A former plastic surgeon who gave up her medical license years after a cosmetic procedure went wrong has been found dead in the swimming pool of an upscale Bakersfield home.
Sarwa Aldoori, 71, was discovered Tuesday in the backyard pool of a residence in Bakersfield, California. The Kern County coroner publicly confirmed her identity the following day.
Authorities have not yet released key details about her death, including the cause, how she came to be in the pool, or how long she may have been in the water before she was found.
Police have also not said whether Aldoori owned the property where her body was discovered. The home is located on the 1400 block of Pineglen Drive.
Public records, however, indicate that Aldoori had lived on the same block since 2006, in a house Zillow estimates to be worth around $780,000.
The Bakersfield Police Department has said it is investigating the circumstances of Aldoori’s death, though officials have not publicly indicated whether they suspect foul play.
The Daily Mail has contacted the Bakersfield Police Department seeking comment and additional information about the case.
Aldoori had spent 35 years in medicine, working as a physician with a focus on OBGYN surgery and cosmetic procedures.
Sarwa Aldoori, 71, a plastic surgeon, was found dead in the backyard swimming pool of a house in Bakersfield, California
Police said Aldoori was found in a house on the 1400 block of Pineglen Drive, and public records show that she was living in this $780,000 home on the block
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.
