14 DAY TRIAL // Sad news for the entertainment business as one of its prominent members has passed away. Joan Rivers, actress and comedienne, has died in hospital today, according to her daughter Melissa Rivers, who had been standing by her side for several days now.
Rivers was considered to be a pioneering queen of comedy, and USA Today points out that only later in her life did she transform into “a comic scourge of the red carpet.” The Fashion Police host was hospitalized on Thursday, after she went into cardiac arrest, following complications to a simple endoscopy procedure.
The operation was supposed to have been a simple intervention, carried out at a private Manhattan clinic that has since been under review by the New York Health Department, aimed at fixing some damage to her vocal chords.
When Joan entered cardiac and respiratory arrest, an ambulance was called, and she was taken to the Mount Sinai Hospital in New York, where she would eventually pass away. She was immediately put on life support, and her condition remained unchanged until yesterday, when she was moved by doctors into a separate room, where she would have “more privacy.”
Her 46-year-old surviving daughter, who sometimes would act as a sidekick to her mother on stage, flew out of Los Angeles to be with the actress in her final moments. For the past few days she has issued reassuring, if rather cryptic, official statements, taking the time to thank everyone who had expressed concern over the state of health of her mother.
Rivers, who remained in a medically induced coma right up to her death since her botched surgery, was regarded as one of the female pioneers of the comedic genre, a loud and husky voice in a male-dominated field.
The native New Yorker was known for her sharp fashion sense and her equally sharp tongue with which she berated those who came in her path. Her career spans over six decades, paving the way for other women comedians such as Rosie O’Donnell, Kathy Griffin or Sarah Silverman.
12 hours before she went into surgery, Joan was still performing on stage, cracking jokes about how she was a “plastic surgery poster girl,” alluding to the many interventions she had undergone through the years in an effort to preserve her young looks.
The Internet and social media are already being flooded with condolences and good wishes for her family and friends, a clear sign of the huge influence she had on people’s lives.