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NY Times, NY Daily News, CNN

Devastating: Federal Investigation Says Clinic Did Not Notice Joan Rivers’ Vital Signs Were Deteriorating. Melissa Outraged

Nov 10, 2014  •  Post A Comment

“A Manhattan clinic treating Joan Rivers, 81, in August did not notice that her vital signs were deteriorating for at least 15 minutes before she went into cardiac arrest, leading to her death several days later, a federal investigation has found,” reports The New York Times.

The article adds: “Released on Monday [Nov. 10, 2014], a report said that Ms. Rivers’ blood pressure and pulse decreased precipitously while she was on the operating table on Aug. 28 between 9:12 and 9:26 a.m., yet cardiopulmonary resuscitation began at 9:28 at the earliest.”

The Times adds, “ ‘The physicians in charge of the care of the patient failed to identify deteriorating vital signs and provide timely intervention during the procedure,’ said the report, issued by investigators for the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.”

The clinic investigated was Yorkville Endoscopy.

Also under question is how much Propofol Rivers was given. According to the story in the New York Daily News, “There were also mistakes admitted by the anesthesiologist, who told investigators she gave Rivers 120 milligrams of Propofol, but wrote in records that she administered 300 milligrams.

“The anesthesiologist also didn’t get Rivers’ weight before giving her the Propofol, the report says. One staffer told investigators that a ‘patient’s body weight is very critical for the pre-anesthesia assessment, especially for medication calculations.’ ”

In the Daily News story you can also see and read the entire investigative report issued by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services about the Rivers case.

CNN’s story adds that the investigation said that among other errors, the clinic was cited for “Failing to get Rivers’ informed consent for each procedure performed;

— Failing to ensure that she was cared for only by physicians granted privilege in accordance with the clinic’s bylaws;

— And finally, failing to abide by its own cell phone policy (the report found that a photograph was taken of a surgeon and Rivers while she was under sedation).”

In response, Yorkville Endoscopy issued a statement saying it was cooperating with the federal investigators and is taking steps to correct the problems, the media reports noted.

The CNN report also says Joan Rivers’ daughter, Melissa, “‘is terribly disappointed to learn of the multiple failings on the part of medical personnel and the clinic as evidenced by the CMS report,’ according to a statement from her attorneys. ‘As any of us would be, Ms. Rivers is outraged by the misconduct and mismanagement now shown to have occurred before, during and after the procedure,’ [the statement] read.”

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