A Bronx wellness operator accused of causing a patient’s death while administering a popular anti-aging treatment has been charged with murder, the NYPD announced Tuesday.
Luis Rojas Cabrera, 55, who allegedly operated an unlicensed Bronx spa, now faces a charge of depraved-indifference murder in the death of 27-year-old patient Elizabeth Baron. The upgraded charge followed a late-September ruling by the city medical examiner that classified Baron’s death as a homicide, police said.
Baron, a Bronx resident, was allegedly fatally injured on July 19 when Rojas Cabrera mistakenly injected air into her bloodstream during an NAD+ treatment at his Bereshit Lifestyle Center.
Baron suffered cardiac arrest almost immediately after the injection. According to court documents, Rojas Cabrera told a responding police officer, “I made a very big mistake.”
The Riverdale center advertised “natural medicine,” wellness therapies and products intended to help customers make “healthy living easy,” according to its website.
Rojas Cabrera was initially charged with reckless endangerment and unauthorized practice of a profession as prosecutors awaited autopsy findings that could determine whether the injection caused Baron’s death.
“Administering NAD+ via an IV requires a prescription from a medical professional,” Assistant District Attorney Ethan Reisbaum said during Rojas Cabrera’s initial arraignment in July. He pleaded not guilty.
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Because the original charges did not qualify for bail, Rojas Cabrera remained free after that court appearance.
In comments to The Post last month, Rojas Cabrera disputed the medical examiner’s findings. He claimed the air found in Baron’s heart resulted from the manual CPR he performed after she collapsed, rather than from the injection.
Rojas Cabrera said he stopped the IV when Baron went into cardiac arrest and began emergency treatment. Medics who arrived later also performed mechanical CPR, he said.
“When I investigated with other doctors, they told me it was a possibility,” he said. “The prolonged CPR can produce air in the heart chambers.”
Rojas Cabrera also suggested that an undisclosed medical condition may have contributed to Baron’s death. The medical examiner, however, determined that she died from a cardiac air embolism and reported no underlying conditions.
NAD+ is a molecule promoted in celebrity and alternative-health circles for purported anti-aging benefits.
The treatment gained further attention after models Kendall Jenner and Hailey Bieber publicly described themselves as fans, helping drive interest in NAD+ wellness procedures.