Joan Rivers Dead - September 4, 2014

[Tamikosmom]

Joan Rivers, Comedy Legend and TV Host, Dies at 81
September 4, 2014

Joan Rivers, a pioneering female stand-up comic and the queen of "Can We Talk?" gossip, has died. She was 81, her daughter, Melissa Rivers, said Thursday.

Rivers was undergoing surgery on her vocal cords at a clinic in New York City on Aug. 28 when she stopped breathing and had to be transported to Mount Sinai Hospital. Melissa Rivers and her 13-year-old grandson, Cooper, who lived with her in Malibu, California, rushed to her bedside.

"My mother's greatest joy in life was to make people laugh," Melissa Rivers said in a statement. "Although that is difficult to do right now, I know her final wish would be that we return to laughing soon."

Raspy-voiced and brassy, Rivers was always self-deprecating, foul-mouthed and politically incorrect. A master of reinvention, she endured in show business because of her tenacious work ethic — which she credited to her "immigrant mentality."

Comedians typically push the edge of the envelope, but Rivers proved time and again that she didn't even see the envelope. To her fans, she was as shocking as she was endearing.

"The way she is funny, she tells the truth according to herself," the late film critic Roger Ebert wrote in 2010. "She hates some people. She has political opinions. Her observations are so merciless and her timing so precise that even if you like that person, you laugh. She is a sadist of comedy, unafraid to be cruel — even too cruel."

No topic was off limits. From Elizabeth Taylor to Queen Elizabeth to even Anne Frank, Rivers loved going after public figures.

"I mock everybody, regardless of race, creed or color," she told the Toronto Star in July. "Every joke I make, no matter how tasteless, is there to draw attention to something I really care about."

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http://www.nbcnews.com/pop-culture/celebrity/joan-rivers-comedy-legend-tv-host-dies-81-n191416

[Tamikosmom]

The following article is a good read.  In a nutshell ... Joan Rivers' life is highlighted.

Janet


Joan Rivers dead at 81
Published September 04, 2014

Iconic comedian Joan Rivers has died at the age of 81. She went into cardiac arrest on Aug. 28 and had been on life support at New York's Mount Sinai Hospital.

"It is with great sadness that I announce the death of my mother, Joan Rivers. She passed peacefully at 1:17 p.m. surrounded by family and close friends," Melissa Rivers said. "My son and I would like to thank the doctors, nurses, and staff of Mount Sinai Hospital for the amazing care they provided for my mother.

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http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2014/09/04/joan-rivers-dead-at-81/

[Tamikosmom]

[MuffyBee]

http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/people/2015/01/26/melissa-rivers-files-lawsuit-in-mother-joans-death/22372129/
Melissa Rivers files lawsuit in mother Joan's death
January 26 2015


NEW YORK (AP) — Melissa Rivers filed a malpractice lawsuit Monday against doctors and the clinic where her mother, Joan Rivers, suffered a medical emergency that led to her death last year.

Melissa Rivers strongly attacked the Yorkville Endoscopy clinic where her mother went in last year for a procedure to check on a raspy throat, fell unconscious and never woke up.

"The level of medical mismanagement, incompetency, disrespect and outrageous behavior is shocking and frankly, almost incomprehensible, " Melissa said in a statement.

Among other things, the clinic is accused of allowing a cellphone selfie to be snapped of Rivers while she was unconscious on the operating table.

Still, Melissa said filing the suit was one of the most difficult decisions she had to make.

"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.

She said her mother deserved better.
 
The city's medical examiner found that she died of brain damage due to lack of oxygen after she stopped breathing during an endoscopy at Yorkville Endoscopy a week earlier. Her death was classified as a therapeutic complication.
 

The lawsuit said doctors mishandled what should have been a routine endoscopy and performed another medical procedure called a laryngoscopy on her vocal cords without consent. The suit also charged the doctor left the operating room to avoid being caught.

"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," Rubinowtiz and co-counsel Jeffrey Bloom said in a statement.

 

A federal investigation, ordered by the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, found the Yorkville Endoscopy clinic made several errors, including failing to keep proper medication records and snapping cellphone photos of Rivers while she was unconscious.

It also found the Manhattan clinic failed to get informed consent for every procedure performed and failed to record Rivers' weight before the administration of sedation medication.

The clinic submitted a lengthy plan for fixes, but the changes weren't good enough and the federal agency said it would revoke accreditation unless it was in better compliance by March 2.