Joan Rivers

Sadly every news media service decided to report on the Death of Joan Rivers and all of them were heartbroken .... what BS.

The clinical picture is that of an elderly woman who is under the protection of various agencies, adult protective service, the state medical board, and many more. Still she went into a private clinic for an endoscopy and the doctor failed the patient. The first thing he forgot is the risk benefit ratio, the rule is, dont fix it if it aint broke. The patient has to sign a permission slip and the risk should have been known to her. This can only be done before the anasthesia is administered and at her age, the daughter should have signed.

Potassium, K+, is an electrolyte and this has to be checked before the patient is given the anasthesia. If the potassium is low then no anasgthesia is given, because if the patients heart stops beating, no amount of CPR will bring her back. It is not negligent to fail to check the potassium, it is criminal, it is murder.

This procedure should have included, lidocaine spary to the back of the throat to supress the cough reflex, and Versed IV to keep the patient awake but relaxed. This procedure should not be done under a general ....so why was it. Because of the money, it is more xpensive to give the general and you can bill more.

The standard of care was never followed, the patient died simply because the doctor was greedy.

RIP