Joan Rivers: What We Know So Far About Yorkville Endoscopy and Rivers' Death

All about the procedure at Yorkville Endoscopy and safety measures taken.

By
MICHAEL ROTHMAN, AARON KATERSKY and JOSH MARGOLIN
September 5, 2014, 4:58 PM ET
1 min read

— -- When Joan Rivers died Thursday after spending a week in the hospital following a cardiac arrest, attention turned to what procedure she was having done at a local New York City clinic and what the circumstances were surrounding her death.

The New York State Health Department told ABC News that it has opened a "full investigation" into Yorkville Endoscopy Center. As of now, there is no suspicion of wrongdoing and the investigation is routine, a source briefed on the case told ABC News.

Joan Rivers' Doctor's Office, Yorkville Endoscopy, Under Investigation - but Wrongdoing Not Suspected

Joan Rivers' Friend Deborah Norville Shares Details of the Comedian's Last Days

Here's the information that ABC News has gathered after talking to a variety of sources close to the comedian.

  • Rivers was undergoing what close friend Deborah Norville described as "a diagnostic procedure ... [to] see why her voice had gotten raspy."
  • The call to 911 from Yorkville Endoscopy came at 9:39 a.m. By 9:46 a.m., paramedics and other first responders were on scene. Rivers arrived at Mount Sinai Hospital at 10:08 a.m. She was already on life support and her condition at the time we are told was near death.
  • Norville added that Rivers had been in a "medically induced coma" for the past week.
  • According to a source briefed on the case: Rivers was under general anesthesia when she went into cardiac arrest at Yorkville Endoscopy on the Upper East Side.
  • According to a Yorkville Endoscopy spokesperson, the clinic "as a federally and state licensed facility, has the same level of life-saving and resuscitation devices (such as state-of-the-art cardiac defibrillators, airway management equipment, etc.) found in any hospital emergency room or hospital-based operating room."
  • The Yorkville spokesperson adds, "Yorkville Endoscopy has performed 18,000 procedures since it opened in February 2013. Yorkville Endoscopy has maintained an exceptional safety record that far exceeds the national average."
  • The New York City Chief Medical Examiner’s Office said the autopsy is complete but will not release results, pending the outcome of further testing.