Anesthesiologist Raynaldo Rivera Ortiz Jr. is found GUILTY of turning patients' IV bags into 'poison bombs' by injecting them with toxic drugs cocktail that killed colleague who used one to treat her dehydration

• e-mail

The Dallas anesthesiologist accused of poisoning IV bags with dangerous drugs has been found guilty in federal court.

Dr. Raynaldo Rivera Ortiz Jr., 61, reportedly showed no emotion as the verdict was read Friday in Dallas's Earle Cabell Federal Building following a monthlong trial. 

A colleague's death spurred the doctor's downfall - after she took home one of the tainted bags to treat her dehydration and suddenly died. Cardiac emergencies in 11 patients also caused cops to hone in on Ortiz, who now faces 190 years in prison.

The strongest evidence, one juror said, was video of the accused filling syringes with multiple drugs the day of one of the victims' operations - the very same drugs he had been accused of injecting into IV bags. An anesthesiologist testified there is no reasonable explanation for the actions seen in the footage.

The doctor who died's widower said one of the agonizing moments of the trial was seeing this newly released video, which prosecutors said proved Ortiz repurposed the bags into 'poison bombs,' designed to explode on unsuspecting people.

Scroll down for video: 

The doctor accused of poisoning IV bags with dangerous drugs was found guilty of four counts of tampering with consumer products resulting in serious bodily injury, a count of tampering with a consumer product and five counts of intentional adulteration of a drug in court Friday

Dr. Raynaldo Rivera Ortiz Jr., 61, reportedly showed no emotion as the verdict was read Friday, in Dallas's Earle Cabell Federal Building following a less than monthlong trial.

'Him filling the syringes in the pre-op room, you can transpose what he did to Jack that day, to my wife. Tough to see,' John Kaspar, spouse of the late Melanie Kaspar, told Fox 4 following the verdict, referencing the video taken the day before 18-year-old Jack Adlerstein received one of the tainted bags.  

'Him filling the syringes in the pre-op room, you can transpose what he did to Jack that day, to my wife. Tough to see,' he added, after Adlerstein's doctors testified he nearly died on the operating room table.

Ortiz is seen putting the syringes into his pockets in the clip - one of several shown to jurors throughout proceedings in Northern Texas District Court.

Others showed Ortiz placing IV bags into a warmer minutes before they were used, and just before a patient suddenly went into cardiac arrest.

Others showed Ortiz looking on as victims were wheeled out by emergency responders, while others show him fiddling with vials of drugs and IV bags before big operations. 

In one, Ortiz walks around the hall outside the operating room while looking to see if anyone is watching, before opening a warmer to briefly look inside and shut it again.

The US Attorney's Office for Northern District of Texas said that in each case, not long after the footage was taken, the bags were carried into operating rooms where patients experienced complications.

The strongest evidence, one juror said, was video of the accused filling syringes with multiple drugs the day of one of the victims' operations - the very same drugs he had been accused of injecting into IV bags, seen here

An anesthesiologist testified there is no reasonable explanation for the actions seen in the footage

The doctor who died's widower said one of the agonizing moments of the trial was seeing this newly released video, which prosecutors said proved Ortiz repurposed the bags into 'poison bombs', designed to explode on unsuspecting people

'Him filling the syringes in the pre-op room, you can transpose what he did to Jack that day, to my wife. Tough to see,' John Kaspar, widow of Melanie Kaspar, said, referencing the video taken the day before an 18-year-old received one of the tainted bags and nearly died

The video was one of many shown to jurors throughout proceedings in Northern Texas District Court, which began toward the start of the month, on April 3

In one, Ortiz is seen watching as a 57-year-old patient is wheeled out by paramedics in the midst of her medical emergency, after fiddling with one of her IV bags

Shortly before, he was filmed taking drugs out of the medicine cabinet, taking a bag out of the warmer, and then coming back to put it back, in the fridge where prosecutors the poisoned bags were regularly kept

Pictured, the Earle Cabell Federal Building in Dallas, Texas, where proceedings concluded Friday after less than two weeks

Kaspar, spouse of the late Melanie Kaspar, is seen here exiting the courthouse Friday following the verdict, which was reached after about seven hours of deliberations

While all smiles , he said he still did not have closure after losing his spouse to Ortiz's moves, telling reporters: 'There's no closure. My best friend is gone'

He added of the disgraced doc: 'I don't think he ever looked me in the eye [during the proceedings]'

His wife Melanie Kasper was the only person to die as a result of Ortiz's tainted bags, after administering herself with one she took home from work in June 2022 after feeling dehydrated

Dallas police went onto an investigation into the death of the 55-yearold, before eventually honing in on Ortiz and the 11 other nonfatal incidents

One of these plagued patients was Adlerstein, whose parents were told he had just a 50/50 chance of surviving when he went into cardiac arrest during routine nose surgery at Baylor Scott and White SurgiCare in August 2022.

He did survive, the administrator at the Baylor Scott and White Surgicare testified - before recalling how the cardiovascular crisis, like several others, came during a routine outpatient procedure 30 minutes after an IV bag was taken into the OR.

'We were perplexed because the incidents were happening under different doctors and nurses,' said Ashley Burks, as prosecutors produced clips of Ortiz checking on the IV bag warmer moments before another blowup later that month.

Choking back tears as she spoke, she recalled how the hospital had repeatedly had equipment tested, but could find no source for the repeated failures.

Citing a slew of near-deaths seen between May and August 2022 specifically, she said: 'We were desperately trying to figure out what was going on.'

After the testimony, prosecutors had the the witness walk jurors through a clip that showed Ortiz approaching the warmer where the alleged poisoned bags were put to either check on them or take bags in or out.

Burks testified that soon after, she and other officials looked at the IV bag and found a hole in it.

'We were stunned,' she said of the discovery that soon led cops to the anesthesiologist. 

Pictured, Baylor Scott and White SurgiCare, where 11 patients suffered cardiac emergencies while under Ortiz's care

Among them was 18-year-old Jack Adlerstein, who went into went into cardiac arrest during routine nose surgery at Baylor Scott and White SurgiCare in August 2022 

He survived, after his parents were told he had just a 50/50 chance of surviving, prosecutors said

Video from that same month, filmed on August 4th of 2022, showed another cardiac crisis event - this one involving a 57-year-old woman who took the stand to describe her ordeal. 

She testified that she woke up from routine back liposuction and lower facelift surgery in another facility's ICU unable to open her eyes, intubated, and under the impression she was about to choke to death, after receiving a bag tampered with by Ortiz.

In video filmed shortly before, Ortiz is seen watching as the 57-year-old patient is wheeled out by paramedics in the midst of her medical emergency.

Ortiz is seen watching that scene unfold, shortly after he was filmed taking drugs out of a medicine cabinet and taking an IV a bag out of the warmer, before returning to put it back. 

Ortiz was then seen checking on that warmer twice, after which a nurse was observed pulling the bag out bringing it into that woman's operating room.

Moments after, the medical event begins - an ordeal that the woman said left her with heart issues that she still lives with until this day.

An affidavit explained how following investigations there 'appears to be a likely correlation between Ortiz coming under scrutiny for medical errors and the adverse events affecting other anesthesiologists' patients' at the surgery center

She told the court she settled with Baylor Scott & White after a doctor approached her about a settlement, and that the hospital system has since paid for corrective surgery. 

A few months before her cardiac arrest, Dallas police opened an investigation into the death of Dr.  55, another anesthesiologist at the hospital who died in June of that year - also from cardiac arrest - minutes after administering herself with an IV bag she had taken home from work to address a bout of hydration. 

A toxicology report found her body contained the same drug in the IV bags Ortiz handled, while a Medical Board's report found that the IV bag that killed Kaspar was one that had been handled by Ortiz. 

'She went her whole life not being the center of attention, worked behind the drape in operating room,' Kaspar said Friday, before adding or Ortiz: 'I don't think he ever looked me in the eye [during the proceedings]'

The relative of Ortiz's only casualty added that the past two years without his wife have been a struggle.

'There's no closure. My best friend is gone,' said John Kaspar, Dr. Melanie Kaspar's widower, shortly after the verdict. 'I don't think he ever looked me in the eye…It's almost like you have so many emotions you can't sift them out, you get flooded. 

He continued after exiting the courthouse all smiles ahead of Ortiz's sententcing 'Time stops. If you are lucky, you have a lot of friends who can shove you along. I've had many good friends. They've done exactly what was required of them. I thank every last one of them.'

Melanie Kaspar's Dallas home where she died in June 2022, after administering herself with an IV bag - on of the incidents that sparked the investigation. If convicted, he faces life in federal prison

Just before the incidents, Ortiz was placed under investigation and faced a disciplinary inquiry against him after a patient stopped breathing under his care during a routine procedure.

An affidavit explained how Ortiz 'deviated from the standard of care by failing to maintain the patient's airway and failing to document critical aspects of the incident,' and how Ortiz was aware of the investigation into his handling of the incident.

It also revealed how he had expressed unhappiness about the probe, at one point telling a doctor how he believed the center was attempting to 'crucify' him. Another doctor told cops how Ortiz told him how losing his job at the center 'would be financially 'devastating'.

Following Friday's verdict, Ortiz has been convicted on a variety of felony counts-  four counts of tampering with consumer products resulting in serious bodily injury, one count of tampering with a consumer product and five counts of intentional adulteration of a drug, prosecutors said. 

A sentencing date has not yet been set for Ortiz, but he faces up to 190 years in prison.

U.S. Attorney Leigha Simonton for the northern district of Texas, who oversaw the case, celebrated jurors verdict a video statement. 

'Dr. Ortiz cloaked himself in the white coat of a healer, but instead of curing pain, he inflicted it,' she said,

He assembled ticking time bombs, then sat in wait as those medical time bombs went off one by one, toxic cocktails flowing into the veins of patients who were often at their most vulnerable, lying unconscious on the operating table. 

'We saw the patients testify. Their pain, their fear and their trauma was palpable in that courtroom.'