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Investigators issued a damning report on the death of comedian Joan Rivers, with allegations that staff at the clinic photographed her with a cellphone while she was unconscious. The New York State Health Department found that the clinic where Rivers was undergoing a small procedure when she went into cardiac arrest had failed to sedate her, failed to document how much sedative was used, and “failed to identify deteriorating vital signs and provide timely intervention during the procedure.” She was reportedly given double the dosage of propofol. Furthermore, a staffer at Yorkville Endoscopy took photos of Rivers, and allegedly said, “Maybe [Rivers] would like to see this in the recovery area.” The clinic will lose its certification in January unless it corrects deficiencies, and Rivers’ daughter, Melissa, has hired attorneys to investigate the death.
N.Y. TIMES
A Manhattan clinic treating Joan Rivers 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.
Released on Monday, a report said that Ms. Rivers’s 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 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.
Craig Spencer, the New York City doctor who became the first person in the city to test positive for Ebola, is free of the virus and is set to be released from Bellevue Hospital Center on Tuesday, hospital officials said on Monday.
Dr. Spencer, 33, who had been in Guinea treating Ebola patients with Doctors Without Borders, was rushed to Bellevue by ambulance on Oct. 23 after reporting a fever of 100.3 to the authorities that morning. He was placed in isolation in a secure ward, and within hours a blood test confirmed he had the virus.