The doctor who performed the endoscopy that led to Joan Rivers’ cardiac arrest and eventual death in early September has been asked to step down at Yorkville Endoscopy.
Dr. Lawrence Cohen, who performed Rivers’ procedure, “is not currently performing procedures at Yorkville Endoscopy; nor is he currently serving as medical director,” according to a statement given to ABC News reports. Previously, Dr. Cohen was the clinic’s medical director and gastroenterologist.
After a procedure on August 28, the comedian spent a week on life support in New York’s Mount Sinai hospital and died on September 4 at age 81.
Although the clinic gave no reason for Cohen’s freeze, a source said it was because he let a specialist who was unaffiliated with the hospital examine Rivers, even though that doctor wasn’t authorized as a practitioner at Yorkville Endoscopy.
A representative from the hospital pointed to privacy laws as a reason for their lack of information.
“HIPAA laws prevent us from disclosing any information about patients,” the rep noted.
The New York State Health Department announced a little over a week ago that they would be investigating the procedures that led up to Rivers’ death, and this announcement may have stemmed in part from that.
As for the procedure, a close friend of Joan’s, Deborah Norville, described it as “a diagnostic procedure… [to] see why her voice had gotten raspy.”
Rivers’ funeral was held this past Sunday, on September 7.
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