Tuesday, July 21, 2026 - A 27-year-old woman di£d after getting an anti-aging injection at a holistic wellness center in the Bronx and the unlicensed doctor has been arrested, police said Monday.
Elizabeth Baron was rushed unconscious and unresponsive
from Bereshit Lifestyle Center in Riverdale to New York-Presbyterian
Allen Hospital Sunday, July 19, cops said.
Cops were called at 1:10 p.m. after Baron was declared de@d
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.
"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, July 21. 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 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."
Luis Rojas Cabrera's arraignment was pending in Bronx
Criminal Cour
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