Tandra Bowser-Williams recently died after undergoing surgery for a Brazilian butt lift (BBL) from a bogus doctor in the Dominican Republic.
The 49-year-old Rikers Island employee suffered a stroke just a few days after she traveled to Santo Domingo for a fat transfer surgery. Her husband, Curtis Williams, said that plastic surgeon Dr. Hector Cabral performed the procedure on May 13.
Cabral has been previously implicated in either botched surgeries or deaths. He was indicted on ten counts of operating without a medical license, fraud and conspiracy charges in March 2011 under then-New York Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman.
The bogus doctor was accused of charging for medical examinations and consultations at med spas and beauty parlors in New York City before luring clients to the Dominican Republic for low-priced cosmetic surgeries. As a result, these surgeries left many women permanently disfigured.
Cabral reportedly cut a plea deal with prosecutors, so he didn’t have to serve any time in jail. Instead, he was fined $50,000 and ordered to pay $23,055 in restitution as well as do 250 hours of community service in the Caribbean nation. The quack opened a plastic surgery facility called Centro Internacional de Cirugia Plastica Avanzada, which has been shut down several times. It was there that Tandra had her BBL.
“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,” her husband of over 20 years, Curtis Williams, recalled. “Everybody is distraught. She was the heart, the lifeline of the family. The heartbeat.”
A nurse at United Hearts Clinic called Curtis a day after his wife’s procedure, saying she had fallen ill. Unfortunately, she passed away before he could fly to the island to be by her side.
Cabral reportedly paid for her husband to travel to the Dominican Republic and other expenses related to Tandra’s death, including embalming her body at a local funeral home. Thus far, her passing does not appear to be under investigation.
“She was always a good captain, never tried to escape work, always worked in the jails, always worked with inmates,” President of the Correction Captains Union, Patrick Ferraiuolo, said. “She certainly didn’t deserve this.”
