On Wednesday, Former Richardson Doctor Raynaldo Ortiz was convicted of tampering with IV bags and has been sentenced to prison for 190 years.
The hearing was at the Earle Cabell Federal Building, where a video was presented during Ortiz’s trial showing him repeatedly taking bags out of a warming bin and then putting them back.
The sentencing was scheduled to start on July 22, 2024. It was then pushed back to Sept. 16 and then Sept. 18. It was finally happened Wednesday, Nov. 20.
Ortiz was found guilty on all ten counts of tampering with IV bags at the Baylor Scott & White Surgical Center in North Dallas. Several patients were injured and one person died as a result.
Federal prosecutors say Ortiz had injected a nerve blocker into IV bags because he was angry over disciplinary actions taken against him.
Doctor Melanie Kaspar died after she took one of the tainted IV bags home to rehydrate. Her husband, John Kaspar, told the jury that minutes after his wife began, what should have been just a saline drip, she began screaming that her arm and chest were hurting.
Kaspar said he called 911 as his wife collapsed and he performed CPR. But minutes later a paramedic arrived and pronounced Kaspar dead. 11 other patients also had cardiac incidents for seemingly routine procedures, all due to the tainted IV bags.
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