The death of a young woman who received an “anti-aging” treatment at a back-alley wellness clinic in the Bronx was ruled a homicide by the city Medical Examiner on Monday.
The 27-year-old Elizabeth Baron died as a result of cardiac air embolism caused by a procedure carried out on July 19 by an unlicensed practitioner at Bereshit Lifestyle Center on Riverdale Ave. near W. 232nd St., according to the results of her autopsy.
Baron immediately went into medical distress soon after Luis Rojas Cabrera, the clinic’s founder, injected her right hand with nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide, or NAD+, which is marketed as an “anti-aging therapy solution,” according to authorities. Cabrera called an ambulance, and Baron was rushed to New York-Presbyterian Allen Hospital, where medics were unable to revive her.
Cabrera, 55, was arrested and charged with reckless endangerment and unauthorized practice of a profession.
Asked on Monday whether those charges would be upgraded, Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark’s office said the investigation was ongoing.
“The defendant is due back in court on October 8th. Any person who feels they may have been victimized by this defendant is encouraged to contact the Bronx District Attorney’s office,” a spokesman for Clark told the Daily News.
Cabrera was licensed in his native Dominican Republic but not in the U.S., The News previously reported. He was released without bail and ordered to surrender his passport after his criminal court arraignment, where prosecutors said he’d told cops he made “a very big mistake.”
The man’s attorney, Donald Vogelman, on Monday said the medical examiner’s determination should have no bearing on the case against his client.
“The legal definition of homicide is the taking of a person’s life, regardless of the intent or circumstances surrounding the death. This means homicide is not necessarily a murder but might be caused by an accident,” Vogelman said. “If there was a homicide in this case, it’s clearly an accident. My client, Mr. Cabrera, will be fully exonerated In court.”
The Bronx clinic’s website, which remains online more than a month after Baron received the fatal procedure, describes Cabrera as “an active surgeon and Naturopath in the Dominican Republic and an alternative and holistic medicine [practitioner] in the United States.”
The unlicensed wellness clinic founder was arrested twice in November at Newark Liberty International Airport arriving back from the D.R., first for possession of a metal baton, and, four days later, almost 200 vials of prescription medications, 30 tablets and 10 syringes of lidocaine, an anesthetic. The cases were later downgraded and dismissed.
“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,” Cabrera’s bio reads. “It gives me great pleasure to help individuals gain improvement in their health condition and lifestyle through natural methods and simple therapies.”
The science is iffy on NAD+ boosters, which come in the form of intravenous injections, IV drips, and pills, and have been endorsed as effective anti-aging treatments by the likes of Kendall Jenner, Hailey Bieber, and Gwyneth Paltrow. Some studies have found that boosting NAD can give renewed vigor to elderly mice, but there is very little evidence supporting its use in humans.