The New York Department of Health and Human Services' investigation into the Yorkville Endoscopy Center has uncovered multiple flaws in its care of Joan Rivers during her procedure. The most glaring mistake may be a missing drug on the crash cart that could have saved Rivers life.
Rivers' family legal team believes the center failed to stock the drug Succinylcholine on the crash cart in the comedian's procedure room, according to TMZ. The drug relaxes a patient's trachea and could have helped continue the flow of oxygen for Rivers when her vocal chords constricted and closed shut.
The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner determined Rivers died of "anoxic encephalopathy due to hypoxic arrest" which means her brain didn't receive enough oxygen causing brain damage. Rivers entered the clinic for an upper endoscopy procedure, but her personal doctor Gwen Korovin went ahead with a laryngoscopy procedure that Rivers did not request, according to TMZ.
Other mistakes made by the clinic included an over dosage of the sedative Propofol and the doctors failure to see Rivers' "deteriorating vital signs" during the procedure, the legal team told TMZ.
Clinic staff never weighed Rivers before the procedure, a measurement necessary to determine the appropriate amount of Propofol to administer to a patient. A staff member admitted to the Health Department that she made a mistake inputting the dosage and put in twice the actual amount given to Rivers, although nothing in blood work suggest Propofol killed her, according to TMZ.
Rivers' daughter Melissa hired a Manhattan law firm to file a wrongful death lawsuit against the Yorkville Endoscopy Center. Melissa has not yet filed the suit in court, but is "outraged by the misconduct and mismanagement" of the clinic, she told TMZ.
