Joan Rivers went to Yorkville Endoscopy for a routine procedure, what turned out was certainly not routine after the procedure went wrong, and the veteran Hollywood performer tragically died.
Radar Online reported that soon after the 81-year-old comedienne’s gastroenterologist, Dr. Lawrence Cohen, noticed something on her vocal cords, he passed the reigns over to a female ear, nose and throat specialist.
The ENT doctor reportedly had no authorization to operate on Joan Rivers due to the fact she never signed a consent form, but took the biopsy nevertheless. Soon after the biopsy was performed River’s vocal cords began to swell, according to Anderson 360 .
The revelation that as well as the botched biopsy Dr. Cohen took an unauthorized and rather tasteless selfie with the anesthetized Joan Rivers came after medical staff present at the time spoke to reporters.
The selfie constitutes a gross violation of privacy, especially seeing as Rivers never gave her consent to have her picture taken.
As a result of the death of Rivers, Dr. Cohen has left Yorkville after the clinic confirmed his departure saying, “Dr. Cohen is not currently performing procedures…nor is he currently serving as medical director.”
According to another Radar Online report, Joan Rivers’ daughter Melissa is now considering a lawsuit against the clinic, as sources revealed to the New York Daily News , noting that it is the ENT doctor who is under the most scrutiny, not Dr. Cohen.
Nevertheless, at this time, the clinic itself has not received any threatening letters from lawyers as the investigation into what precisely went wrong, which led to the tragic and untimely death of one of the World’s finest comediennes.
There is little doubt that lawsuits of different shapes and sizes will be forthcoming just as soon as the investigation is complete, with a number of medical staff from Yorkville being brought under the close scrutiny of the Rivers’ legal team.
