Choosing to begin the long, hard process of filing a medical malpractice lawsuit is not an easy one. Joan Rivers’ daughter, Melissa, has made that tough decision in a multimillion dollar lawsuit against her mother’s doctors and the Manhattan clinic for botching what should have been a routine medical procedure.
As with any family that has to make such a big step, Melissa said in a statement how unbelievably hard it was to move forward with the lawsuit.
“What ultimately guided me was my unwavering belief that no family should ever have to go through what my mother, Cooper and I have been through,” she said, referring to her son. “The level of medical mismanagement, incompetency, disrespect and outrageous behavior is shocking and frankly, almost incomprehensible.”
On September 4th, 2014, Joan Rivers died at the age of 81. Her death was determined to have occurred due to lack of oxygen to the brain during an endoscopy that had happened days earlier. The family claims that doctors mishandled the endoscopy and performed another surgery called a “laryngoscopy” on her vocal cords that had not been approved.
Jeffrey Bloom and Ben Rubinowitz, the attorneys for this case stated: “To put it mildly, we are not just disappointed by the acts and omissions leading to the death of Joan Rivers, but we are outraged by the lack of care and concern for Ms. Rivers on the part of her treating physicians and the endoscopy center where the treatment was rendered.”
After a federal investigation, it was discovered that the treatment center made several grievous errors during the operation, including taking cell phone shots of an unconscious Joan Rivers and not keeping accurate medication records. On top of it all, surgeons failed to get consent for all the procedure that were performed.
The clinic, Yorkville Endoscopy, attempted to fix the failures, but apparently not enough and so they face getting their accreditation revoked unless better changes are submitted by March 2nd of this year.
We send our condolences to the family of Joan Rivers. While this particular case is getting widespread media coverage because it involved a celebrity, this situation can happen to anyone.
If your family has experienced what you believe is a case of medical negligence or wrongful death, please call one of our experienced Tennessee medical malpractice attorneys at Gilreath & Associates for a free consultation. We can help guide you through what we know is a very difficult and painful process.
