14 DAY TRIAL // In August, 81-year-old comedienne Joan Rivers went to the New York City clinic Yorkville Endoscopy Center for what she was told would be a routine procedure. She had been complaining of vocal issues for some time, and she had made an appointment for a throat procedure to determine the problem.
Sometime during the procedure, Rivers went into cardiac and respiratory arrest and was rushed to a nearby hospital, where she was put in a drug-induced coma. She died a week later and her daughter Melissa is now taking legal action against the clinic.
“Mismanagement, incompetency, disrespect”
Since before Joan died, in the hours after she was rushed to the hospital and rumor had it doctors feared she would be left in a vegetative state when she’d be woken from the coma, Melissa was said to be considering a lawsuit against the clinic.
Not only did they perform a surgical intervention on a patient of Joan’s age as an out-patient but they actually went ahead and did another procedure she had not even been informed of – and which required hospitalization.
A later investigation would determine that both Joan’s personal physician, who had been in the room when she was under, and staff at the clinic had behaved unprofessionally and made a series of mistakes that precipitated events towards the tragic closure.
The clinic fired those responsible, including the doctor who reportedly snapped selfies with the comedienne while she was under anesthetic, but Melissa wants more: as she says in a statement to People magazine, she wants to do her part in preventing this kind of accidents from happening here again.
“What ultimately guided me was my unwavering belief that no family should ever have to go through what my mother, [my son] Cooper and I have been through,” she says. “The level of medical mismanagement, incompetency, disrespect, and outrageous behavior is shocking and frankly, almost incomprehensible.”
“Not only did my mother deserve better, every patient deserves better. It is my goal to make sure that this kind of horrific medical treatment never happens to anyone again,” Melissa adds.
A difficult decision
Since Joan’s death, Melissa has refused to engage in any way on the topic of a possible lawsuit. Considering that she’d just lost her mother, best friend and partner, she had more pressing things to focus on, which explains her statement that this was the most difficult decision she ever made.
It’s true, Joan Rivers was old and probably not in perfect health, but the way staff at the clinic behaved during and after the routine procedure has led her to believe all this could have been easily avoided.
An investigation has already determined that they failed to notice and react accordingly to the fact that her vital signs were deteriorating, so by the time they did act, it was too late.
No word yet on the kind of compensation Melissa is asking for as damages.