- A quiet backyard pool in Bakersfield has become the center of a disturbing death investigation, and the woman at the heart of it was no ordinary local resident. Authorities identified the person found dead as Sarwa Ama Aldoori, 71, a former California physician whose medical career had already collapsed under the weight of a fatal cosmetic surgery case.
Her body was discovered in a residential swimming pool on June 30 in northwest Bakersfield, and officials have not yet released a cause or manner of death. An autopsy is expected to determine what happened.
A death discovered in a backyard pool
According to local authorities, Aldoori was found at about 5:31 p.m. in a pool in the 1400 block of Pineglen Drive, near Brimhall Road and Allen Road. Police opened an investigation, but the early public details remain thin: investigators have not said when she died, whether anyone else was present, or whether foul play is suspected.
That silence has only made the case more unsettling. A backyard pool death would already draw attention in any neighborhood. But Aldoori’s name carried a history that made this case bigger than a single unexplained scene. She had once practiced medicine in Bakersfield, including OB-GYN and cosmetic surgery, before her license trouble became public.
The medical career that ended in disgrace
Aldoori’s professional downfall traced back to a cosmetic surgery case from 2016. A 43-year-old patient underwent a combination of liposuction and tummy tuck procedures connected to Aldoori’s practice, then suffered serious breathing trouble the next day. Emergency responders took the patient to Mercy Hospital, where she was later declared dead.
The Kern County coroner determined that the patient died from a fat embolism linked to the abdominal surgery and liposuction, with respiratory distress listed as a contributing factor. Fat embolism syndrome can occur when fat droplets enter the bloodstream and travel through the body; severe cases can lead to respiratory failure, neurological damage, and death.
The Medical Board of California later placed Aldoori on a 7-year probation. Board records show that her physician’s and surgeon’s certificates were revoked, but the revocation was stayed, meaning she was allowed to continue only under strict probation terms…