Woman dies after undergoing cosmetic surgery
An Irish woman has died after undergoing cosmetic surgery with a New York plastic surgeon who has made 33 malpractice payments in the past decade.
Kay Cregan, 42, from Croom, Co Limerick, went into cardiac arrest after having a nose job and face lift at Dr Michael Sachs’ Manhattan clinic.
The mother-of-two, who was on a short trip to the United States to visit her sister, developed complications the day after surgery.
She was pronounced brain-dead on arrival at a general hospital and her life support machine was switched off two days later, on St Patrick’s Day, March 17.
Ms Cregan’s sister, Agnes Kelly, said she had first learned of Dr Sachs in an Irish newspaper.
But the article failed to mention how many malpractice allegations he has faced, listed on New York State’s physician profile website.
Dr Sachs was banned from performing “complex nasal procedures” without supervision last year. But his lawyer, Jay Butterman, said the restriction had not applied to Ms Cregan’s surgery.
“Dr Sachs and his family send the deepest sympathies to the family,” he said. “This is a terrible tragedy. But it is one which is simply not attributable to anything that Dr Sachs or his staff did.”
Mrs Kelly, a nurse, told the New York Daily News her sister had sent Dr Sachs an email outlining why she wanted surgery.
She scheduled the procedure, to cost around $32,000 (€24,650) without telling her sister. But since her death Mrs Kelly claims to have found various articles about Dr Sachs on the internet.
“We’re seeing all this stuff on him and it’s just killing us,” she said.
“This is all so horrible. We just feel that the whole event did not go how it should have gone.”
Ms Cregan was buried in Ireland on Tuesday although a port mortem examination was inconclusive and further tests have been ordered.
