr. has been suspended from practicing medicine until further notice.
Dr. Ortiz was a part of an ongoing criminal investigation following serious cardiac complications and one patient's death connected with Ortiz's presence at the Baylor Scott & White Surgicare North Dallas facility from May through September 2022, according to the Board.
The medical board says Ortiz was seen on surveillance footage depositing single IV bags into a warmer in the hall outside operating rooms. Investigators found when he put a bag in the warmer, a patient would suffer serious complications shortly after.
On June 21, 2022, a fellow physician from the Surgicare facility took one of the IV bags home with her when she was sick to rehydrate. When she inserted the IV at home she almost immediately had a heart attack and died.
Inspection of the IV bags found tiny holes in the plastic wrap around the bags. Tests on the bags found they contained the local anesthetic bupivacaine, but were not labeled as such, according to the board.
Tests were also run on the remaining contents from an IV bag given to an otherwise healthy patient who had a heart attack during a routine surgery. The tests indicated the IV fluid contained drugs that could and would be fatal when given intravenously, according to the board.
Baylor Scott & White Surgicare North Dallas paused operations on Sept. 2 after learning of the circumstances around physician's death.
Ortiz's license to practice medicine was issued in 1991.
He operates Garland Anesthesia Consultants in Richardson.
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Dr. Ortiz's temporary suspension will remain in place until the Board takes further action.
A hearing will be held at a future date, unless Ortiz waives that option.