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Joan Rivers Died From ‘Therapeutic Complications,’ Medical Examiner Says
(CNN) -- Comedian Joan Rivers died of "therapeutic complications" during a procedure to evaluate her "voice changes" and stomach reflux, the New York medical examiner said Thursday.
"The classification of a death as a therapeutic complication means that the death resulted from a predictable complication of medical therapy," the report said.
Rivers, 81, died September 4, a week after an appointment at Manhattan's Yorkville Endoscopy clinic.
The medical examiner's investigation ruled that the cause of death was "anoxic encephalopathy due to hypoxic arrest," a medical description of brain damage caused by a lack of oxygen.
The arrest happened "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 complication in this case was laryngospasm -- a spasm of the vocal cords that makes it difficult to breathe, pathologist and surgeon Bill Lloyd told CNN. The situation was compounded when Rivers went into cardiac arrest.
"She stopped breathing and her heart went into arrhythmia because there wasn't sufficient oxygen to maintain the heart muscle," said Lloyd, who was not involved in Rivers' autopsy. "The pump, the heart itself, was unable to move fresh oxygenated blood upstream to the brain."
At first, Lloyd said, Rivers was unable to bring oxygen into her body due to the vocal cord spasm. After a couple of minutes, her heart started to beat irregularly or completely stopped. Finally, her heart stopped delivering fresh oxygenated blood to her brain, which shut down, according to Lloyd.
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| Joan Rivers |
By Alan Duke, Oct. 16, 2014, Cnn.com
(CNN) -- Comedian Joan Rivers died of "therapeutic complications" during a procedure to evaluate her "voice changes" and stomach reflux, the New York medical examiner said Thursday.
"The classification of a death as a therapeutic complication means that the death resulted from a predictable complication of medical therapy," the report said.
Rivers, 81, died September 4, a week after an appointment at Manhattan's Yorkville Endoscopy clinic.
The medical examiner's investigation ruled that the cause of death was "anoxic encephalopathy due to hypoxic arrest," a medical description of brain damage caused by a lack of oxygen.
The arrest happened "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 complication in this case was laryngospasm -- a spasm of the vocal cords that makes it difficult to breathe, pathologist and surgeon Bill Lloyd told CNN. The situation was compounded when Rivers went into cardiac arrest.
"She stopped breathing and her heart went into arrhythmia because there wasn't sufficient oxygen to maintain the heart muscle," said Lloyd, who was not involved in Rivers' autopsy. "The pump, the heart itself, was unable to move fresh oxygenated blood upstream to the brain."
At first, Lloyd said, Rivers was unable to bring oxygen into her body due to the vocal cord spasm. After a couple of minutes, her heart started to beat irregularly or completely stopped. Finally, her heart stopped delivering fresh oxygenated blood to her brain, which shut down, according to Lloyd.
Read the full story: www.cnn.com
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