Unlicensed doctor arrested after NYC woman, 27, dies following anti-aging serum injection at holistic wellness center
A 27-year-old woman died after being injected with an anti-aging serum at a holistic wellness center in The Bronx — and cops arrested the unlicensed doctor, police and sources said Monday.
Elizabeth Baron fell unconscious around noon Sunday after the accused quack, Luis Rojas Cabrera, 55, performed the procedure inside the Bereshit Lifestyle Center on Riverdale Avenue near West 232nd Street, according to cops and law enforcement sources.
Staff at the center notified authorities and Baron was rushed to NewYork-Presbyterian Allen Hospital, where she died around 1:10 p.m., authorities and the sources said.
The allegedly dodgy doctor was arrested hours later and charged with reckless endangerment and unauthorized practice of a profession, police said.
He is licensed to practice in the Dominican Republic, but not in the US, according to sources.
Exactly what the serum that Baron was injected with contained wasn’t immediately known. The city medical examiner’s office was running a toxicology report, and the results could determine whether the charges Rojas Cabrera faces will change, sources said.
The Riverdale wellness center offers “natural medicine” and therapies as well as products geared toward “making healthy living easy,” according to its website.
Baron, who lived less than two miles from the clinic at the Skyview On The Hudson condo complex, was a “beautiful young woman,” who worked in Upper Manhattan, according to her next-door neighbor Paula Schaap.
“I’m so shocked,” Schaap said of Baron’s death. “She seemed very healthy, caring about her health in the sense of going to the gym regularly, and looking beautiful.”
“The last time I saw her was within the week. And she was beautifully dressed,” she told The Post.
“She always looked beautiful, but I had no impression of somebody who was overly concerned about that… That was not my impression. It looked more like she was professionally made up for a job.”
The young woman’s family declined to comment, asking for privacy as they grieve.
Rojas Cabrera’s son, Luis Rojas Cabrera Jr., defended his dad and said he was blindsided by the allegations.
“He’s a good man, a good father and a good doctor — that’s why I’m so shocked about this,” Rojas Cabrera said through tears while awaiting his father’s arraignment at Bronx Criminal Court on Monday night.
On his website, Rojas Cabrera described himself as “an active surgeon and Naturopath in the Dominican Republic and an alternative and holistic medicine practioner [sic] in the United States.”
His interest in the profession began in his youth, when he was “allowed to assist [his] mother in various nursing and medical procedures,” he wrote.
His bio boasted that he was trained in procedures including head and neck, bariatric, laparoscopic surgeries, “as well as in alternative, integrative and naturopathic medicines abroad in places like Israel, France, Puerto Rico, and Mexico.”
“I feel to a great degree fortunate that for as far back as 30 years I have been given the opportunity to do something I completely enjoy,” Rojas Cabrera wrote. “It gives me great pleasure to help individuals gain improvement in their health condition and lifestyle through natural methods and simple therapies.”
But disgusted Yelp reviews referred to the doctor as a “scammer,” “con artist,” and “manipulator” who “will take your money and lie to your face.”
A spokeswoman for the medical examiner’s office confirmed Monday that it “will be investigating” but had no further updates.
Additional reporting by Jennifer Bain