A doctor whose license was suspended after the Texas Medical Board said he was the subject of a criminal investigation into tainted IV bags linked to one death at a North Dallas surgery center where he worked has been arrested according to Dallas police.
The doctor who was arrested in connection with tainted IV bags linked to a death at a North Dallas surgery center has a disciplinary record with the Texas Medical Board, a criminal history for assault and cruelty to animals and the IRS said he owed more than $4 million in unpaid taxes, according to public records.
Dr. Raynaldo Ortiz, an anesthesiologist, was arrested by Dallas police on Wednesday and faces federal charges which remained sealed Wednesday.
The tainted IV bags were discovered at Baylor Scott & White Surgicare on Coit Road, according to the Texas Medical Board, and contributed to cardiac arrests involving patients and the death of a colleague.
According to Texas Medical Board, Ortiz has been under investigation after he was seen on surveillance video putting IV bags in a warmer outside operating rooms right before patients suffered unexpected medical issues during routine surgeries.
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Tests showed tiny holes in the IV bags and detected the presence of bupivacaine, a drug usually used to treat localized pain, according to the medical board.
Dallas police referred questions to federal prosecutors who declined comment.
NBC 5 has been unable to reach Ortiz and it is unclear if he has an attorney representing him.
MEDICAL BOARD HISTORY
On Aug. 19, Dr. Ortiz agreed to have his practice monitored by another physician after an incident with a patient in November 2020, according to Texas Medical Board records.
"The board found Dr. Ortiz failed to meet the standard of care for a patient during a procedure and was the subject of disciplinary action as a result of the incident," the board said.
In addition to being monitored by another physician, Ortiz was fined $3,000 and ordered to take eight hours of education in medical record keeping and eight hours in resuscitation and intubation techniques.
According to the board's complaint, in November 2020, Ortiz's patient required CPR and "emergent transport" during a procedure at the North Garland Surgery Center.
The incident resulted in an "adverse recommendation" after an internal review and Ortiz was forced to relinquish "all clinical privileges," the board said.
According to the board, Ortiz did not recognize the patient's "inadequate oxygenation and ventilation," did not respond "in an appropriate manner" when the patient required CPR and did not document the "critical events" in medical records.
Ortiz neither admitted nor denied the accusations against him but agreed to comply with the order.
The hospital's investigation "was never completed and no final findings were made because (Ortiz) relinquished his privileges prior to any hearing," the board said in its order.
In a previous issue, the board publicly reprimanded Ortiz in October 2018, fined him $2,000 and suspended his clinical privileges for 14 days for failing to report that he was convicted of animal cruelty.
In July 2016, the medical executive committee at Baylor Scott & White Medical Center-Garland suspended Ortiz for 14 days for not reporting the same conviction, the board noted.
Ortiz has been a licensed physician in Texas since February 1991, the board said.
He graduated from the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston in 1989 and performed his residency there, according to medical records.
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CONVICTED OF ANIMAL CRUELTY
In a bizarre case, Ortiz was arrested in Murphy in 2015 and accused of shooting his neighbor's dog with a pellet gun after the neighbor helped Ortiz's girlfriend move out and later testified against him in a court hearing.
Ortiz was charged with animal cruelty.
The dog survived.
He pleaded not guilty but was convicted by a jury and sentenced to 25 days in jail.
The judge also ordered him to take anger management classes and pay $505 for restitution for the injured dog's veterinarian bill.
Ortiz appealed his misdemeanor conviction, claiming that there was insufficient evidence, that he didn't have the opportunity to object to proposed jury instructions, that the judge erred in responding to a jury message, and that the prosecutor who omitted several words in a jury charge during the arraignment.
The doctor lost on every argument.
The appeals court reviewed trial transcripts and in its decision affirming Ortiz's conviction offered the following detailed account of the case.
The neighbor testified that at about 2:30 p.m. on April 29, 2015, she heard a gunshot while she was in her bedroom and heard her dog scream.
She ran into her backyard and saw "her dog's chest covered in blood," she told the jury.
Right before she heard the shot, she said she heard Ortiz drive into his driveway.
She knew it was him, she testified, because he had a "very loud sports car" and "it's a very loud distinctive roar when he comes home."
She immediately thought Ortiz had shot the animal. He shot rabbits "a lot" and they would run into her yard injured, she said.
Collin County jail records show Ortiz was arrested on Dec. 30, 2014, on a charge of family violence - assault by contact and released a day later. Court records show no charges were filed.
When police questioned him about shooting the dog, Ortiz denied committing the crime and said he didn't have any weapons because his girlfriend took them all when they split.
Ortiz stopped cooperating with police about a week later after he showed up for a scheduled meeting with a detective at the police station. But when the detective arrived in the lobby to greet him three or four minutes later, he was gone, according to the appeal court ruling.
PREVIOUS CRIMINAL RECORD
Ortiz's criminal record dates to 1995, just two years after he finished his residency at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston.
The Texas Medical Board was fully aware of Ortiz's record and documented it in a 2018 case against him.
In June 1995 Ortiz was arrested for assault that caused bodily injury to a spouse, who later divorced him.
In September 2005, another woman filed for an emergency protective order alleging that he assaulted her.
In December 2014, Ortiz was arrested for assault domestic violence involving a third woman.
In January 2015, the third woman filed for an emergency protective order and settled with Ortiz for an "undisclosed amount of money," according to the medical board's review of his criminal cases.
In an affidavit, the mother of Ortiz's son said Ortiz had been "abusive" for years.
"He has threatened to kill me before, even told me how he would do it, including cutting my finger off to get the ring," the woman said. "He said the only thing stopping him from killing me was he would go to jail."
Ortiz denied the allegations and denied he and the woman were ever married.
Ortiz claimed the woman "ransacked" his house before she left and took cash, gold, jewelry and 40 bottles of wine.
A judge granted a temporary protective order to keep the doctor away from her and their son but both parents were later given visitation rights.
IRS LIENS ON ORTIZ’S HOME
The IRS has placed numerous liens on Ortiz's Murphy home.
The first, in 2015, claimed he owed $1.65 million in unpaid taxes from 2011-2013.
By 2020, the tax agency said his total debt was $4.1 million since 2015.
Other tax liens in 2021 and 2022 showed he owed another $265,774 and $304,517 respectively.
His 7,718 square-foot house was appraised at $1.3 million, according to the Collin County Appraisal District.
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