Raynaldo Ortiz trial day 6: Witness contradicts other doctors
DALLAS — The federal criminal trial of anesthesiologist Raynaldo Ortiz resumed Tuesday, after taking Monday off. Ortiz faces 10 felony counts for allegedly tampering with IV bags at Baylor Scott & White Surgicare North Dallas in 2022.
Tuesday got off to a rough start for the prosecution. Dr. Elizabeth Kerner, who performed surgeries on two of the victims who testified, took the stand.
At times she contradicted previous testimony from doctors who spoke about the cardiac emergencies involving the two plastic surgery patients. She also had trouble remembering some details on several occasions, saying she was "pulling a blank."
Kerner downplayed the emergencies that resulted from both surgeries, saying at one point about a patient, "To my recollection, she was fine."
One of Kerner's patients testified last week that the cardiac emergency she allegedly suffered due to a tainted IV bag forced her facelift to be left incomplete, resulting in severe scarring. The patient spent four nights in the ICU and testified that she now has to take medication for the rest of her life.
The prosecution appeared to struggle with how to question her, jumping around from surgery to surgery before asking about the sudden shutdown of the surgery center in August 2022. That, too, elicited answers from Kerner about her lack of memory.
Up next on the stand was an expert witness, Dr. Stacey Hail, an emergency physician and toxicologist at UT Southwestern. Hail told jurors that she reviewed cases for the four patients who testified and the records of Dr. Melanie Kaspar, who died after using an allegedly poisoned IV bag on herself.
While the cases had differences, Hail testified that all of them shared a "constellation of symptoms" that were consistent with their IV bags being poisoned.
In one case, the drug bupivacaine was detected in a patient's blood more than 36 hours after it had been administered, something Hail said would "absolutely not" be possible.
In another case, a patient's blood tested positive for ephedrine, even though records from his surgery showed he was not given that drug for his procedure, Hail testified.
When asked about the chance that all of these cases happening at the same facility within the same month, Hail said she did not know "how to calculate those odds."
On cross-examination, defense attorney Marti Morgan called Hail a "clean-up hitter" for the prosecution, peppering her with questions about the proper treatment and storage of IV bags. At times the exchanges were combative. Morgan will continue her cross-examination after lunch.
Just before 3:30 p.m., the prosecution rested.
This is a developing story and will be updated throughout the trial.