A modern Irish wake

Sunday's New York Times has a long story on the sad case of Kay Cregan, a woman from Limerick who went, unknownst to her family, to New York City for plastic surgery. She died on St Patrick's Day from complications, and the surgeon, Dr. Michael Sachs, had been sailing close to edge of malpractice for years. The problem of keeping track of dodgy doctors is difficult enough even within a single country and of course multiplies greatly across international borders, something which worked to this doctor's advantage as he built up a market in Ireland.

One thing that the NYT story correctly brings out is the abject nature of media ethics in Ireland. We've noted before how the Irish media, with the general exception of the Irish Times, sticks to a fairly simple diet of boosterish stories of Irish success, celebrity trash, and hysterical but easily manipulated and attention-deficient coverage of political scandals. The lead practioner of this form of journalism is Independent newspapers, which needless to say features in the Cregan case.

She had seen a typical VIP/High-Living feature in the Sunday Independent on the miracles this doctor worked, a feature with not a single Google on his background. The NYT at least shames the Indo into a weaselish quote:

The result of [Sachs'] agreement with Mrs. Donaghy [previous Irish patient who got free surgery] was a cover article in the Independent's Sunday magazine. "People have been stopping me on the street to tell me how good I look," Mrs. Donaghy was quoted as saying. "I'm having the time of my life." The article gave contact information and a Web site for Dr. Sachs but omitted any mention of the problems he faced.

"If this guy is fit to practice medicine in the United States, who are we to say he's not fit to practice?" said Brendan O'Connor*, the editor of The Sunday Independent magazine. But Mr. O'Connor said last week he was unaware of the 33 lawsuits or the restrictions placed on Dr. Sachs by New York State health authorities.

The standard weekend filler in any of the papers will be a description of holidays, restaurants, or services "reviewed" by a writer, often without even the most basic disclaimer as to what was paid for and what background research was done (the answer usually being zero in both cases -- but why ruin a good freebie?). Of course every case is very different and Mrs Cregan's behaviour was the unexpected addition to what the Indo viewed as harmless filler.

A couple of final thoughts. One hopes that the Cregans don't run up against Dubya's War on "Frivolous" Lawsuits in any legal action they pursue in the USA. And that they manage to take the Indo to the cleaners in any action there or in Ireland.

*UPDATE: Kieran at Crooked Timber notes the descent into hackery of Mr O'Connor, someone he once knew. Also, RTE audio file on the case here.

UPDATE 29 April: It's a small world. RTE has found that then Minister for Finance and current European Union Internal Markets Commissioner Charlie McCreevy lobbied then Minister for Health and current Minister for Enterprise & Employment Michael Martin in 2003 to allow Dr Sachs to do free plastic surgery for disfigured Irish children. Since the State already provided this service, the only interpretation is that Sachs wanted a PR stunt to make his name in the Irish market. But then he discovered he didn't need a charitable approach when he had the shills at the Sunday Independent at his disposal.

FINAL UPDATE 2 JAN 2006: The Cregan family is suing.