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A Texas doctor whose license was temporarily suspended during a criminal investigation into the death of one of his colleagues has a disturbing history of animal cruelty and domestic abuse allegations, The Daily Beast has learned.
On September 9, the Texas Medical Board suspended the license of Dallas anesthesiologist Dr. Raynaldo Rivera Ortiz Jr., 59, citing an ongoing investigation into “serious cardiac complications and the death of one patient” at Baylor Scott & White Surgicare between May and September. Ortiz is accused of tampering with the facility’s IV bags.
The board’s suspension order alleges that surgery center surveillance footage showed Ortiz “depositing individual IV bags in the heater in the hall outside the operating rooms” and that “shortly thereafter, a patient would suffer a serious complication.”
Authorities say another anesthesiologist, Dr. Melanie Kaspar died in June shortly after taking an IV bag home for rehydration when she was sick. While her obituary said she had suffered a heart attack, officials later determined that Kaspar died of accidental bupivacaine toxicity. “Laboratory tests were run on IV bags from the warmer which showed visible small holes in the plastic wrap around the bags,” the order states. “These tampered bags contained bupivacaine but were not labeled as such.” How bupivacaine, an anesthetic, got into the IV bag is unclear.
The board’s suspension petition concludes that Ortiz’s “continued practice of medicine poses a continuing threat to the public welfare.”
Before his current legal troubles, Ortiz was accused and convicted of shooting his neighbor’s dog in the chest with a pellet gun. And, as the medical board claimed in previous filings, he had a “history of violence against women.”
According to court records in the animal cruelty case, Ortiz’s neighbor Roxanne Bogdan helped her ex-boyfriend move out of her house in December 2014 after police were called there due to a domestic dispute. Bogdan would also later testify about this incident at a hearing for the woman’s protective order against Ortiz.
Ortiz was convicted of cruelty to a non-domestic animal and sentenced to 25 days in jail, two years of community supervision and a $4,000 fine for shooting the dog. He was also ordered to pay $505 for the dog’s veterinary bills, attend anger management counseling and refrain from harassing or threatening his girlfriend, their children and his neighbors and their children.
The Dallas Court of Appeals upheld Ortiz’s conviction, and its memorandum opinion detailed some of the allegations of animal cruelty.
According to the verdict, Bogdan believed Ortiz blamed her for his split from his ex-girlfriend. The day before the April 2015 shooting, Ortiz allegedly visited Bogdan’s home and argued with his girlfriend on speaker phone about a custody agreement.
“She then ran into her backyard and saw her dog’s chest covered in blood.“
The following afternoon, Bogdan was in her bedroom when she heard Ortiz’s “very loud sports car” roll into his driveway. Moments later, she heard a gunshot and her dog’s scream. “She then ran into her backyard and saw her dog’s chest covered in blood,” the ruling said.
“Bogdan called a friend who came to take her and her dog to the animal hospital,” the filing continues. “The dog survived.”
The statement says Bogdan called 911 on the way to the animal hospital and reported she thought Ortiz shot her dog. She later testified that Ortiz often shot rabbits in her own yard and that they would run into her yard and die.
The daughter of Ortiz’s ex, who once lived with her mother and the doctor, also testified that Ortiz told her “hundreds” of times that he was going to shoot Bogdan’s dogs and that he seemed annoyed by their barking.
“The circumstantial evidence in this case was sufficient to prove that the appellant was the person who shot Bogdan’s dog,” the court’s January 2018 ruling said, adding that “there was evidence of animosity between” Ortiz and Bogdan, after that he left his girlfriend and that he “blamed Bogdan for the breakup.”
Bogdan declined to comment, and Ortiz could not be reached by The Daily Beast.
The incident involving the dog led the state medical board in October 2018 to reprimand Ortiz for “failure to notify all hospitals of his misconduct for criminal charges” and order him to pay a $2,000 administrative fine.
A medical board record in this episode referenced Ortiz’s alleged “history of violence against women.” In an amended complaint, the board highlighted a 1995 arrest for assault causing bodily harm to a spouse. The document states that in 2005, another female partner filed an emergency protective order against Ortiz, and in December 2014, he was arrested for assault involving domestic violence involving a third partner.
In August, the board took action against Ortiz again for “failing to meet the standard of care for one patient” during a November 2020 procedure at North Garland Surgery Center. After Ortiz administered anesthesia, the patient required CPR and emergency treatment, according to the board.
The board ordered Ortiz’s practice to be supervised by another doctor and that Ortiz take a medical jurisprudence and pay a $3,000 fine.
Baylor Scott & White Surgery North Dallas, where both Ortiz and Kaspar practiced, is temporarily closed pending the criminal investigation of the doctor.
Texas attorney Bruce Steckler represents five patients who had medical emergencies at the surgery center after anesthesia was administered for routine procedures.
As ABC affiliate WFAA reported, those patients included an 18-year-old woman who had her gallbladder removed, an 18-year-old man who had nose surgery after a motorcycle accident, a 21-year-old woman who had breast reduction surgery, and a 39-year-old man who underwent a reverse vasectomy. Steckler said a fifth patient, a man in his 50s, had a cardiac episode during surgery and staff stopped the procedure. The man was later told he had an underlying heart condition, but medical personnel could not determine why the condition occurred.
Earlier this month was Dallas Morning News reported that federal officials contacted the family of the 18-year-old man who had surgery for a deviated septum on Aug. 24 and may have been treated with a contaminated IV bag.
“There is no reason that these IV bags should contain the medication that has reportedly been found in these bags.“
The patient’s surgery was stopped halfway through because he developed severe respiratory distress due to an increase in blood pressure. He was rushed to hospital to be intubated and placed on a ventilator before being released five days later.
Steckler told The Daily Beast that he believes anywhere from 10 to 20 patients had to be intubated, ventilated and transported to an emergency room because of tampering with IV bags.
“When you’re having surgery, you’re most vulnerable,” Steckler said. “You’re completely unconscious, you’re wearing nothing but a dress, and you’re leaving your life to these people. So it’s extremely scary and you would hope that the facility took every possible precaution to ensure that only the most qualified people were employed and that all the medication was monitored and controlled properly.”
“There is no reason that these IV bags should contain the medication that has reportedly been found in these bags,” Steckler added.
In a statement, the father of the 18-year-old male patient told The Daily Beast that he wants to make sure no other parent comes close to losing their child in routine surgery.
“Our primary concern was and remains to make sure that something like this never happens to anyone else,” the father said. “That is why the investigation is so important to us. It is vital that we know how this happened so that we can learn what safeguards can be put in place to prevent it from happening again.”
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