A US plastic surgeon who performed surgery on a Limerick woman who subsequently died from complications had been trying to get into the Irish market, it has now emerged.
Kay Cregan (42), from Croom, died on St Patrick's Day, three days after she had minor facial surgery at Dr Michael Sachs's New York clinic.
Yesterday it emerged that Helen Donaghy from Carlow town had received a free facelift from the surgeon last year after a mutual friend suggested her name to Dr Sachs.
Ms Donaghy told The Irish Times that she was very happy with Dr Sachs's work but did not want to make any comment on her experience until she had read all the reports about the recent incident.
"I was very happy at the time and I still am very happy but I don't want to comment on it until I have really digested everything that has been written about it," she said.
In its August 26th edition last year, the Carlow People quoted Ms Donaghy as saying that she had been contacted by a friend who was a very good friend of Dr Sachs.
They had been discussing the Irish market for plastic surgery, and Dr Sachs said he would do a procedure for free if he could get an Irish woman to "go public".
Ms Donaghy had a €25,000 facelift, according to the newspaper, and her experience was later reported in the Sunday Independent.
Ms Cregan, a mother of two young sons, underwent non-corrective surgery while on a short visit to her sister in the US. On the following day she developed complications, and was transferred to a general hospital in Manhattan where she was later pronounced dead.
Yesterday The Irish Times reported that Dr Sachs had been banned from carrying out complex "revisionist" surgery on patients without outside medical supervision following an investigation by the New York Board of Professional Medical Conduct into a patient's complaint.
