Mother dies after secret US trip for facelift

[emad]

By Tom Peterkin
(Filed: 30/04/2005)

A mother died of a heart attack in a New York hospital after flying from Ireland for a facelift and nose surgery without telling her husband.

Yesterday an investigation was being carried out into the circumstances of 42-year-old Kay Cregan's death. She was one of a growing number of women making the transatlantic trip for surgery.

Mrs Cregan, a mother of two and a leading official with Limerick city council, saw an advertisement in the Irish press for Dr Michael E Sachs, described as "a leading cosmetic and facial reconstruction surgeon" based in New York.

She told her husband, Liam, that she was going on a business course in Dublin to explain her absence.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;sessionid=VO3OA4U12PVLLQFIQMFCM5OAVCBQYJVC?xml=/news/2005/04/30/nface30.xml&sSheet=/news/2005/04/30/ixhome.html&secureRefresh=true&_requestid=27309

[WI_DEM]

1. that's weird

A business coarse and then return with a newer, younger, artificial face.

[ima_sinnic]

2. the price of vanity

... you win some, you lose some.

[liberalnurse]

3. Give me a break.

Vanity had nothing to do with her death, unless, she had been told it was a high risk procedure and contrary to her current health history.

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

5. Vanity had EVERYTHING to do with it

Every surgical proceedure is a risk, calculated at some level and anyone who does not recognize this needs education.

[Misunderestimator]

8. Vanity may be a part of the reason she went for the surgery, but...

let's get some perspective here... It does NOT minimize the doctor's fault in this, no more than a rapist if the woman he raped was jogging alone in a deserted park in the dark. Yes, she took a risk... No, it doesn't make the doctor any less guilty.

There are a lot of reasons someone may want cosmetic surgery. I did not walk in her shoes and am not aware of her reasoning. It shouldn't matter.

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

10. I am not trying to minimize the doctor's fault at all

I just wanted to point out that there is a risk in every surgical proceedure which the vast majority of people are not aware.

As to the reasons people want "face lifts," well, let's agree to disagree, okay?

[Misunderestimator]

11. I don't disagree with you... I think there IS a lot of vanity involved

by most who seek such surgery. But the root cause for the need to "prettier"... makes me feel compassion for them rather than judgement. Personally, I would never think of risking cosmetic surgery unless it was to reconstruct a disfigurement caused by accident or other harm.

Anyway... I believe we agree on this.

[ima_sinnic]

9. oh give me a break yourself

beauty is STILL only skin deep. who in hell gets their face lifted except VAIN people who are under the illusion that they can somehow fool Mother Nature and impress everybody with how "young" they look? As though being "young" were a sign of some kind of goodness or lofty purpose. It's just a sign that people's priorities are skewed and that they think how they look to others is of absolute high importance. it's COSMETIC SURGERY ferchrissake and like any surgery CARRIES RISKS.

You think it's NOT traumatic for your body to have a spatula inserted under the skin of your face and used to chop and hack at the membranes connecting that skin to your flesh, and then to end up looking like a train ran over your face for a few weeks? geesh.

here's a good example of vanity run amok--the wealthy and VAIN socialite Jocelyn Wildenstein, who could have donated millions to causes that would actually help others, like food for the hungry, shelter for the homeless--but no, apparently her world, her overriding concern in life is limited to the surface of her own face, which now looks like something out of a nightmare about cats mating with humans. gee, I hope she "feels better about herself" than she would have with her own very attractive face. Michael Jackson is another one with vanity issues.


before



after

btw, I'm not talking about battered, injured, or naturally deformed people whose faces are a handicap. I'm just talking about people who can't accept that with life comes age and its effects, whether we like them or not.

also btw I'm almost 60 and getting plenty "old-looking" myself. if that is somehow "unattractive" to anybody I really could care. it just means their concerns are SUPERFICIAL.

[kanrok]

4. It appears that the Dr. Sachs is one of the most sued doctors

In New York:
"Examining Mrs. Cregan's knapsack after her death, her family found a folded copy of an article from The Sunday Independent of Ireland. It was a glowing account of a face-lift performed by Dr. Sachs, "a leading cosmetic and facial reconstruction surgeon" in the United States, the article said, with a "highly confidential client list."

"There's a lot of money and interest here when it comes to plastic surgery," the article continued, "but there is also confusion and ignorance."

There were certainly things Mrs. Cregan was confused by and ignorant about. She had no idea, said her sister, Agnes Kelly, a nurse who lives outside Boston, that Dr. Sachs is among the most sued doctors in New York State, having settled 33 malpractice suits since 1995. She did not know that last year the State Health Department took the extraordinary step of banning Dr. Sachs - an ear, nose and throat specialist - from performing complex nasal surgeries without the supervision of another surgeon; that the operating room in his office is not accredited, as many of the best ones are; or that while he states on his Web site that he has been affiliated with the New York Eye and Ear Infirmary "for the last 23 years," he is not affiliated with that hospital or any other."

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/24/fashion/sundaystyles/24plastic.html

But really, shouldn't we have malpractice "reform"?

[Misunderestimator]

6. Yep... the kind of reform being pushed will only help protect the bad ones

Wonder how much money Dr. Sachs donates to Republicans.

[candy]

7. Looks like a little research would have helped this lady, Sad!