A plastic surgeon who surrendered her license years ago because of a botched cosmetic procedure was found dead in the swimming pool of a ritzy home.
Sarwa Aldoori, 71, was found in the backyard pool of a house in Bakersfield, California, on Tuesday. She was publicly identified by the Kern County coroner the next day.
The circumstances surrounding the plastic surgeon’s death, such as what killed her, how she ended up in the pool and how long she was in the water before she was found, are unclear.
Police did not say whether Aldoori owned the home where she was found, which was located on the 1400 block of Pineglen Drive.
But public records show that since 2006, she had been living in a house on the block estimated to be worth about $780,000, according to Zillow.
The Bakersfield Police Department has said that it is investigating Aldoori’s death and has not publicly stated whether foul play is suspected.
Before she surrendered her physician’s license in 2024, she was one of two doctors who worked at Bella Health and Beauty, a plastic surgery clinic in northeast Bakersfield.
The clinic’s website says that Aldoori specialized in women’s health and wellness, as well as cosmetic surgery.
State records from the California Medical Board, which were reviewed by KGET, show that Aldoori was disciplined and made to surrender her license because of a botched cosmetic procedure in 2016 that killed a patient.
She had been placed on a seven-year probation after she was accused in 2021 of having insufficient training to conduct a liposuction and tummy tuck procedure on the patient who had died five years earlier.
The patient died from a fat embolism, which occurs when fat particles enter the bloodstream and block blood vessels, causing oxygen to be unable to move through the body, which can lead to severe respiratory failure.
The California Medical Board had determined in March 2024 that Aldoori had not complied with the terms of her probation, which is what led to the physician surrendering her license.
Aldoori surrendered her physician’s license in 2024, but before that, she was one of two doctors who worked at Bella Health and Beauty, a plastic surgery clinic pictured here
There have been several prominent deaths this year linked to cosmetic surgeries.
In March, a popular 47-year-old TikToker named Rachel Tussey suffered an anoxic brain injury after she was allegedly pumped full of pain medication and overdosed following a tummy tuck surgery.
In late May, socialite Hilde Lynn Helphenstein was found dead at the luxury Rosewood Sao Paulo hotel in Brazil shortly after undergoing an undisclosed cosmetic procedure in the country.
Helphenstein’s plastic surgeon reportedly found her body in her hotel room amidst an empty vodka bottle, prescription pills and broken glass after checking on her because he had been unable to reach the woman by phone.
Also in May, a Kentucky mother named Kenly Millan Aponte died after receiving cosmetic surgery in Florida just weeks before the death of a teenager that was linked to the same clinic, according to the families’ lawyers.
The Daily Mail has reached out to the Bakersfield Police Department for comment and additional information.
Aldoori spent 35 years working as a physician specializing in OBGYN surgery and cosmetic procedures.
