A 27-year-old woman died after getting an anti-aging injection at a holistic wellness center in the Bronx — and the unlicensed doctor has been arrested, police said Monday.
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Elizabeth Baron was rushed unconscious and unresponsive from Bereshit Lifestyle Center in Riverdale to New York-Presbyterian Allen Hospital Sunday, cops said.
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Cops were called at 1:10 p.m. after Baron was declared dead at the hospital. She lived in the luxury Skyview on the Hudson condo complex less than two miles from the clinic.
“That was my daughter,” the victim’s grief-stricken father said by phone. “I don’t have anything to say. It’s under investigation.”
Police said Baron had gone earlier in the day to the center on Riverdale Ave. near W. 232nd St., which specializes in holistic medicine and offers products “to make healthy living easy,” according to its website.
She was injected with an “anti-aging therapy solution” and soon after went into medical distress, with the center calling for an ambulance, police said.
“I’m so shocked,” said Paula Schapp, a neighbor in the victim’s building. “Elizabeth was a beautiful young woman. She worked in Manhattan.”
“I would sometimes meet her when she went to the gym. We have a gym here (in the apartment complex),” she added. “The last time I saw her was within the week and she was beautifully dressed. She was going to some kind of a gathering. I said, ‘Oh, you look beautiful. I love your dress.’”
Luis Rojas Cabrera, who is licensed in his native Dominican Republic but not in the United States, was charged with reckless endangerment and unauthorized practice of a profession, police said.
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“He’s a good man, a good father and a good doctor,” Cabrera’s son, Luis Rojas Cabrera Jr., 26, told the Daily News at Bronx Criminal Court while waiting for his father’s arraignment. “That’s why I’m so shocked.”
The city Medical Examiner will conduct an initial autopsy on Baron Tuesday. Once her cause of death is determined, authorities could upgrade charges against the doctor.
Rojas Cabrera’s sister in Minnesota was shaken to learn of his arrest.
“I don’t think so,” Heidi Rojas Cabrera said when asked if her brother was licensed to practice in the United States. “To the best of my knowledge, no … He was a surgeon in the Dominican Republic … He was trying to get his physician assistant license (in the U.S.).”
“He has always been passionate about what he does,” she added. “I’m just still in shock of what happened.”
Luis Rojas Cabrera, pictured smiling broadly on the Bereshit Lifestyle Center website, says he is a “M.D., Surgeon, Naturopath.”
“We have carefully chosen all of the products that we carry to make sure that you have the latest innovations and best products to help maintain a healthy lifestyle,” the center’s website boasts.
He says he is board certified in holistic health and alternative medicine and that he is from a family of medical professionals in the Dominican Republic including his mother, whom beginning when he was 11 he assisted “in various nursing and medical procedures, thus causing an immense desire to continue studying in the area of nursing and medicine.”
“It gives me great pleasure,” he says on the website “to help individuals gain improvement in their health condition and lifestyle through natural methods and simple therapies.”
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Luis Rojas Cabrera’s arraignment was pending in Bronx Criminal Court.
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