A Texas doctor whose license was temporarily suspended amid a criminal probe into the death of one of his colleagues has a disturbing history of animal cruelty and domestic abuse accusations, The Daily Beast has learned.
On Sept. 9, the Texas Medical Board suspended the license of Dallas anesthesiologist Raynaldo Rivera Ortiz Jr., 59, referring to an investigation into “serious cardiac complications and one patient’s death” 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 the surgery center’s surveillance footage showed Ortiz “depositing single IV bags into the warmer in the hall outside the operating rooms” and that “shortly thereafter a patient would suffer a serious complication.”
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Authorities say fellow anesthesiologist Melanie Kaspar died in June soon after taking home an IV bag to rehydrate when she was ill. While her obituary said she’d had a heart attack, officials later determined Kaspar died of accidental bupivacaine toxicity. “Laboratory tests were run on IV bags from the warmer, which displayed visible tiny 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 filing concludes that Ortiz’s “continued practice of medicine poses a continuing threat to the public welfare.”
Before his current legal troubles, Ortiz was charged with and convicted of shooting his neighbor’s dog in the chest with a pellet gun. And, as the medical board alleged 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 his ex-girlfriend move out of his house in December 2014 after police were called there over 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 misdemeanor cruelty to a nonlivestock 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 bill, attend anger management counseling, and refrain from harassing or threatening his girlfriend, their kids, and his neighbors and their children.
The Court of Appeals in Dallas upheld Ortiz’s conviction and its memorandum opinion details some of the animal abuse allegations.
According to the ruling, Bogdan believed that Ortiz blamed her for his split from his former girlfriend. The day before the shooting in April 2015, Ortiz allegedly visited Bogdan’s home and argued with his girlfriend on speakerphone over a child custody arrangement.
The following afternoon, Bogdan was in her bedroom when she heard Ortiz’s “very loud sports car” peel into his driveway. She heard a gunshot and her dog’s yelping moments later. “She then ran into her backyard and saw her dog’s chest covered in blood,” the ruling says.
“Bogdan called a friend who came to take her and her dog to the animal hospital,” the filing continues. “The dog survived.”
The opinion says that Bogdan called 911 on her way to the animal hospital and reported that she believed Ortiz shot her canine. She later testified that Ortiz frequently shot rabbits in his own yard and that they ran into her yard and died.
The daughter of Ortiz's ex, who once lived with her mom and the doctor, also testified that Ortiz told her “hundreds” of times that he wanted to shoot Bogdan’s dogs and that he seemed annoyed by their barking.
“The circumstantial evidence in this case was sufficient to prove appellant was the person who shot Bogdan’s dog,” the court’s January 2018 ruling states, adding that “there was evidence of animosity between” Ortiz and Bogdan after he split from 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 to reprimand Ortiz in October 2018 for “failing to notify all hospitals of his misdemeanor criminal charges” and order him to pay an administrative penalty of $2,000.
One medical board record on this episode referred to Ortiz’s alleged “history of violence against women.” In an amended complaint, the board highlighted a 1995 arrest for assault causing bodily injury to a spouse. The document states that in 2005, a second female partner filed for 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 procedure in November 2020 at North Garland Surgery Center. According to the board, after Ortiz performed anesthesia, the patient required CPR and emergency care.
The board ordered Ortiz’s practice to be monitored by another physician and for Ortiz to take a medical jurisprudence exam and pay a $3,000 fine.
Baylor Scott & White Surgicare North Dallas, where both Ortiz and Kaspar practiced, is temporarily closed pending the criminal investigation into the doctor.
Texas lawyer 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 dirt-bike 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 fifties, had a cardiac episode during surgery and staff stopped the procedure. The man was later told he had an underlying heart condition but medical staff couldn’t determine why the situation occurred.
Earlier this month, the 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 was possibly treated with a contaminated IV bag.
The patient’s surgery was halted halfway through because he went into severe respiratory distress over a spike in blood pressure. He was rushed to a hospital to be intubated and placed on a ventilator before he was 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 IV bag tampering.
“When you go into surgery you’re at your most vulnerable,” Steckler said. “You’re completely unconscious, you’re for all intents and purposes not wearing any clothes but a gown, and you’re entrusting these people with your life. So it’s extremely scary and you would hope that the facility was taking every precaution possible to make sure that only the most qualified people were on staff and all the medication was properly monitored and checked.”
“There’s no reason that these IV bags should contain the medications that have been reportedly found in those bags,” Steckler added.
In a statement, the father of the 18-year-old male patient told The Daily Beast he wants to make sure no other parent comes close to losing their child in a routine surgery.
“Our primary concern was, and remains, ensuring that something similar never happens to anyone else,” the dad said. “That’s why the investigation is so important to us. It is paramount that we know how this occurred, so that we can learn what safeguards can be put in place to prevent it from happening again.”
Editor’s note: Raynaldo Rivera Ortiz Jr. has not been charged in the death of anesthesiologist Melanie Kaspar. This report has been updated to reflect that he is under investigation in the matter.
