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A Texas doctor who was dubbed a “medical terrorist” was convicted of injecting heart-stopping poison intravenously at his former medical clinic in north Dallas.
FOX 4 in Dallas reported that a 12-person jury found Dr. Raynaldo Ortiz guilty on all 10 counts after nearly seven hours of deliberation.
When the verdict was read, Ortiz reportedly wore a mask and showed no emotion.
As a result of Ortiz’s actions, several patients suffered cardiac emergencies and Dr. Melanie Kaspar died after using one of the IV bags, prosecutors said.
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Federal prosecutors said the anesthesiologist committed the shocking crimes at Baylor Scott and White Surgicare North Dallas in retaliation for a medical misconduct investigation.
A criminal complaint accused Ortiz of injecting nerve blockers and bronchodilator medications into the patient’s IV bags.
Surveillance video showed the doctor placing an IV bag on a stainless steel heater outside an operating room on August 19, 2022. Minutes later, another staff member took the bag and, shortly after, a patient allegedly suffered a heart attack .
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Ortiz’s colleague, beloved anesthesiologist Melanie Kaspar, took home a contaminated IV bag on June 21 to rehydrate due to illness. Almost immediately after inserting the IV into her vein, she suffered a serious cardiac event and died. An autopsy showed she was fatally poisoned with bupivacaine, a numbing agent that the Justice Department says is “rarely abused” but is used to relieve pain during surgery.
“There is no closure. My best friend is gone,” said John Kaspar, widower of Dr. Melanie Kaspar, shortly after the verdict. “I don’t think he’s ever looked me in the eye… It’s almost like you have so many emotions you can’t filter them out. You get flooded.”
The station reported that witnesses called to the stand during the trial included the anesthesiologist who discovered the bags were contaminated, John Kaspar, and a teenager who went into cardiac arrest during nose surgery.
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The incidents began two days after Oritz was notified of a disciplinary investigation against him for his handling of a medical emergency. Other doctors noted that he complained that the center was trying to “crucify” him.
FOX 4 reported that there were 13 patients between May and August 2022 who experienced similar cardiac emergencies, although prosecutors only accused the doctor of causing bodily injury to four of the patients in August.
A judge had ordered Ortiz held before trial after prosecutors argued he was a danger to the community by citing, in part, a 2015 incident in which he shot his neighbor’s dog in retaliation for the woman who He helped his then-girlfriend obtain a restraining order. against him after a domestic violence incident.
Ortiz was found guilty of four counts of tampering with a consumer product resulting in serious bodily injury, one count of tampering with a consumer product and five counts of intentional adulteration of a drug, prosecutors said.
Ortiz is expected to be sentenced in two to three months. He faces life in prison.
Fox News Digital’s Danielle Wallace contributed to this report. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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