Melissa Rivers filed a lawsuit on Monday against Yorkville Endoscopy clinic where her mother underwent a procedure for raspy throat, fell unconscious and died last year.
Melissa believes that her mother, Joan Rivers, had a medical emergency that the clinic handled poorly, which led to her death. She is also suing the doctors who were involved in the procedure for taking selfies while her mother was unconscious, which her lawyers described as "outrageous," according to USA Today.
"The level of medical mismanagement, incompetency, disrespect and outrageous behavior is shocking and frankly, almost incomprehensible," Melissa said in a statement.
The medical team was busy taking selfies with the unconscious patient, not realizing that the patient is already losing oxygen.
"The conduct is unfortunately outrageous," said one of her lawyers, Ben Rubinowitz. "Not only is there medical mismanagement but you have a situation where doctors are taking photos of a patient when she needed assistance. They didn't recognize the fact that she wasn't getting sufficient oxygen."
A federal investigation found that the 81-year-old actress died of brain damage because of insufficient oxygen. Aside from that, the clinic also failed to perform basic procedures prior to examining her throat and vocal cords, such as taking her vital signs, Reuters reported.
Joan's personal doctor, Gwen Korovin, is also included in the lawsuit for being present in the room even if she wasn't authorized. But when the emergency happened, instead of helping, she immediately left the room and "wanted to avoid being caught." Too bad for her, because she was seen in the groupies of the medical team, TMZ.com reported.
Yorkville Endoscopy refused to comment on the lawsuit.
Melissa admitted that filing the lawsuit wasn't an easy decision but she felt that she needed to do it to protect other families from having the same experience.
"It is my goal to make sure that this kind of horrific medical treatment never happens to anyone again," Melissa said.
