Raynaldo Rivera Ortiz, Jr. 59, was arrested Wednesday in Plano, Texas, by the Dallas Police Department, spokeswoman Kristin Lowman told Fox News Digital. Lowman said the department is assisting the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the investigation, but declined to provide further details. This isn’t the Corvette-loving doctor’s first brush with the criminal justice system. He was convicted of shooting a neighbor’s dog with a pellet gun in 2015 and charged with assaulting at least two women. The Texas Medical Board acquired Ortiz’s license to practice on Sept. 9, hours after federal authorities shared information with the agency about their ongoing criminal investigation, records show. The anesthesiologist was allegedly caught on surveillance footage sliding IV bags into a room heater outside the operating rooms at Baylor Scott & White Surgery in North Dallas, according to a suspension order issued by the board. “When he deposited an IV bag into the warmer, a patient would shortly thereafter develop a serious complication,” the report states. Ortiz’s colleague, beloved anesthesiologist Melanie Kaspar, took a contaminated IV bag home on June 21 to rehydrate due to illness. Melanie Kaspar, who died of complications after taking a contaminated IV bag home, was a colleague of Raynaldo Rivera Ortiz.Grove Hill Funeral Home & Memorial Park “He inserted the IV into her vein and almost immediately went into massive cardiac arrest and died,” the warrant states. Kaspar was fatally poisoned with bupivacaine – a numbing agent used to relieve pain during surgery, an autopsy found. The drug is intended for injection into the spinal cord and is known to cause “severe cardio- and neurotoxicity” and death when injected into veins, according to the Institute for Safe Medication Practices in Canada. The remaining IV bags were tested in the warmer. They had “visible tiny holes in the plastic wrap” and contained bupivacaine. Fluids left in a used IV bag given to a healthy patient during routine surgery who suffered a major heart attack contained similar drugs, according to the medical board. “Defendant’s continued practice of medicine constitutes a continuing threat to the public welfare,” the emergency restraining order states. Ortiz, who has been practicing for 26 years, was placed on administrative supervision in August for an incident from November 2020. One patient required CPR after Ortiz administered anesthesia, prompting the facility, North Garland Surgery Center, to revoke his clinical privileges, board records show. In December 2014, Ortiz and his then-girlfriend, the mother of his child, got into a fight in front of their neighbor, Roxanne Bogdan, and he was arrested for alleged assault. The ex obtained a protective order against Ortiz, and Bogdan testified on her behalf. She blamed the neighbor for their breakup, according to prosecutors. About four months later, in April 2015, Bogdan heard a “very loud sports car” pull into Ortiz’s driveway, then gunshots and her dog yelping. “She ran into her backyard and saw her dog’s chest covered in blood,” according to court documents. The dog survived. Ortiz owns at least three Corvettes, whose engines have a distinct sound, according to records. Ortiz was convicted at trial and sentenced to 25 days in jail and two years of community supervision. A medical board file says he has a “history of violence against women” – including a 1999 arrest for allegedly assaulting a wife. In 2005, a different girlfriend obtained a protective order against him. A representative for Baylor Scott & White Surgery in North Dallas did not immediately return a request for comment, but told other stores that they have suspended operations at the medical facility and are helping authorities with the investigation. The U.S. Attorney’s office for the Northern District of Texas did not immediately return a request for comment.
