Texas, United States: A anesthesiologist from Dallas was detained on Wednesday after he allegedly injected nerve blocking agents as well as other drugs into patient IV bags at a local surgery centre, which resulted in one death as well as multiple cardiac emergencies.
The anesthesiologist was apprehended on federal criminal charges, Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Brian M. Boynton, who is the head of the Justice Department’s Civil Division, as well as. U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas Chad E. Meacham made the announcement.
Moreover, the 59-year-old-Raynaldo Rivera Ortiz Jr. was charged through a complaint with tampering with a consumer product, causing death, as well as international drug adulteration. He was detained in Plano on Wednesday as well as will make his initial appearance before United States Magistrate Judge Renee Toliver in Dallas on Friday.
As per the criminal complaint, on June 21, a 55-year-old woman, who is a coworker of Dr Ortiz, who has been identified in the court documents as M.K., experienced a medical emergency and died immediately after treating herself for dehydration using an IV bag of saline taken from the surgical centre. Moreover, an autopsy report revealed that she died from a lethal dose of bupivacaine, a nerve blocking agent that is rarely abused but is often used during the administration of anaesthesia.
Along with this, two months later, on August 34, an 18-year-old male patient, identified in court documents as J.A., experienced a cardiac emergency during routine sinus surgery.
The teenager was intubated as well as transferred to a local Intensive Care Unit. The chemical analysis of the fluid from a saline bag used during his surgery revealed the presence of bupivacaine, epinephrine (a stimulant), as well as lidocaine, drugs that could have caused the patient’s sudden symptoms.
