NYC corrections captain dies after botched Brazilian Butt Lift surgery in the Dominican Republic

A New York City corrections captain who traveled to the Dominican Republic for a Brazilian Butt Lift surgery died following a procedure that was performed by a doctor who once admitted to practicing without a medical license.

In an interview with New York Daily News, Tandra Bowser-Williams’ husband, Curtis Williams, said his wife told him that he would love the outcome of the procedure before she boarded a flight to Santo Domingo for the May 13 surgery.

“Her exact words to me were ‘you’re gonna love Dr. Cabral’s work.’ I didn’t care one way or another. I accepted my wife the way she was,” Williams said.

But a day after the procedure, Williams said he got a call from a nurse who told him that his wife had suffered a small stroke. “They brought my wife out of the medically induced coma so she could unlock her phone, so that’s how she was able to get in touch with me,” Williams said.

“I heard my wife in the background, and she was complaining about her stomach and her butt.”

Bowser-Williams, 49, passed away before her husband landed in the Caribbean country. The doctor who performed the botched surgery, Hector Cabral, informed Williams that the stroke his wife suffered was massive, and it “swallowed her brain.”

It reportedly seems an investigation into her death hasn’t been launched. Williams also told the news outlet that his wife did not have any doubts about Cabral’s abilities despite his past troubles with the law.

In 2011, former New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman indicted Cabral for operating without a medical license. That was after he rendered services to at least 10 women at health spas and beauty parlors in Washington Heights, Daily News reported. Besides that, Cabral also had them come over to the Dominican Republic for surgeries that did not entirely go well, legal papers stated.

Cabral did not serve any jail time despite pleading guilty to a count of unauthorized practice of medicine. He, however, received a $5,000 fine and was made to pay a restitution amount of $25,000. He was also sentenced to 250 hours of community service in the Dominican Republic. 

Cabral’s clinic – Centro Internacional de Cirugia Plastica Avanzada – is said to offer procedures including fat transfers and Brazilian Butt Lifts. He established the facility after he returned to the Caribbean nation, and that was where Bowser-Williams underwent the procedure.

The New York City Health Department in 2017 reported that eight New Yorkers who went to Cabral’s clinic for surgery returned with skin infections. In the wake of Bowser-Williams’ death, her husband said Cabral’s clinic footed a number of expenses including his travel to the Dominican Republic as well as his wife’s embalmment.