Joan Rivers’ cause of death was officially released today after an autopsy. Rivers died because she went into hypoxic arrest during a routine throat procedure.
The New York City Office of the Chief Medical Examiner released their findings today, calling Rivers’ death a “predictable complication” with her throat surgery. “The classification of a death as a therapeutic complication [which] means that the death resulted from a predictable complication of medical therapy,” the report said.
It was also noted that Rivers was under the sedation of Propofol during the throat procedure. The cardiac arrest Rivers endured occurred “during laryngoscopy and upper gastrointestinal endoscopy with propofol sedation for evaluation of voice changes and gastroesophageal reflux disease,” the medical examiner’s officer said.
The investigation and subsequent press release claimed that Rivers was having the throat procedure in order to “evaluate changes in her voice” and was struggling with acid reflux. During the procedure, Rivers suffered from a lack of oxygen to the brain and passed away.
Clinic employees told investigators that the August 28 appointment “began with Rivers’ personal throat doctor, Dr. Gwen Korovin, performing a laryngoscopy, which involves using a device to view a patient’s vocal folds.” Rivers had been known for having a great deal of plastic surgery procedures over the years, but this surgery apparently was meant to address an issue with her voice and her acid reflux exclusively.
The “Predictable complication” is in reference to the fact that the lack of oxygen is a common threat when it comes to the type of complication Rivers had with her procedure. There is no information as to which doctors performed the procedure, and if they were at fault or negligent in their approach to said procedure.
Joan Rivers died at the age of 81 on September 4, at Manhattan’s Yorkville endoscopy clinic, after being in a medically induced coma for several days following the procedure.
[photo credit: RegulusAlpha]