A Texas physician deemed a “medical terrorist” by prosecutors after allegedly poisoning IV luggage, reportedly inflicting a fellow doctor’s demise and cardiac emergencies for 11 different individuals, was ordered held with out bail.
At a federal court docket listening to Monday, prosecutors described Dr. Raynaldo Rivera Ortiz Jr. as a “medical terrorist” who used heart-stopping medication to show IV luggage at a surgical facility in Dallas into “poison bombs” that “exploded on unsuspecting sufferers,” FOX 4 Dallas-Forth Price reported.
He was ordered to stay in custody with out bail whereas awaiting trial.
Although he has a public defender, prosecutors argued that the anesthesiologist is a flight danger, noting that he allegedly had $7,000 in money on him on the time of his arrest final week, owns a $1.3 million dwelling and 5 luxurious automobiles, together with a Corvette and three Mercedes-brand automobiles and has tax liens for owing the Inner Income Service hundreds of thousands of {dollars}.
A legal grievance accuses Ortiz of injecting nerve-blocking and bronchodilation medication into affected person IV luggage at Baylor Scott & White Surgicare in North Dallas.
Surveillance video performed out in court docket on Monday exhibits the physician inserting an IV bag in a stainless-steel hotter outdoors an working room on Aug. 19, in line with FOX 4. Minutes later, one other staffer took the bag, and a affected person quickly after reportedly suffered a coronary heart assault.
Ortiz’s colleague, beloved anesthesiologist Melanie Kaspar, took an allegedly contaminated IV bag dwelling on June 21 to rehydrate resulting from an sickness. Nearly instantly after inserting the IV into her vein, she suffered a severe cardiac occasion and died. An post-mortem confirmed she was fatally poisoned by bupivacaine — a numbing agent that the Justice Division stated “isn’t abused” however is used to alleviate ache throughout surgical procedure.
An 18-year-old male affected person skilled a cardiac emergency throughout a scheduled surgical procedure on Aug. 24 resulting from what was discovered to be an apparently contaminated IV bag. The middle recognized 10 extra sudden cardiac emergencies that occurred throughout in any other case unremarkable surgical procedures between Might and August.
The incidents first started two days after Oritz was notified of a disciplinary inquiry towards him over his dealing with of a medical emergency. Different docs famous he complained that the middle was attempting to “crucify” him.
Not one of the cardiac emergencies occurred throughout his personal surgical procedures, and a nurse instructed police that Ortiz “bodily waved off” an IV bag she had retrieved for him from the hotter, in line with the grievance.
Fox Information’ Rebecca Rosenberg contributed to this report.
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