It has been expected for many months: Joan Rivers’ daughter, Melissa Rivers, filed a big lawsuit against the clinic where the famous comic’s heart stopped beating while she was undergoing what was supposed to be a relatively routine medical procedure.
In the filing, Rivers’ attorneys claim the doctors at the Yorkville Endoscopy Clinic did not perform their duties professionally and were guilty of gross medical malpractice. The lawsuit alleges that during the 20 minutes the doctors attempted to resuscitate Rivers after she stopped breathing, they neglected to perform a tracheotomy, which would have facilitated her ability to breathe.
In a statement, Melissa Rivers said, “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.”
In addition to suing the clinic, Rivers is also suing her mother’s personal doctor, Gwen Korovin. According to the lawsuit, she should not have been permitted in the room where the procedure was being performed, yet she jumped in and announced, “I’ll go first.”
The suit claims another doctor took cellphone pics of Rivers before the emergency, while she was under sedation, with Korovin in the photos, saying Joan “will like to see these in the recovery area.”
According to the lawsuit, Korovin left the room in the middle of the emergency, and the allegation is that she left because she knew she wasn’t supposed to be there in the first place and “wanted to avoid getting caught.” The suit says Korovin simply abandoned Joan.
Melissa Rivers’ attorney Jeffrey Bloom told the New York Daily News, “Had doctors acted as physicians for Joan Rivers instead of groupies, Joan Rivers would have been doing ‘Fashion Police’ last week.”
Yorkville Endoscopy has been under investigation by the New York State medical authorities and is set to lose its accreditation at the end of the month.
