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Dallas surgical center stops operations after 'compromised' IV bag found

DDD Dad

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DDD Dad

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https://www.wfaa.com/article/news/local/dallas-texas-surgical-center-stops-operations-after-compromised-iv-bag-found/287-ceaf5be8-778b-4093-a712-ceb63ef57938

This is fucking insane.  The anesthesiologist who died was a friend of mine (and I play golf with her husband regularly).  Currently they think another anesthesiologist at the hospital is responsible for tainting the IV bags, who appears to be a total POS.

https://dallasexpress.com/local-shuttered-clinic-linked-to-troubled-anesthesiologist/

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A Dallas anesthesiologist with a lengthy arrest record is reportedly linked to Baylor Scott & White Surgicare North Dallas, which closed its doors this week after allegedly drug-contaminated IV bags were given to patients. 

Dr. Raynaldo Ortiz Jr., who is not board-certified, was subject to at least two distinct Texas Medical Board disciplinary actions, both of which included the assessment of fines. 


The most recent instance for which Dr. Ortiz received a reprimand and a fine was concluded on August 19, 2022. Documentation of the incident states that in November 2020, Ortiz was performing anesthesia for a patient who then required CPR and emergency transport for intensive care. 

The Texas Medical Board determined that Ortiz had “failed to meet the standard of care for one patient during a procedure in which [he] performed anesthesia.”

The board claimed Ortiz “did not recognize the patient’s inadequate oxygenation and ventilation,” alleging that he “did not respond to the patient’s issues in an appropriate manner.”

Following the incident, he also allegedly failed to properly document its occurrence.

Ortiz received a resultant adverse recommendation from the Medical Executive Committee (MEC) at North Garland Surgery Center (NGSC) and was handed an “administrative penalty in the amount of $3,000.”

The physician then relinquished his medical staff membership and all clinical privileges at NGSC.

This was not the first disciplinary action Ortiz received from the Texas Medical Board. Previous to this patient-related incident, Ortiz was disciplined in connection with one of a series of arrests that were listed in a hearing before the board, all of which were related to alleged domestic abuse dating back to more than 27 years ago.

Around June 11, 1995, Ortiz was arrested for Assault Causing Bodily Injury to a Spouse, a Class A Misdemeanor. He and the alleged victim later divorced and settled for an undisclosed sum.

Approximately 10 years later, around September 19, 2005, a second female partner filed for an emergency protective order against Ortiz, alleging that he had assaulted her.

Ortiz was later arrested on December 30, 2014, on charges of Assault Involving Domestic Violence against a third alleged victim, another Class C Misdemeanor.

The following month, in January 2015, the third alleged victim also filed for an emergency protective order and later settled with Ortiz for an undisclosed sum.

Around June 15, 2016, a Collin County jury found Ortiz guilty of Cruelty to Non-Livestock Animals, a Class A Misdemeanor, and a crime of “moral turpitude.”

Documents from the Texas Medical Board state that Ortiz had shot his female neighbor’s pet dog with a pellet gun in retaliation for helping the third alleged victim of domestic violence escape him and testifying against him at the protective order hearing.

Ortiz was fined $4,000 and sentenced to 25 days in the Collin County Jail, which was remanded to two years of community service. 

As a result of the conviction, Ortiz was prohibited from engaging in harassing or threatening behavior, owning or carrying weapons, and using drugs or drinking alcohol.

He was also required to submit to random drug testing and ordered to participate in an Anger Management Program, as well as pay the associated court costs and $505 in restitution for veterinary bills.

On July 13, 2016, the Medical Executive Committee at Baylor Scott & White Medical Center Garland administratively suspended Ortiz’s clinical privileges for two weeks after he failed to notify the hospital of his misdemeanor criminal charges and subsequent conviction.

Despite attempts to appeal the verdict in 2018, his conviction and sentence were upheld by a court of appeals.

Amid the most recent disciplinary action against the physician from the surgery center, an investigation appears to be underway regarding the potentially tainted IV bags.

Baylor Scott & White’s Surgicare center reportedly invited police to investigate after at least one patient was injured or killed, possibly due to a contaminated IV bag.

Currently, the death of a doctor at the hospital, Melanie Kaspar, is under investigation in connection with the IV bags.

Dr. Kaspar, who had been treated as a patient at the surgery center, died after being discharged to her home, with reports initially presuming her cause of death to be a heart attack.

However, her death came after she used an IV to administer fluids to herself because she was feeling dehydrated, according to NBC Dallas.

The FBI told The Dallas Express that the Dallas Police Department and U.S. Attorney’s Office are investigating the matter.

 

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Sawbonz

Sawbonz 27538

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34 minutes ago, DDD Dad said:

https://www.wfaa.com/article/news/local/dallas-texas-surgical-center-stops-operations-after-compromised-iv-bag-found/287-ceaf5be8-778b-4093-a712-ceb63ef57938

This is fucking insane.  The anesthesiologist who died was a friend of mine (and I play golf with her husband regularly).  Currently they think another anesthesiologist at the hospital is responsible for tainting the IV bags, who appears to be a total POS.

https://dallasexpress.com/local-shuttered-clinic-linked-to-troubled-anesthesiologist/

 

I saw her the week before she died walking her dogs at the lake. Made no sense she would die of a heart attack. 
 

I don’t get the article. Clearly that Ortiz guy is a piece of shit but are they insinuating he spiked the IV bags?

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DDD Dad

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2 hours ago, Sawbonz said:

I saw her the week before she died walking her dogs at the lake. Made no sense she would die of a heart attack. 
 

I don’t get the article. Clearly that Ortiz guy is a piece of shit but are they insinuating he spiked the IV bags?

Yes. 
 

I talked to one of her colleagues today (husband of former Dallas DA). I imagine they are trying to put together enough evidence to charge him. 

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Augustus

Augustus 3061

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2 hours ago, Sawbonz said:

Holy shit. That is premeditated murder. And serial killer behavior. IV Bupivacaine can stop your heart and lasts for several hours

That's what the bags were spiked with?

edit: nvm I realized there were links to two different stories in the OP

Edited by Augustus
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Sawbonz

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24 minutes ago, Gil Bang said:

No way we would extend privileges to a non board-certified gas guy at any of our places.  It's literally written into our policy manual.  But that's just us. 


Doesn’t say if this guy was never boarded or let it lapse. Maintenance of certification is becoming a real hot button issue, and when objective measures are applied doesn’t correlate to outcomes. Many physicians are choosing not to maintain their board certifications, which come up every 10 years or so. I have and will maintain mine, but it’s mostly doing the required yearly continuing education, not committing  healthcare fraud, or felonies, or practicing while impaired. Plus paying a few thousand dollars to the specialty board.  That debate is not really germane to this thread, but several very large healthcare systems no longer require it for privileges. The medical executive committees at the facilities vet all of the same things anyway and do it every 12 to 24 months. I would imaging denying privileges for the items in his TMB record, absent anything else, would have opened up facilities to lawsuits

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Gil Bang

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1 hour ago, Sawbonz said:


Doesn’t say if this guy was never boarded or let it lapse. Maintenance of certification is becoming a real hot button issue, and when objective measures are applied doesn’t correlate to outcomes. Many physicians are choosing not to maintain their board certifications, which come up every 10 years or so. I have and will maintain mine, but it’s mostly doing the required yearly continuing education, not committing  healthcare fraud, or felonies, or practicing while impaired. Plus paying a few thousand dollars to the specialty board.  That debate is not really germane to this thread, but several very large healthcare systems no longer require it for privileges. The medical executive committees at the facilities vet all of the same things anyway and do it every 12 to 24 months. I would imaging denying privileges for the items in his TMB record, absent anything else, would have opened up facilities to lawsuits

My old company sold off our flagship ASC many years ago, but at the time, we were Joint Commission accredited, (along with AAAHC and AAAASF) and Joint Commission didn't  require all docs to be board certified, but they certainly looked favorably upon it.   They were tough, so we took any edge we could get. 

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Humble Beast

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This will be extremely difficult to prove unless they set up an amateur sting operation with nurses and other docs to watch him and witness him spiking bags. That would be very difficult to keep a lid on given the seriousness of allegations. Realistically, any nurse or doc that works there over the last year or so is a suspect. Extreme psychopath behavior.
 

My guess is they noticed people having strange symptoms postop. Might’ve taken a while to figure it out because the classic symptoms are described by patients when they’re awake. 

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Nice Guy Eddie

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10 hours ago, Sawbonz said:

Not sure he is (was) employed by BSW. Usually an anesthesiologist has privileges at multiple places. It’s possible this isn’t limited to that facility

I could be wrong but I thought anesthesiologists don't normally work directly for Texas hospitals. This is why you normally see separate bills for them. I think there are exceptions to the rule like if the doctor is the department lead or something.

The anesthesiologist might be exclusive to a hospital but that doesn't mean s/he works for them.

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Bevo

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On 9/3/2022 at 5:11 PM, Sawbonz said:

I saw her the week before she died walking her dogs at the lake. Made no sense she would die of a heart attack. 
 

I don’t get the article. Clearly that Ortiz guy is a piece of shit but are they insinuating he spiked the IV bags?

Given that she was dehydrated, why would the doctor give herself an IV instead of say drink some water?

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Humble Beast

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22 hours ago, Sawbonz said:

Not sure he is (was) employed by BSW. Usually an anesthesiologist has privileges at multiple places. It’s possible this isn’t limited to that facility

He’s listed as the owner of Greenville Anesthesia Consultants since 2005. I only found a few other CRNAs under that entity. 


 

19 hours ago, Gil Bang said:

No way we would extend privileges to a non board-certified gas guy at any of our places.  It's literally written into our policy manual.  But that's just us. 

It’s not hard in a big city to find a place for independent docs to work. I’m a little surprised he was at what I assume is a new BSW facility. He could just be a sketchy old guy that’s been around a long time. There’s also a massive anesthesia shortage in most cities so there’s some unusual business arrangements going on. Some places will take pretty much anyone who can put people to sleep so facilities and surgeons can make money. 

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Gil Bang

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1 hour ago, Humble Beast said:

He’s listed as the owner of Greenville Anesthesia Consultants since 2005. I only found a few other CRNAs under that entity. 


 

It’s not hard in a big city to find a place for independent docs to work. I’m a little surprised he was at what I assume is a new BSW facility. He could just be a sketchy old guy that’s been around a long time. There’s also a massive anesthesia shortage in most cities so there’s some unusual business arrangements going on. Some places will take pretty much anyone who can put people to sleep so facilities and surgeons can make money. 

Yeah, it's a little disjointed.  People go to great pains to select a surgeon, and pay zero attention to the person that's responsible for keeping them alive through the surgery. 

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Samson's Wig

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I've never fully trusted anesthesiologists, even the ones who have been friends.  They are near the top the list of professions with drug addiction problems for a reason.  Most of the anesthesiologists I've met seem a bit "off", drugs or no.

Shame on BSW for giving hospital access to someone with this guy's record, but it's not surprising.  

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Bevo

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23 minutes ago, trauma babe said:

IV works faster, and drinking water is boring

I think that it is likely that she suspected a larger issue if she gave herself an IV. Although, maybe, she was trying to save money by using hospital supplies and avoid having to buy bottled water.

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safe sex

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Just now, Bevo said:

I think that it is likely that she suspected a larger issue if she gave herself an IV. Although, maybe, she was trying to save money by using hospital supplies and avoid having to buy bottled water.

You're overthinking it. Nurses and doctors give themselves IVs at home regularly. It's a thing. 

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Bevo

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8 minutes ago, trauma babe said:

You're overthinking it. Nurses and doctors give themselves IVs at home regularly. It's a thing. 

Never have. Never will. Same goes for the rest of my family. Are you seeing this in the doctor's lounge or up in the nurses station? Cuz' I've got to say that it is dumb as shit.

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41 minutes ago, Bevo said:

Never have. Never will. Same goes for the rest of my family. Are you seeing this in the doctor's lounge or up in the nurses station? Cuz' I've got to say that it is dumb as shit.

Good for you? That's a weird thing to feel sanctimonious about, but you do you. It's a pretty common occurrence in my experience, especially if you work in emergency medicine where bags of saline commonly have their packaging opened but not used. And no, no one is starting an IV on themselves at the hospital. As I said, this happens at home.

Works great on a hangover. Better than trying to catch up with water and coffee.

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ztejas

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Medical students especially give themselves IVs all the fucking time. I'm not a doctor and was never in med school and I know that. Y'all can't be serious. There are also IV recovery places that make a killing off of hungover patrons. 

And if it was available to me I'd probably do it too. Rehydrating after a brutal hangover fucking sucks and can take forever when you can only stomach so much water. 

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safe sex

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Like...do you think bolusing a liter of saline is inherently more dangerous outside of the hospital or something? If you have good ac veins, starting an IV on yourself isn't too much harder than starting it on someone else as long as you're a half decent stick. And I can't speak for everyone ofc, but my place definitely has less MRSA in it than any hospital in Austin.

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Bevo

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34 minutes ago, trauma babe said:

Good for you? That's a weird thing to feel sanctimonious about, but you do you. It's a pretty common occurrence in my experience, especially if you work in emergency medicine where bags of saline commonly have their packaging opened but not used. And no, no one is starting an IV on themselves at the hospital. As I said, this happens at home.

Works great on a hangover. Better than trying to catch up with water and coffee.

Funny, I guess I am being sanctimonious. Not too worried about infection or blood clot or having to stick myself or stealing from the hospital. I just think it’s dumb. I think the IV centers in malls is dumb too (and should be regulated). Cest la vie.

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Bevo

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9 minutes ago, Herbie Hancock said:


Tell me you don’t know shit about intravenous access without telling me you don’t know shit about intravenous access.

Go ahead and list the potential complications to IV access and risk percentages. Start with phlebitis.

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Humble Beast

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3 hours ago, Bevo said:

I think that it is likely that she suspected a larger issue if she gave herself an IV. Although, maybe, she was trying to save money by using hospital supplies and avoid having to buy bottled water.

Could’ve had a GI infection. Intractable nausea.
 

I have given multiple IVs to my kids over the years when they’ve had GI bugs. I only had to take a 2 year old the ER once to see how just a bolus of fluid perked them right up. Several hundred dollars later I realized I was never doing that again. I’ve never seen or heard of hospital/office staff getting upset at someone talking LR and Iv supplies for family. 

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ChuckNorrisActionJeans

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4 hours ago, Samson's Wig said:

I've never fully trusted anesthesiologists, even the ones who have been friends.  They are near the top the list of professions with drug addiction problems for a reason.  Most of the anesthesiologists I've met seem a bit "off", drugs or no.

Shame on BSW for giving hospital access to someone with this guy's record, but it's not surprising.  

Yeah, I think the one who did my epidural was coked up. Was telling me I had an extra vertebrae and he couldn't get the needle in the right place, ended up fucking it up. It only took effect on the left side of my body.

And more recently, I had Patton Oswald do the anesthesia for my colonoscopy. 

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Grade of D as in David

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2 minutes ago, ChuckNorrisActionJeans said:

Yeah, I think the one who did my epidural was coked up. Was telling me I had an extra vertebrae and he couldn't get the needle in the right place, ended up fucking it up. It only took effect on the left side of my body.

And more recently, I had Patton Oswald do the anesthesia for my colonoscopy. 

If I have to use a comedian as an anesthesiologist I'm going with Bill Cosby.

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Humble Beast

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1 minute ago, ChuckNorrisActionJeans said:

Yeah, I think the one who did my epidural was coked up. Was telling me I had an extra vertebrae and he couldn't get the needle in the right place, ended up fucking it up. It only took effect on the left side of my body.

And more recently, I had Patton Oswald do the anesthesia for my colonoscopy. 

Probably just wasn’t any good. Or you woke them up in the middle of the night?

 

Also I’m still loling at people trying to shame about taking iv supplies from a hospital. The whole medical system is a massive inefficient, wasteful apparatus with all kinds of fraudulent shit going on constantly. But don’t take that LR with you. Or zofran. 

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naija

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saying that doctors and nurses hook up IV bags at home "all the time" is vastly overstating it. seriously.

also Texas seems to have a problem with dropping the hammer on bad doctors. I'm sure its not the only state, but with Dr. Death, you had other physicians actively trying to get the board to do something, to no avail.

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Bozo_Casanova

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On 9/4/2022 at 1:58 PM, Sawbonz said:

I would imaging denying privileges for the items in his TMB record, absent anything else, would have opened up facilities to lawsuits

You mean the kind of lawsuits you support capping damages for? Sawbonz, again - lawsuits are the economic mechanism to allocate the costs of injury. With caps, there's no  incentive to make people like this unemployable, because you can fully price-in the exposure. You aren't paying for insurance anymore. You are prepaying for his fuckups. Which puts both of us at risk.

As an alternative, may I suggest that your profession could run the tiny fraction of bad actors and incompetents who repeatedly hurt people out of the business and maybe fewer people would get hurt AND your insurance would be cheaper. 

Edited by Bozo_Casanova
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Sawbonz

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1 minute ago, Bozo_Casanova said:

You mean the kind of lawsuits you support capping damages for? Sawbonz, again - lawsuits are the economic mechanism to allocate the costs of injury. With caps, there's no  incentive to make people like this unemployable, because you can fully price-in the exposure. You aren't paying for insurance anymore. You are prepaying for his fuckups. Which puts both of us at risk.

As an alternative, may I suggest that your profession could run the tiny fraction of bad actors and incompetents who drive rates up out of the business and maybe fewer people would get hurt. 

No I mean lawsuits by the lawyers for the docs being denied privileges. The same lawyers that make it so difficult to take medical licenses permanently. If you want to start a thread about med mal in Texas please do so. I  have no interest in discussing it

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