bad doctors

Joan Rivers’s Doctor Allegedly Took a Selfie During Her Throat Surgery

SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA - MARCH 07: American personality Joan Rivers participates during the annual Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras Parade on Oxford Street on March 7, 2009 in Sydney, Australia. The annual parade, which has been going since June 1978, has a 2009 theme of
Photo: Brendon Thorne/Getty Images

More details are emerging in the death of Joan Rivers, which occurred when the 81-year-old went into cardiac arrest during what was supposed to be a routine throat procedure at the Upper East Side’s Yorkville Endoscopy clinic. According to CNN, the comedian’s personal doctor took a selfie in the operating room while Rivers was under anesthesia and also performed a biopsy on her vocal cords without Rivers’s prior consent. Yorkville’s medical director Lawrence Cohen, who has since been let go from his post, was the one originally performing the endoscopy on Rivers. It is believed Cohen then stepped aside to let Rivers’s personal doctor — who was not authorized to practice at the clinic — perform the unauthorized biopsy that ultimately caused her to go into cardiac arrest. The doctor named in these accusations has yet to be identified.

Joan Rivers’s Doctor Took Selfie During Surgery