NYC Corrections Department captain dies after plastic surgery

A beloved city corrections captain has died after undergoing plastic surgery at a Dominican clinic run by a doctor who has previously pleaded guilty to practicing unlicensed medicine.

Tandra Bowser-Williams promised her husband he would like the results of his procedure before flying to Santo Domingo to go under the knife on May 13, devastated husband Curtis Williams told the Daily News.

But a day after the fat transfer surgery, Williams received a call from a nurse at the United Hearts Clinic, about a mile from where she had the job done. His wife, a tough corrections officer, had suffered a minor stroke, the nurse told him.

“They pulled my wife out of a medically induced coma so she could unlock her phone, so she was able to get in touch with me,” Williams recalled.

As he considered what he was being told, Williams’ concern grew.

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

The 49-year-old mother had died before her husband arrived on the Caribbean island to be by her side.

She suffered a massive stroke that “swallowed her brain,” her surgeon, Dr. Hector Cabral, told Williams.

The News’ account of Bowser-Williams’ final hours was compiled from interviews with family, friends, co-workers and viewing medical billing documents. His death does not appear to be under investigation.

Bowser-Williams had faith in Cabral’s abilities despite his previous run-ins with the law, her husband told The News.

Cabral was indicted by New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman in 2011 for examining at least 10 women at spas and beauty salons in Washington Heights without a license, then luring them to the Dominican Republic for operations that left some disfigured, according to the legal documents. detailed.

He pleaded guilty to one count of unauthorized practice of medicine, but reached a non-imprisonment agreement with prosecutors. Instead, Cabral was fined $5,000, ordered to pay $23,055 in restitution, and to perform 250 hours of community service in the Dominican Republic.

Upon his return to Santo Domingo, he opened the Centro Internacional de Cirugia Plastica Avanzada, the clinic where Bowser-Williams was operated on.

Fat transfers and risky Brazilian facelifts are said to be among the clinic’s specialties.

In 2017, the New York City Health Department warned of eight people in the five boroughs who underwent surgery at Cabral’s clinic and returned home with skin infections.

Cabral and his team did not return multiple requests for comment on the Bowser-Williams case.

The loss of a former correctional officer is keenly felt at the Anna M. Kross Center on Rikers Island, where Bowser-Williams worked.

“She was always a good captain, never tried to escape from work, always worked in prisons, always worked with inmates,” said Patrick Ferraiuolo, president of the Correction Captains union.

“It’s a real loss. She certainly didn’t deserve this. She was a soldier.

Williams recalled his wife’s “nerves of steel” and said she was a devoted mother, raising her own son with her two sisters, a young nephew and three adopted children.

“Everyone is distraught. She was the heart, the lifeline of the family. The heartbeat,” he said.

Cabral’s clinic paid for Williams’ travel and other costs associated with his wife’s death, even paying the bill for the Dominican funeral home that embalmed her, Williams told The News.

Medical bills from the clinic show Bowser-Williams still owed $400 for medication related to the operation that took his life.

Now Williams is preparing to bury the woman he has described as outgoing, headstrong and full of life – his partner since 1996. Despite her confident nature, he feels his wife has been caught up in the expectations society places on the women’s bodies.

“His exact words to me were ‘you will love Dr. Cabral’s work. I didn’t care one way or another. I accepted my wife as she was.

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