Melissa Rivers and Joan Rivers (Photo : REUTERS/FRED PROUSER)
Melissa Rivers has filed a lawsuit against the doctors who operated her mother Joan Rivers, New York Daily News reported.
In the charges filed, the doctors were allegedly too busy taking photos from their phones that they were unable to attend to Joan immediately when her vital signs dropped. The surgeons were accused of ignoring the request of the anesthesiologist to stop the procedure.
According to the court documents, anesthesiologist Renuka Bankulla requested to capture an image of her larynx to visualize the swelling but lead surgeon Lawrence B. Cohen accused her of "being paranoid."
Joan's oxygen level, blood pressure, heart and pulse rates decreased and for a total of 17 minutes, the doctors were unable to open her trachea to bring back the oxygen supply to her brain. The lawsuit filed at the Manhattan Supreme court accused the three anesthesiologists and two doctors of negligence, which resulted to Joan's comatose state and eventually lead to her death.
A week after her throat surgery, Joan died due to brain damage, which resulted from oxygen loss. The said procedure should only be an endoscopy to check for the reason of the changes in her voice.
However, the surgeons also performed an "unauthorized biopsy on her vocal chords." The said biopsy resulted to involuntary contraction of Joan's laryngeal cords, which is called Laryngospasm.
Due to the muscle contractions, the throat swelled and limited the oxygen supply to Joan's brain. In addition, carbon dioxide cannot be exhaled from her lungs and it developed into "heart attack and brain damage."
Melissa revealed that her decision to file a lawsuit was extremely difficult for her but she believes that what they went through should not be something that another family will experience. Until now, Melissa is shocked by the negligence and disrespect that the doctors have shown, according to People.
Joan was the star of the television show "Fashion Police." The late host was succeeded by her friend Kathy Griffin.
