Ben Rubinowitz: Settlement Reached in Joan Rivers Malpractice Case
THE NEW YORK TIMES
The family of Joan Rivers reached a settlement with the doctors and clinic it had sued for malpractice over the 81-year-old comedian’s death in 2014, lawyers for the family said on Thursday. The doctors accepted responsibility for Ms. Rivers’s death, although the dollar amount of the settlement was not disclosed.
In 2015, Ms. Rivers’s daughter, Melissa, filed a lawsuit in State Supreme Court in Manhattan against Yorkville Endoscopy, a for-profit outpatient surgery center, where Ms. Rivers was undergoing a relatively routine procedure when she died. The suit also named Dr. Gwen Korovin, an ear, nose and throat specialist; Dr. Renuka Bankulla, the main anesthesiologist, and two other anesthesiologists; and Dr. Lawrence Cohen, who stepped down as the clinic’s medical director.
Melissa Rivers said in a statement that she was happy to be “able to put the legal aspects of my mother’s death behind me and ensure that those culpable for her death have accepted responsibility for their actions quickly and without equivocation.”
She said she hoped no one had to go through what her family had endured and vowed to “work towards ensuring higher safety standards in outpatient surgical clinics.”
The lawyers for the Rivers family, Jeffrey Bloom and Ben Rubinowitz, said they did not reveal the amount of the settlement because they wanted to focus on improving patient care. But they said it was “substantial.”
The doctors agreed not to contest the suit’s findings. A spokesman for Yorkville Endoscopy said: “The parties agreed to settle this case to avoid protracted litigation. We remain committed to providing quality, compassionate health care services.”
The suit outlined a series of egregious errors that, it said, led to the comedian’s death, with doctors by turns star-struck, nervous and fumbling as the crisis unfolded.
Ms. Rivers, who was known for her brassy wit and slashing style, went to Yorkville Endoscopy, a clinic on East 93rd Street, on Aug. 28, 2014, complaining of a hoarse voice and sore throat. The clinic is one of a growing number of outpatient surgery centers that have been licensed by the state to replace hospital operating rooms for minor procedures.
Ms. Rivers was to undergo a laryngoscopy, an examination of her voice box and vocal cords, and an endoscopy, which involves looking at her upper digestive system and is performed under anesthesia, according to a report by the New York City medical examiner’s office, which investigated the death.
According to the malpractice suit, the doctors were so eager to please that they violated protocols, and Dr. Cohen, at one point, pulled out his cellphone and took a photograph of Ms. Rivers lying on the operating table.
The main anesthesiologist, Dr. Bankulla, concerned that she would be blamed in the death, on the day of the procedure wrote out five pages of notes detailing what she saw and heard. Lawyers for the Rivers family said they were greatly aided in their case by Dr. Bankulla’s notes.
According to the notes, Dr. Bankulla, sensing something was amiss during the procedure, warned that Ms. Rivers’s vocal cords were extremely swollen, and that they could seize up.
“You’re such a curious cat,” Dr. Cohen said, according to the suit. He dismissed the anesthesiologist’s concern as “paranoid” and let Dr. Korovin proceed, the suit said.
Soon, the vocal cords closed and Ms. Rivers stopped breathing.
Dr. Bankulla realized that Ms. Rivers was “suffering from an airway obstruction and/or laryngospasm,” a closing of the vocal cords, but did not demand a “crash cart,” which might have had a drug like succinylcholine to relax Ms. Rivers’s muscles and allow the insertion of a breathing tube.
Dr. Bankulla looked around for Dr. Korovin to punch a hole in Ms. Rivers’s throat — an emergency cricothyrotomy that Dr. Korovin should have been trained to do — but Dr. Korovin had already left the clinic, according to Dr. Bankulla’s notes.
Several chaotic minutes passed before 911 was called, according to the lawsuit.
By that time, Ms. Rivers had gone into cardiac arrest.
She died seven days later, after being taken off life support.
Melissa Rivers and her lawyers, however, said they did not want the focus to be solely on what happened to the famous entertainer.
They said that the case highlighted the lax oversight at outpatient surgical centers, and that they would be working to advance legislation in Albany to ensure that these clinics operate under the same minimum safety standards as hospitals do.
“Profit cannot be placed above patient safety,” Mr. Rubinowitz said.
