14 DAY TRIAL // The official investigation into Joan Rivers' death is still going on at the moment, but it seems that the unofficial one is so far doing better at tracking down the real cause of the comedienne's demise. Insiders from the clinic where Joan had her surgery are now saying that her death is due to an unplanned biopsy.
The NY Daily News published a report according to which the doctor operating on Joan decided to make a last-minute biopsy procedure after another doctor “noticed something” on her vocal chords.
An outside doctor asked to do a biopsy after noticing “something” on Joan's vocal chords
The doctor who offered to do the biopsy was said to have arrived with the comedienne's entourage and he decided to perform the unscheduled biopsy right there at the Riverton Endoscopy clinic. His plan became very dangerous very fast as the procedure ended up cutting Rivers' air supply and sending her into cardiac and respiratory arrest.
Medical sources from the clinic who confirmed the news also stated that such a procedure shouldn't be performed outside a hospital. The clinic where the actress chose to undergo her vocal chord operation is used to dealing with digestive issues and experts believe that they were not equipped to handle an emergency such as the one that happened.
Joan went into respiratory arrest as her vocal chords seized
The August 28 operation was supposed to repair some damage to Joan's vocal chord that left her without a voice, probably her most important asset out on the stage, but the biopsy allegedly caused her vocal chords to seize, a condition known to doctors as laryngospasm, thus cutting off her air supply.
It was revealed that Joan only signed off on the throat surgery, not on the biopsy on her vocal chords which proved fatal to her. The doctor who asked to do the procedure said he was a nose, ear and throat specialist and simply asked them to let him use their instruments.
“He asked and they let him,” said the insider, pointing out that this is “a huge no-no.”
Sources from the clinic are saying that such a procedure shouldn't be done outside a hospital
The source of the report claims that “A biopsy like that should only be done in a hospital setting. If she had been in a hospital when it happened, she might have been okay.” This was exactly the feeling of Joan's daughter, Melissa, who, after burying her mother, began to question the doctor's process.
The mystery of her death is all the more intriguing as right before she took the procedure, Joan was given a clean bill of health by her doctor, which means that she should have been just fine after the operation that was fairly simple.
A couple of days recuperation would have been all Joan needed to get her voice back and she could have hit the stage as soon as she was up on her feet. As it happened, she never woke up after doctors put her under, dying in the hospital on September 4.