New Life Plastic Surgery Corp., the Miami cosmetic surgery facility at 8400 SW Eighth St., is not the subject of any publicly announced criminal or federal investigation as a corporation. But the question of whether New Life Plastic Surgery is under investigation has a more complicated answer at the level of its doctors and its facility: Miami-Dade police opened a death investigation in 2022, Florida Department of Health inspectors have cited the clinic for violations, and the state has filed administrative complaints and imposed discipline against several surgeons affiliated with it.
The 2022 Death That Prompted a Police Investigation
In April 2022, Tanesha Walker, a 46-year-old Indiana woman, died after a liposuction and Brazilian butt lift at New Life. The Miami-Dade Medical Examiner ruled her cause of death a pulmonary fat embolism and classified it as an accident. The Miami-Dade Police Department opened an investigation, and her family retained a lawyer.
The state then charged her surgeon, Dr. Oliver Simmons, with injecting fat into gluteal muscles in violation of Florida law, and issued an emergency restriction order barring him from performing BBLs. On March 1, 2023, the Florida Board of Medicine rejected an initial settlement and imposed stiffer terms: a formal reprimand, a $10,000 fine, $9,588.76 in investigative costs, a required lecture on BBL safety, mandatory ultrasound guidance on any BBL surgery for at least six months, and probation of his American Board of Plastic Surgery certification. Simmons remained on staff at New Life in later reporting.
Other Patient Deaths Linked to the Clinic
Walker’s death was not isolated. Between 2020 and 2022, patients of three surgeons affiliated with New Life died after liposuction or related procedures, according to Miami Herald reporting. A second patient died in February 2022 from a blood clot in her lungs after a liposuction and tummy tuck at the facility.
In December 2022, 33-year-old Melecia Green died of a pulmonary embolism less than 40 hours after an abdominoplasty and liposuction performed by Dr. Naveed Nosrati at New Life. Her husband filed a wrongful death suit that settled for $325,000, with $250,000 paid by Nosrati’s insurer. After attorneys’ fees, $164,574 went to the surviving spouse and $29,042 to the couple’s six-year-old child. State insurance records cited a failure to perform surgery properly and a failure to anticoagulate a patient at risk for pulmonary embolism.
Court records in the Green case also showed Nosrati did not store operative reports in an electronic database, instead using a template on a laptop or thumb drive that was printed and scanned. The suit alleged the facility used consent forms dating from 2009, failed to warn the patient of pulmonary embolism risks, and provided inadequate post-operative follow-up.
State Complaints Against Dr. Julio Clavijo-Alvarez
Dr. Julio Clavijo-Alvarez, listed on New Life’s website as a board-certified plastic surgeon with more than fifteen years of experience, drew four Florida Department of Health administrative complaints in a 21-month stretch ending in mid-2024.
One complaint involved an October 28, 2021 BBL at New Life. The state alleged Clavijo-Alvarez improperly placed a Jackson-Pratt surgical drain inside the patient’s abdominal cavity, beneath the rectus abdominis muscles. The patient went to Jackson West Medical Center in severe pain the next day, was transferred to Jackson Memorial, and had the drain removed three days later. The complaint said Clavijo-Alvarez later wrote in a follow-up note that the patient “had not experienced any pain since the BBL procedure” and kept no record of the hospitalizations.
A second complaint stemmed from a state inspection that found prescriptions for oxycodone and diazepam stored in an unsecured area of New Life, already signed by Clavijo-Alvarez but lacking patient names or dates. A third alleged that during a May 2022 surgery, a patient went into ventricular fibrillation and ventricular tachycardia in post-op and that Clavijo-Alvarez failed to administer defibrillation three consecutive times before giving amiodarone. A fourth, tied to Miami Lakes Cosmetic Surgery (where he was the designated physician), alleged “unqualified staff” and “illegal surgeries.”
In August 2024, the Board of Medicine resolved three of the four complaints with a $15,000 fine, $11,085.72 in investigative costs, and required continuing education in liposuction, risk management, medical records, and laws and ethics. There was no suspension or probation. State records show the penalties paid in full by September 2024 and the coursework finished by early 2025. His Florida medical license remained “clear/active.” He also reported a consent agreement with the Pennsylvania State Board of Medicine in December 2024.
Other Disciplined Surgeons on the Roster
Dr. Christopher Dress, now affiliated with New Life, was fined $7,500 by the Florida Board of Medicine over a February 2021 abdominoplasty at his prior practice, Avana Plastic Surgery. The state alleged the patient was seen at a follow-up by an unlicensed staff member and that Dress failed to adequately assess or document her condition. The penalty broke down as a $3,500 fine, $4,000 in investigative and prosecution costs, and eight hours of continuing medical education. He neither admitted nor denied the allegations. His state profile listed the obligation as “satisfied” as of August 2025.
Dr. Stephanie Stover, also linked to New Life, was fined $5,000 and placed on one-year probation after the September 2020 death of a patient who had breast augmentation, liposuction, and a BBL at a separate facility, Xiluet Plastic Surgery.
Malpractice Lawsuits
The Green wrongful death case is the most significant malpractice resolution tied to the clinic, settling for $325,000 with the insurer paying $250,000.
Not every suit against New Life has succeeded. In Hermoso v. New Life Plastic Surgery Corp., a patient alleged Dr. Camille Chavez negligently placed breast implants above the muscle during a November 2018 procedure, causing vascular complications. During the case the patient herself admitted the implants had been placed below the muscle, and a second surgeon who later removed them confirmed the placement was correct. Florida’s Third District Court of Appeal affirmed dismissal with prejudice, ruling the plaintiff failed to satisfy statutory pre-suit investigation requirements because the underlying claim was factually baseless.
How the Facility Is Regulated
New Life is registered with the Florida Department of Health as an office surgery facility, not a licensed ambulatory surgical center. The registration is held under the name Miami Life Plastic Surgery Corp., license number OSR1562, with “clear” status, and authorizes surgery with moderate, conscious, or deep sedation. Registered office surgery facilities are subject to annual Department of Health inspections unless they carry current accreditation from a nationally recognized agency. The designated physician at a registered office bears primary responsibility for compliance, which is why inspection violations typically produce administrative complaints against both the facility and the doctor rather than a standalone case against the corporation.
BBL Rules and the 2024 Florida Law
The deaths at New Life fit a wider South Florida pattern. Between 2010 and 2022, 25 deaths from pulmonary fat embolism were recorded in the region after Brazilian butt lifts, all caused by fat injected into or through the gluteal musculature and damaging veins. Peer-reviewed research found 92 percent of those deaths occurred at high-volume, budget clinics, and that fatalities actually rose after the Florida Board of Medicine issued a 2019 emergency rule restricting fat grafting to the subcutaneous space.
In May 2024, Governor Ron DeSantis signed CS/HB 1561, which requires physician offices performing gluteal fat grafting to carry at least $250,000 in professional liability coverage per claim with a $750,000 annual aggregate. The law also raised penalties for operating in an unregistered office from $5,000 per day to $5,000 per incident, so multiple fines can be issued in a single day. Existing Florida rules require BBL procedures to be done under ultrasound guidance, with injections confined to the subcutaneous space, a one-to-one physician-to-patient ratio throughout, and a maximum total surgery duration of eight hours.