A Chicago mother of four died following cosmetic surgery in the Dominican Republic earlier this month, leading her family to push for a full investigation of how the tragedy unfolded.
Sucretta Tolliver is being remembered by loved ones as a devoted mother, a former nurse and a successful businesswoman, running a popular boutique in the Brighton Park neighborhood.
“Life is precious, and you don’t know that until you’re robbed of it, and I feel like that as her daughter, and speaking for my family, we’ve been robbed,” Tolliver’s daughter Mariah Price said.
Price says her mom had traveled to the Dominican Republic for a cosmetic procedure that was performed on Dec. 12. She died two days later at a recovery home.
“I got on the phone with her that night, the night before she passed, and she just sounded like she was in so much pain,” Price said. “She was like ‘I wouldn’t wish this on nobody. It hurts so bad.’”
Tolliver’s daughter says she felt completely helpless, thousands of miles from her mom and unable to care for her.
Now, the family, including Price’s uncle William Tolliver, is fighting to get more answers on what went wrong.
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“Her official death certificate does say internal bleeding,” he said. “They did their report in the Dominican, but when she gets back home we’re going to do our own reports and then we’ll sort it out.”
The Tolliver family is calling on authorities, including the FBI and State Department, to investigate her death, and the doctor who performed the procedure.
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“I’m going to be standing strong on justice for my sister,” William Tolliver said.
Numerous attempts made by NBC 5 to reach the physician vis phone, email and social media were not answered as of press time.
Family members say they have hired an attorney, and are now working with the U.S. Embassy to help bring the beloved mother’s body home.
“The only way that I feel like I can have any type of fight back towards what happened to her is for it not to happen to anybody else,” William Tolliver said.
