Rebecca De Paula, a 31-year-old NYPD officer who earned her precinct's Officer of the Month award just five months ago, died from a bacterial infection after breast implant removal surgery at a clinic in Santo Domingo, and her family wants Dominican authorities to investigate.
De Paula, assigned to the Bronx's 46th Precinct, had been on the force for only 18 months. She leaves behind three children and a husband she served alongside as a pastor. Her mother rushed to the Santo Domingo health center after learning her daughter's condition had turned serious, the New York Post reported. She arrived to find De Paula had already died.
The young officer contracted the bacterial infection after the procedure. The specific type of infection and the name of the clinic where the surgery took place have not been publicly identified. No formal malpractice or negligence investigation has been confirmed as open by Dominican Republic authorities, only the family's demand that one be launched.
Police Benevolent Association President Patrick Hendry issued a statement to the Post confirming the loss:
"Our hearts are heavy with the loss of our sister P.O. Rebecca DePaula, who passed away while off duty after only 18 months on the job. We ask all New Yorkers to keep her family, friends and coworkers in your prayers during this difficult time."
De Paula had earned recognition from her precinct in March, when the 46th Precinct named her Officer of the Month for what the precinct's Facebook page called her "outstanding police work and dedication to the community." Five months later, she was dead in a foreign clinic.
David Marmol, a retired NYPD instructor who trained De Paula, posted a tribute on Instagram:
"Horrible news. You was such a beautiful soul. You would say god bless you instead of hi. You had so many good questions. You had such a bright future. You will be missed by your family, friends and colleagues. May you rest in peace."
The NYPD did not immediately respond to the Post's request for comment.
De Paula's body is being held at the Dominican Republic's National Institute of Forensic Sciences. Her family is working to have her remains transferred to the United States for burial. Whether that transfer has been completed remains unclear.
Her relatives told local Dominican outlet Noticias Sin about the circumstances surrounding her death. The family's central demand is straightforward: they want local authorities to determine whether the clinic's conduct amounted to malpractice or negligence. No arrests or charges have been reported.
Tragedies that strike families without warning have become all too common in the New York area, from the murder of four children in an upstate New York apartment to sudden acts of street violence. De Paula's death, though it happened abroad, leaves the same kind of hole, a mother ripped from her children, a family left searching for answers.
De Paula's case fits a grim pattern. Between 2009 and 2022, 93 U.S. citizens died from cosmetic surgery, related causes in the Dominican Republic, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That figure alone should give anyone considering overseas procedures serious pause, and it predates the most recent cases.
Just months earlier, in October 2025, NYPD Detective Alicia Stone died a week after receiving a butt lift and liposuction procedure in Colombia. Two officers from the same department, dead after elective cosmetic surgeries performed outside the United States, in less than a year.
The American Society of Plastic Surgeons has described the risks associated with breast implant removal surgery, though De Paula's case involved a post-operative bacterial infection rather than a complication during the procedure itself. What safeguards the Santo Domingo clinic had in place, or failed to have in place, remains unknown.
New York has seen its share of sudden, senseless loss in recent months. An 18-year-old woman was shot on an NYC subway platform during a late-night robbery, and eight people, including four children, were shot while watching July 4th fireworks in Brooklyn. De Paula survived the dangers of policing one of the Bronx's toughest precincts. She did not survive a trip to a clinic overseas.
Critical details remain missing. The clinic's name has not been made public. Whether the facility was properly licensed is unknown. The specific bacterial infection that took De Paula's life has not been identified in any available reporting. Whether she traveled to the Dominican Republic specifically for the surgery, or was already there, is also unaddressed.
Even the spelling of her name carries a small unresolved discrepancy, the Post's reporting uses "De Paula," while the PBA's official statement spells it "DePaula." Minor, perhaps, but it underlines how early and incomplete the public record remains.
Her family deserves a full accounting. Three children deserve to know what happened to their mother. And Dominican authorities owe more than silence to a family that trusted one of their clinics with a loved one's life.
The broader pattern, officers and their families facing tragedy in ways no one anticipates, demands attention from both American and foreign officials. Ninety-three dead Americans over thirteen years is not a footnote. It is a body count that keeps growing because no one with authority has decided to stop it.
When the people who keep our streets safe cannot count on basic medical accountability abroad, something has gone badly wrong, and three kids in the Bronx are paying the price.