A North Texas doctor and a spa owner have been arrested and charged with murder in the 2023 death of a client, reports Dallas News.
Jenifer Cleveland (47), had gone to Luxe Med Spa in Texas in July 2023 for a spray tan and an IV infusion, but collapsed and died shortly after the infusion.
The infusion, which contained a prescription electrolyte solution, was administered by spa owner Amber Johnson, who did not have a medical licence.
Cleveland was pronounced dead at a hospital shortly after her collapse.
According to a report from the Texas Medical Board, anaesthesiologist Dr Michael Gallagher had been the med spa’s medical director, and prescription IV solutions were ordered for the facility under his licence.
At the time, his practice was listed as being more than 140km from the spa. Medical board documents also indicate he had been on-site at the spa only twice in the two months before the day of Cleveland’s death.
Both Johnson and Gallagher face the same charges: criminally negligent homicide, manslaughter and murder. They also face additional charges, including delivery of a dangerous drug and practicing medicine without a license.
Johnson’s attorney declined to comment.
Gallagher’s attorney, Scott Palmer, said Johnson had ordered prescription drugs without notifying Gallagher and without any question from the supplier.
Had Gallagher known about the orders or the infusion plan for Cleveland, according to Palmer, the doctor “certainly would have intervened and not allowed her to carry out the treatment”.
Gallagher plans to plead not guilty to all charges.
‘Jenifer’s law’
The Texas Medical Board had looked into Cleveland’s death in 2023, as part of a disciplinary investigation involving Gallagher.
In a December 2023 document, the board noted that an autopsy report listed Cleveland’s cause of death as “sudden cardiac death of uncertain etiology”, but did not definitively determine what role the IV infusion played.
The board wrote, however, that the potassium chloride in the infusion more than likely had caused the heart issue that killed Cleveland.
“The panel determined that … it is highly likely that the patient suffered a fatal arrythmia as a result of the rapid and unorthodox IV infusion,” the board wrote.
In the wake of Cleveland’s death, the Texas Legislature in 2025 passed a Bill adding more restrictions on the administration of elective IV therapies. The Bill, which went into effect in September, is known as “Jenifer’s Law”.
Cleveland’s family has also filed a civil lawsuit against Johnson, Gallagher and McKesson, the North Texas-headquartered healthcare company that shipped the prescription IV solutions to the spa.
Texas doctor, med spa owner charged with murder in death of patient (Open access)
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