Dallas doctor gets 190 years in prison for tampering with IV bags used in surgeries

DALLAS – A Dallas anesthesiologist was sentenced Wednesday to 190 years in prison for injecting a nerve-blocking drug and other drugs into bags of intravenous fluid at a surgical center where he worked, leading to the death of a colleague and causing cardiac emergencies in different patients.

The emergency began two days after Raynaldo Rivera Ortiz Jr. was notified of a disciplinary investigation into an incident in which he allegedly “deviated from the standard of care” during an anesthesia procedure when a patient had a medical emergency.

Ortiz, who had a history of disciplinary action against him, complained to other doctors that the center was trying to “crucify” him.

Court documents show Ortiz, who was arrested in September 2022 and convicted in April, waived his appearance at the federal court sentencing.

An attorney listed in court documents for Ortiz did not immediately return a call seeking comment.

Prosecutors said numerous patients at Surgicare North Dallas developed heart problems during routine medical procedures performed by different doctors from May to August 2022. Another anesthesiologist who had worked there died while treating herself for dehydration with an IV bag from the facility, prosecutors said.

Surgical center staff concluded that these cases indicated a pattern of deliberate counterfeiting of IV bags used at the center.

They identified ten additional unexpected cardiac emergencies that occurred during otherwise unremarkable surgeries in the months before his arrest, which was an exceptionally high rate of complications in such a short period of time, according to the complaint.

His medical license was suspended following his arrest by the Texas Medical Board.