The doctor who performed the unauthorized biopsy of comedienne Joan Rivers’ vocal chords — which ultimately led to cardiac arrest and her death — snapped a selfie photo in the operating room while Rivers was under anesthesia,
CNN reports.
The Aug. 29 biopsy is thought to have caused the vocal cords to swell, cutting off oxygen to her lungs and sending Rivers, 81, into cardiac arrest, according to CNN. She died a week later at New York's Mount Sinai Hospital, where she had been rushed by ambulance.
Though the unidentified doctor who did the biopsy has been described as Rivers’ personal ear, nose and throat physician, he did not have the comedienne’s prior consent to perform the procedure and he was not authorized to practice at Yorkville Endoscopy, the private Upper East side facility where the procedure took place, according to the
New York Daily News.
"Even though you are a licensed physician, you still should have, if you will, the checks and balances to get your approval to practice in that particular place," said Dr. Arthur Caplan, a medical ethicist at New York University's Langone Medical Center.
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Yorkville Endoscopy issued a statement that no vocal cord biopsies have taken place there, however the clinic’s medical director, gastroenterologist Dr. Lawrence Cohen, was reportedly let go the day after the statement was issued, according to the Daily News.
The newspaper previously quoted an unnamed medical source, who said the biopsy like the one performed on Rivers should have been done at a hospital, not an outpatient clinic.
"If she had been in a hospital when it happened, she might have been OK," the source said.
Rivers went in for a routine endoscopy to try to determine why she was experiencing a chronic sore throat and hoarse voice. The ear, nose and throat doctor performed the biopsy without Rivers’ consent after Cohen completed the endoscopy, according to CNN.
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