"Kay's death came as you can imagine as a tremendous shock to our entire family. We are now trying to come to terms with it.
Our immediate priority is the welfare of our two sons, Brian and Eoghan. We appreciate that a tragedy of this nature is naturally of interest to the media but at present we are unable to cope with or answer many of the questions being put to us.
Results of the autopsy report will not be available to us for six to eight weeks.
All we can say is that Kay had her operation in a clinic in New York on March 14th and suffered complications the following day and was taken to St Luke's Roosevelt Hospital in Manhattan where she was pronounced dead on March 17th in the presence of myself and her two sisters, Mary and Agnes.
We very much appreciate the support of the entire community in Croom and of Kay's many friends at this juncture."