The AdvoKayte Podcast: Holding Healthcare Accountable
Episode 13: Other Dr. Deaths in Healthcare —
Patient Safety Failures & Accountability (Kay Van Wey)
Aired on February 11th, 2026
Summary (39m 06s).
Episode 13: Dr. Death and the Deplorables
Kay and Ann share their worst Health Care Horror Stories
Anne Roberts is back in the studio to trade some of the worst, saddest, and most deplorable stories with Kay. As a human resources and medical credentials consultant and as a civil litigator, Anne has dealt with several ugly outcomes from practitioners who should never have been allowed near patients. She and Kay talk about the hardest cases they’ve been involved with in their work to hold healthcare providers and medical practitioners accountable for their preventable mistakes and purposeful misdeeds.
Kay talks about the Dr. Bruce Hinkley case. Hinkley was a drug addict who was a known cocaine addict. Even though he routinely tested positive for cocaine use, he was allowed to perform complex spinal surgeries for over a decade. In that time, over 20 malpractice cases were filed against him. The full story of the Hinkley case is even more outrageous.
Kay also talks about one of her first cases involving a pill mill that was facilitated by numerous doctors and pharmacists. The operation was so popular that local drug users would start to line up at 2 or 3 in the morning waiting for the team of pharmacists to show up for work each morning. The operation was so well known that virtually everyone around it knew exactly what was happening. A rap song was written about it.
Then there’s the horrifying story of Dr. Rinaldo Oritz, the Dallas area anesthesiologist who was sentenced to 190 years in prison for poisoning patient IV bags with dangerous drugs in 2024. At least one patient died because of Ortiz, and many more were seriously injured.
These cases are the tip of a terrible iceberg. There were several Dr. Deaths before Christoper Duntsch and there will be dozens of other Dr. Deaths in the future. There is almost certainly another Dr. Death out there right now practicing their unskilled medicine on a mostly uninformed population of patients.
The saddest thing to consider is that these are the worst cases we know about. We also know there’s more out there, under the surface and unreported. That’s why we do these podcasts. If anyone out there has medical malpractice stories of their own, please let us know. Reach out through Instagram or email Kay directly at kvw@vwmwlaw.com.
Show Notes
What You Will Learn In This Episode.
This conversation isn’t meant to scare you. It’s meant to show you how these patterns happen and what patients and families can do to protect themselves.
You’ll hear real examples, including:
- Dr. Bruce Hinckley — a cocaine-addicted spine surgeon and the shocking lengths taken to avoid detection
- Dr. Michael Swango — often called the original “Dr. Death,” and how credentialing failures let him keep moving\
- “Pill mill” medicine — how profit-driven prescribing became deadly
- Dr. Raynaldo Ortiz — violence, warning signs, and how accountability came far too late
About Kay and This Podcast: AdvoKayte.
Hosted by nationally recognized medical malpractice attorney Kay Van Wey, AdvoKAYte is dedicated to helping people find and use their voices, to understand the complexities of health care, and ultimately empower patients, families, and caregivers to successfully navigate through the worst aspects of today’s healthcare system.
“I don’t want to call it a calling, that’s too strong but, it’s my life’s purpose. It’s my life’s work, it’s my life’s purpose. There are things that I’ve seen, and things that I know after all of these decades of doing this work that other people need to know.” Kay Van Wey
Kay’s life purpose is clear: to expose the cover-ups, profit games, preventable errors, and predatory legislation that puts all of us at risk, and to empower YOU to protect yourselves and your loved ones
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