New York clinic that treated comic Joan Rivers sued over her death

Rivers, who was 81, suffered cardiac arrest during an examination of her throat and vocal cords at the Yorkville Endoscopy center on Manhattan’s Upper East Side and died a week later, on Sept. 4, at a New York hospital.

Earlier this month a government health agency, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, found the Yorkville facility had fallen short of the conditions necessary to qualify for coverage as a supplier of outpatient surgical services.

The clinic was given until March to correct its deficiencies or face revocation of its federal accreditation and funding.

The malpractice lawsuit was filed by Rivers’ only child, her daughter Melissa, in New York state Supreme Court seeking unspecified compensatory and punitive damages.

The lawsuit alleges that the Yorkville clinic failed to properly advise the elder Rivers about the risks of her treatment and acted with reckless disregard for her health and safety.

(Reuters)