Following the untimely death of 81 year-old comedic veteran Joan Rivers, investigators launched a probe into the supposed minor throat procedure that led it to the comedienne's cardiac arrest. Rivers' personal doctor is now under investigation in an attempt to find out what went wrong during the surgery that resulted in her subsequent death.
According to a report broadcasted by the CNN television network, the doctor, Lawrence Cohen, was only supposed to perform a routine endoscopic procedure that day to find out what was causing Rivers' throat problems. However, he proceeded to perform a biopsy on the patient's vocal chords, a procedure for which he had no prior written authorization from Rivers. He also was not authorized to perform a biopsy at the New York clinic where this procedure took place. The doctor even, reportedly, went so far as to snap a "selfie" while Rivers was still under anesthesia inside the operating theater.
On August 28, Joan Rivers went to the Yorkville endoscopy clinic to undergo an endoscopic procedure. Unknown to Rivers and also without the knowledge of the officials from the clinic, Colin performed a biopsy, a procedure that the Yorkville Endoscopy Clinic does not allow to be performed within their facilities. Investigators say that it is possible that Rivers' vocal chords swelled up during the biopsy, and this could have potentially led to the respiratory failure that triggered her cardiac arrest. The noted comedienne died a few days later, on September 4, while she was at the Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City where she was taken after she stopped breathing during her throat procedure. Rivers was initially put under a medically induced coma to try and reverse or reduce any damage that her brain may have sustained during the time she was not breathing.
Cohen has since been suspended from the clinic after facts about the incident have surfaced.