An unlicensed doctor from the Dominican Republic was arrested and charged after injecting a 27-year-old woman — who became unresponsive and died — with an anti-aging shot at a holistic center in the Bronx, police said on Monday.
Elizabeth Baron was allegedly injected by the accused doctor, Luis Rojas Cabrera, 55, at the Bereshit Lifestyle Center on Riverdale Avenue, according to News 12. Baron became unresponsive around noon Monday, which prompted staff at the holistic center to call the police. Baron was taken to NewYork-Presbyterian Allen Hospital, where she died around 1:10 p.m., sources and authorities said.
Rojas Cabrera was arrested and charged with reckless endangerment and unauthorized practice of a profession, police said.
Sources said that Baron was injected with an anti-aging shot containing an unknown substance. The Office of the Medical Examiner is conducting a toxicology report to conclude her cause of death, which would possibly change his charges, according to the New York Post.
Rojas Cabrera is licensed in the Dominican Republic, but is not licensed to practice in the United States, sources said. He was arraigned Tuesday night and was ordered by a Bronx judge to surrender his passport as a condition of his release pending the results of an autopsy, according to the district attorney’s office.
The holistic center’s website states that Rojas Cabrera is a member of the Dominican Medical College and specializes in several types of therapies. The website also states he is an active surgeon and naturopath in the Dominican Republic and an alternative and holistic medicine practitioner in the United States.
“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,” he wrote on the website. “It gives me great pleasure to help individuals gain improvement in their health condition and lifestyle through natural methods and simple therapies.”
Online reviews of his center paint a different picture, calling him “inhumane,” a “con artist,” and “scammer.”
Baron, who lived close to the holistic center, was described by her next-door neighbor, Paula Schaap, as a “beautiful young woman.”
“I’m so shocked,” Schaap said to the Post regarding 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,” Schaap said.
On Monday, a spokeswoman for the medical examiner’s office confirmed her office “will be investigating,” but there were no additional updates, according to the Post.
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