The heartbroken family of the Irish woman who died after a surprise facelift in 2005 from the so-called Dr Botch lost their lawsuit in Manhattan Friday.

However, the family of 42-year-old Limerick woman Kay Cregan is poised to receive more than $3 million in settlements from two of the defendants; Dr Michael Sachs and the nurse Susan Alonzo Francisco.

The jury decided Friday that the nurse and the anesthesiologist, Dr. Madhavrao Subbarao, involved in Kay Cregan's 2005 surgery didn't contribute to her death.

Lawyers in the case said the nurse reached a $1 million settlement while Sachs had earlier agreed to a $2.1 million settlement.


Sachs has not practiced since 2008 when he surrendered his medical license after state regulators said he made mistakes with Cregan and another three patients.

The family of the late Kay Cregan had taken the lawsuit against Sachs, anesthesiologist, Subbarao and Francisco, after Cregan's 2005 death.

Cregan, 42, died on St. Patrick’s Day 2005, three days after a $32,000 "basic" facelift at the Manhattan offices of plastic surgeon Dr. Michael Sachs.

Cregan, an employee in Limerick City Council at the time, traveled to New York for her operation after reading a report in an Irish newspaper about a woman from Co. Carlow who attended Sachs’ clinic for a facelift.

Cregan, who is survived by her husband Liam and two sons, Eoghan and Brian, kept the trip a secret from her husband so she could surprise him with her new procedure.

New York-based Irish lawyer Thomas Moore, who represented the family in the trial, said complications related to her nose procedure caused the Irish woman’s death -- a death that was fully preventable.

Moore said that during the night of March 15, while recovering from the surgeries, Cregan began to bleed into her pharynx, the part of the neck and throat situated immediately behind the mouth and nasal cavity.

“Kay was lying down and the blood went back and not down her nose, and it pooled and clotted,” said Moore.

Cregan then went unassisted to the bathroom and fell on the floor.

Moore estimates that Cregan, while moving, loosened the clot in her pharynx, allowing it to travel down the trachea and causing a blockage.