Joan Rivers Death: Yorkville Endoscopy Medical Director Fired
Channel: Lovely Ideas
Date: 2014-09-12

Yorkville Endoscopy's medical director has been fired following the throat procedure that led to Joan Rivers' death earlier this month, ABC News confirmed in a tweet on Friday, Sept. 12.

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"BREAKING: Medical director of Yorkville Endoscopy where #JoanRivers went to cardiac arrest is out," the network stated. "He is no longer performing procedures at the clinic." (A rep for the clinic has confirmed to TMZ that Dr. Lawrence Cohen has been on administrative leave since Aug. 28.)

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As previously reported, the comedienne and E! Fashion Police host stopped breathing while undergoing an outpatient procedure on her vocal chords on Aug. 28 and was later pronounced dead at the age of 81 on Sept. 4, at New York City's Mount Sinai Hospital. Nearly a week later, the New York Daily News reported that an unplanned throat biopsy led to her untimely death.

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According to the report, Rivers had "a diagnostic procedure [to] see why her voice had gotten raspy." When the doctor found "something" on her vocal chords, however, another doctor — whom she brought along with her — asked if he could perform a biopsy. CNN previously reported that the clinic denied that a biopsy ever took place at the facility.