Last Thursday, Joan Rivers went to a clinic in New York City to get minor throat surgery for an issue she was having with her vocal cords. Joan, 81, stopped breathing during her outpatient surgery and had to be transported to hospital for emergency treatment. Doctors placed Joan in a medically induced coma in order to reduce potential brain injury. (Scientific American has more about medically induced comas.)
On Sunday, doctors started to bring Joan out of the coma gradually. She remains on life support and is listed in serious condition. Doctors should soon be able to assess whether or not she’s suffered brain damage. The NY Daily News has more on this sad story, along with the fact that Joan’s family is considering suing the clinic where she stopped breathing during surgery.
Doctors began lifting the feisty funny lady from her medically induced coma Sunday at Mount Sinai Hospital as Melissa Rivers, her only child, waited to see how the legendary comic would respond.
“The waking-up process has begun and will take until Tuesday,” a source close to the family told the Daily News. “There is real concern that the part of the brain that controls motor skills may have been compromised, leaving her as either a vegetable or in a wheelchair.”
And that has the family considering a lawsuit.
“Shock and upset is turning to anger, and they are looking for someone to blame,” said a source close to the family, hinting at action against Yorkville Endoscopy, where Rivers had a routine throat procedure on Thursday.
“The night before, she was performing and now she is on life support,” the source continued. “An 81-year-old should not have that procedure as an outpatient. Very ill-advised.”
For now, Melissa Rivers focused on the coming medical news.
“We are keeping our fingers crossed,” she said in a statement Sunday that also thanked admirers of her mother for an outpouring of support.
She said her mom, who is in serious condition, was “resting comfortably” and asked that “everyone keep her in your thoughts and prayers.”
Even as she tried to sound upbeat, a source told The News that Melissa Rivers is “totally hysterical and is at a loss for what to do (because) they won’t know the extent of the damage until Tuesday at the earliest.”
Sources have told The News that Joan Rivers would not want to live unless she could enjoy “a full and active life,” as one source put it. “(She) would never want to be a burden on anyone.”The host of “Fashion Police” on E! went into cardiac and respiratory arrest Thursday morning while undergoing a procedure on her vocal cords at the private Upper East Side clinic.
Doctors subsequently put the Emmy-winner in a coma to stabilize her vital signs. As of Sunday, she was breathing with the help of a machine.
Rivers’ friend and collaborator Jay Redack visited the stricken comedian on Sunday and said he was stunned by her sudden health setback.
Redack said he had gone to dinner with her Wednesday night and that they had discussed the minor throat procedure she was about to undergo.
I know that many people will say that suing the clinic will not solve anything or make Joan better. In my opinion, it may get the doctor and clinic to be more careful about doing these kind of “routine” procedures, particularly with elderly patients. If something like like happened to my loved one, I would be upset, angry and want answers.
I’m almost afraid to hear more about Joan’s condition. I want Joan to be ok, and I want her to be back on Fashion Police talking smack. This week’s taping of Fashion Police has been canceled.
Note: In earlier coverage of this story, we mentioned that it sounded like Joan’s surgery was unplanned. The NY Daily News reported in a story last week that Joan went into the clinic for a “diagnosis,” which made it sound as if the surgery was decided on that day. Joan’s friend, Jay Redack, mentioned in the Daily News article quoted above that Joan was aware of her upcoming surgery, meaning that it was planned and was not a spur of the moment decision.
photo credit: WENN.com
I’m torn. On one hand, there are some things that are simply too risky to do as outpatients. On the other hand, patients are presumed to be able to give informed consent. A lot of “big names” like to go the outpatient route because the less people are around, the less chance of leaks. Joan may be 81, but 81 year-olds vary widely in their health and fitness levels. If she was assessed and cleared for the outpatient route and knew the risks and went for it anyway, that might be legally permissable.
Malpractice is something I never like to speculate on, simply because unless you are deeply familar with the patient’s specifics, you are not in a position to judge anything. I think the family is fully entitled to have the entire process reviewed, but they might have to accept that Joan knew the risks and went ahead anyway.
Your response is on point; it’s so easy to blame doctors with situations like this but requires much investigating to find who is to blame, and often shit just happens or the patient knew the risks and took them anyway.
Surgery does not guarantee outcome. The procedure was in-line with treatment, therefore the M.D. is not at fault. So sad. Such a vibrant and quick-witted lady….
Plus, she supports many employees generously through her various businesses.
a lot of people think of going that route because they are sad, angry, grieving, and want to have something and someone concrete to blame – so as to have a better answer than “awful things sometimes ‘just’ happen in surgery.” it’s really sad but they are, ultimately, looking for answers and a type of “justice” that the legal system isn’t capable of providing. (and money doesn’t “satisfy” a lot of them, they are rather looking for a sense that justice has been done and for admissions and apologies from the parties they see as culpable.)
This is so true. Whenever a patient dies or is injured during a medical procedure, people are quick to argue that something must have gone wrong. When sometimes, that’s not true. Even if everything goes okay, people can still be injured or killed during medical stuff. That’s why informed consent is a big deal. Patients are presumed to be smart enough to understand risk. Even if the risk to Joan was very, very small, it still existed and maybe she was one of the very small number who do suffer severe results. That doesn’t necessarily mean malpractice occurred. I support the family getting a full review of the situation, but they might have to accept this as a really sad eventuality.
@Sam – informed consent is key, of course. but i honestly don’t think that people truly internalize surgical (and other) risks, and internalize that they could become the statistic during a procedure, esp. when a procedure is represented as “minor.” and people’s loved ones prob don’t often consider the risk either, or don’t truly understand it. and, people are immediately placed in an adversarial situation when something happens to them or their loved ones – it’s the doctors and their CYA/informed consent versus the aggrieved party. it’s difficult to have a non-emotional response to a loved one being sick or worse, and people want to “lash out” at someone. they are most often not in the mindset to consider best practices or the medical consensus.
This. And this is why doctors have upped their fees to such an extent over the last 2 decades. They pay so much in malpractice insurance covereage, they have to charge more for service and no longer have the financial flexibility to provide free or reduced fee services. And it is because of people suing them over frivelous crap or playing the blame game when there really is no one to blame. People need to understand that being put under anesthesia, or being opened up no matter how minimally, are risks in and of themselves. There is a percentage of patients who don’t wake up. There is a huge percentage of patients who get infections for no reason other than they were exposed.
Joan probably signed a waiver at the clinic acknowledging she knew about the risks, etc. This might cover them against potential lawsuits. That doesn’t mean that operating on an 81 year old woman was right, but greed probably won out, so as long as they had that waiver, they felt they could go ahead with the procedure, covered if something went wrong.
Ag I completely disagree. I think most people DO consider the risks. A month ago I had my gall bladder removed. After spending half of the first half of this year in and out of hospital with gall stones and Pancreatitis, despite the agony I was still very very weary of surgery. I looked up the risks, looked up post gall bladder support groups etc, yet gall bladder removal is relatively common and routine, but I was still shit scared. I was always worried that *I* would be that percentage where something goes wrong. Hey, it has to happen to SOMEbody, right? That’s why the odds and risks exist. Its an odds/probability game. What if it was me? I finally consented after my 4th admission to hospital with severe Acute Pancreatitis due to gall stones when told I probably would not survive the next attack and just stop fkking around and have it out (luckily I did – the surgery should take around an hour. Mine took 3 hours. In addition to gallstones in gallbladder I had 6 additional stones lodged in and blocking various liver and bile ducts. As well as poor bile flow. Any longer, I WOULD have been dead). I think most people do weigh up the risks. May be sometimes too much, to their detriment. Like me.
This is unfortunately very true. Most people don’t realize just how dangerous surgery is, no matter what kind it they’re going for. They just focus on the word “minor” and assume its safe. Outpatient ORs are usually just as well staffed as in-house suites, the difference being that they don’t have an ICU on immediate access. I do think an investigation should be done, but they may very well not turn up anything.
I doubt that I would ever operate on an 81 year old patient at all unless it were a life saving operation. Way too many things that can go wrong with a body that old. If I were to do it I certainly would insist on it being done in a hospital even if she did not want to pay the extra. Too much risk both legal and medical
Mike, you can only speak for yourself. Like I said upthread, 81 year-olds vary widely. I’ve met some who are in better shape than some people in their 30s! One of my fitness instructors is still doing Ironmans – and he just celebrated his 70th. Unless you are privy to Joan’s medical file, you really have no clue what the state of her health really is. There are elderly patients who handle stuff really well; there are people in their 20s who should be going to the hospital. It varies so much.
We’re also presuming Joan had no say in the process. It is possible that she was informed of the heightened risk and yet chose to go the outpatient route anyway. We just don’t know.
I actually agree w/ BOTH Mike and Sam, but mostly I side with Mike, because NO CLINIC should accept an 81-year-old for out-patient surgery, and that’s why I hold the clinic responsible, with or without informed consent. If it had happened in a hospital, I don’t think any possible lawsuit could survive based on age alone, but in a clinical setting, I think they are in big trouble.
Aside from the legal aspects of it, I simply adore Joan Rivers, and I feel so sorry for Melissa and her son. I am so praying for a miracle here.
I have heard that with patients that age, it can be very difficult to judge the amount of sedation they need.
Insurance companies often dictate where the procedures can take place. Many times these decisions are taken out of the doctors hands because insurance companies really run the healthcare industry- so sad.
Mistakes in the healthcare field happen WAY more than the general public realizes. I am in school/working in this field so I see it all the time. Physicians and nurses really are just regular people who make mistakes. Most of the time, the healthcare facility will settle with the family very quickly before there is a chance of lawsuit.
IMO there is too much risk to perform surgery on an 81 yr. old in an outpatient facility. I would think that there would not be many physicians that would agree to it. Even if she did give informed consent, the family could still sue. The physician should not have given her the choice. Now, if it was an endoscopy instead of actual surgery, as some people have suggested, that might be a little trickier for the family to pursue legal action.
Patients just need to remember to be their own advocates, if something does not feel right, do NOT be afraid to question the physician!!
@ Sam-excellent comment. I agree with you 100%. I’m an RN and too often when there are complications during a procedure people want to blame medical personnel without knowing the facts.
Hopefully she had a living will/advanced directives in place. It takes the burden of decision making off of the family.
Agreed Sam, sometimes things just happen. The human body is tricky. The Drs can do everything right, but the body doesn’t always co-operate.
I thought they’d reported that it wasn’t a surgery, but rather an edoscopy procedure, which is used to look at/diagnose issues. I think most endoscopies are done outpatient, in a clinical, rather than hospital, setting.
I’m actually kind of shocked Joan doesn’t have written documentation of how she wants this handled. I know both of my Grandmothers had DNRs, and that other people may chose to want intervention. But it keeps sounding like it’s the family having to make the decisions, which is really tough.
I would be surprised if that’s on Melissa River’s mind, “suing”. This is a time to think about forgiveness, as all humans err, and the spirit of moving forward is what prayers are all about, and I would hope Joan’s family/friends are focusing on the positive at this time.
She’s angry so the thought of suing, whether she follows through with it or not, makes perfect sense to me. She has a long road ahead to get to the point where she’s in a forgiving mood even if the docs help her Mom make a full recovery.
God Bless that family.
She’s an elderly, wealthy woman, her attorneys would have had her write a will and make her wishes known a long time ago. That being said everyone should make their wishes known to their loved ones, no one can predict the future and it relieves the burden from your family if they know they’re doing what you would want.
Really sad…I hope she gets out of the coma with all her faculties intact. I’m hoping this will be a miracle story. Poor Melissa. I would be a mess if this happened to my mom.
Good luck to Joan. I hope she can come out of this and be the same person. If not, the family should sue, she was supposedly joking about the surgery the night before. I read that normally a surgery on an 81 year old person is never done in the office because of this very thing happening. Again, hoping for the best here.
+1
That statement is false. I really hate generalizations on topics where people just guess and assume it’s the truth.
Just plain sad. Hoping for a miracle because no one wants to make that decision.
My father passed because of doctor’s who didn’t know what they were doing, sent him home with a ruptured appendix that poisoned his bloodstream and within ten days he was dead from septic shock, after being in a medically induced coma. It’s not about them righting their wrongs, about the hospital doing anything; it’s about comfort for the family, so we can unfortunately have someone to blame. My mom is currently going through a crazy lawsuit because she wants answers, she needs to ease her mind somehow, knowing that she didn’t fail as a spouse. It’s not about the money either, because no sum is worth my fathers life. It’s to bring to light that not all doctor’s are as well versed as they think and that EVERY hospital and clinic needs to take better care of its patients. Because of little instances like these, people lose their lives and loved ones never recover.
I’m trying to understand you, but I don’t get how this is not about money. You say your family is seeking comfort but how is there comfort in money. The money won’t come from the doctor or the hospital if they lose the suit. The money will come from insurance. So, nobody is being taught a lesson or being punished, therefore, it is about money. I’m sorry for your family’s loss and your mother’s grief, but being granted upteen dollars isn’t going to bring back her husband.
That’s where you’re wrong – my mom isn’t guaranteed anything when it comes to money, so please stop assuming it’s about that. My family has never and still doesn’t need lawsuit money. The problem lies within the fact that doctors sent home a sick man, only for him to come back days later and die in their care. If they would have admitted him the first day he came in, he could still be alive. The ICU doctor confirmed that to us outside of the hospital, but the doctors who cared for him at the time put the blame on him for neglecting his body. The lawsuit would bring out the medical records that are not shown to patients and their families and would have doctors testify to what they knew/saw at the time. THAT is what my mother is looking for, ANSWERS. I sincerely hope you never have to go through what my family has gone through because your comment is so insensitive and belittling, and to have someone make it and then cover it up with ‘I’m so sorry for your loss’ is flat out rude and disrespectful.
What do you mean by ‘records that aren’t shown to patients and their families’? Patients have a legal right to all of their medical records. The LNOK has a right to the deceased’s records. I’ve been telling people this for years- GET YOUR MEDICAL RECORDS, people!! You never know what’s in there and you might be surprised. Gather them from everywhere, go back as far as you can, and build your own database at home (and not online either, you can’t count on security). You never know when they’ll come in handy and don’t ever trust that your providers have all the info they need just because of electronic medical records. Get your pharmacy records too.. Get everything. Be your own secretary and advocate.
What type of procedure was she getting? Does anyone know? no shady theories just very curious… I hope she is ok I mean … She could be mean and stuff but I cant help that I love her in Fashion Police and how she is with Kelly… And also dare I say lady looks amazing for 81 (by hook or by crook IDC!)
Either way may her family and her have some peace and comfort cause this is one of those things you cant even wish on others
Well… it’s been widely reported that she was having an endoscopy – which is exploratory and they put a tiny camera on a tube down your throat. It’s usually done with twilight sedation. But I see some outlets reporting it as a surgery – I’m not sure that’s factual and it seems like they’re taking the word “procedure” (which an endoscopy is) and replacing it with “surgery” which an endoscopy isn’t.
At 81 – anything can happen. Perhaps due to the procedure, or perhaps just due to age. Anything you have done at that age is much more serious than say, if she were 51. If it’s true, I’m sorry the family feels this way… but 81 is pretty advanced age, and perhaps it’s just her time. I hope not, but maybe…
As usual, QQ, you provide a well-reasoned post.
I have fortunately never had to make that decision about what to do with a loved one in Joan’s situation, so I have no idea what’s the “right” way to react. I wish the family peace and good thoughts in the coming weeks.
Surgery is always a risk. I knew a 23 yr old who died form a routine wisdom tooth extraction… crazy, crazy sh*t!
Wow, that is very sad, but it is also a good reminder.
I can understand her family being angry that this happened…but suing really won’t do anything. Joan knew what she was getting into when she signed for this procedure. And this unfortuntely could have happened to anyone. All surgeries are a risk.
All surgeries are a risk. But if the surgeon made a mistake then yes, then it is okay to sue. Would you be comfortable going into surgery if the surgeon was prone to errors? Probably not.
Yes, but there anything yet to suggest the doctor made a mistake? Or is this simply a knee jerk action by the family?
she should fight one battle at a time, there’s no time for that now
It’s understandable. That would be the common initial reaction of the patient’s loved ones – to look for answers. Joan is a high profile celeb and I believe any hospital would probably give her extra care and attention than regular folks.
I don’t think anyone wants to be a burden to their family when they reach a certain age. I think that any surgery is risky business, and more so at 81. There may had been negligence, but I think the bigger picture here is where was this procedure done? Also, I feel like no matter what, always prepare for the worst. Why wasn’t the place prepared for an emergency.
I hope she hasn’t lost any of her motor skills. But even if she has, her life can still have a lot of meaning and purpose.
Agree 100 percent. We all have or will have some type of limitation in life, be it mental or physical, minor or major.
To imply that someone is not worthy of living because he or she may have motor skill challenges is very cruel, IMO.
Just pull through, Joan. It’s been a tough year for comedians. Just come back, all is forgiven.
Really hoping for a miracle here. Melissa must be in agony and my heart goes out to her. I hope Joan is somehow able to pull through. Being the person she is, constantly busy and having such a strong work ethic I believe she’d rather it be her time than be in a vegatative state or wheelchair bound and dependant upon others for the rest of her life. Still can’t belive I watched Fashion Police last tuesday and she looked great as always, and two days later this tragedy occurred. Don’t know how the show will continue without her, as she was the heart and soul of it.
It would be great if she could wake up and utter her famous line….”Can we talk?” Praying she will be able to come out of it the feisty lady she was.
I work for ENT surgeons. If this is truly the procedure they were doing (what the media is putting out there), then it IS outpatient everywhere in this country. Most insurance companies wouldn’t even approve an overnight stay. Anesthesia is tricky. Some people are cleared for these outpatient procedures (labs, EKG, x ray) prior to the surgery and then their body responds in a totally unpredicatable way. It’s very sad for the patient and the families. I understand their state of mind, but given the information that is out there now, it seems as though there is no way this could have been predicted. I hope she comes out if this as her usual spunky self!
Thanks for being the voice of reason Nicole. I get so tired of the medical profession getting bashed everytime something is not perfect. Every person has to die eventually and no one knows when that will be- we work very hard to save peoples lives, it just doesn’t work all the time. Sometimes the body gives out.
Thanks for this. I work in a hospital that has a tiny endoscopy suite. The procedures are done in the outpatient wing of the hospital. If she stopped breathing, it’s likely she aspirated while under twilight sedation. Sometimes this is actually the fault of the patient for not staying NPO.
Nobody gets an overnight hospital stay for this, unless there are complications. Complications can arise even if it’s performed in a hospital. We only have this suite in our closet because there was a tiny suite available which didn’t fit into the reconfiguration of the rest of the procedure rooms and real estate is cheap in Florida.
I definitely have seen negligence in the medical field from doctors and some of the rest of the support staff, but soooooooo many issues come from patients not following directions, not being honest and disclosing their lifestyle, meds, smoking status, herbal supplements, horrible diet, etc.
Joan is no stranger to doctors and medical procedures. A large number of cosmetic procedures are handled in outpatient facilities, and they are considered far riskier than endoscopy–which is about on par with colonoscopy. I’d say that she is a well-informed consumer of services.
All I can say is, I cannot imagine Joan Rivers being (as the article said) a “vegetable”. I think it would be hellish for anyone to be in that state. Esp.a person like Joan, who works non-stop. Whether you like her or not, the woman works her ass off. I hope she comes out of this okay. Good luck, Joan.
I guess that is what I admire most about Joan, aside from her speed-of-light wit. She DOES work her a$$ off…I admire that in ANYONE. I respect her for it. I don’t always agree with her humor, but she ALWAYS makes me laugh.
Before my mom died nearly two years ago (7 years older than Joan), she had a life-threatening emergency and was told amputating her leg was the only thing that would save her. My mom was a college professor and still as sharp as a tack…she told me she simply would not live that way and she’d had a good life. The doctor tried to convince me to convince her to have her leg amputated. I told him I had tried. They ended up doing a procedure through her groin that saved her leg and her life, so miracles do happen.
I’m still not over losing my mom…I loved and respected her so much. Thinking of you Melissa and still wishing for that miracle that my mom seemed to receive.
Does that word “vegetable” bother anyone else? I always hated it being used to describe someone, however unresponsive. They’re still human beings.
Yes! It’s disrespectful and rude. I would be horrified to hear my loved one described in such a way.
I agree…who was the idiot that came up with the term vegetable? It is so callous and disrespectful!
It is so disrespectful and ugly. I really cannot helieve it is still being used.
I hope she pulls through, but her age leaves me skeptical. She’s a pretty amazing person. If anyone hasn’t seen A Piece of Work, a documentary about her life, I highly recommend it. She’s a hustler for sure!
I really feel sorry for Melissa- it’s tough enough for her as a daughter, but she also has to be strong for her teenage son. One hopes that Joan left some sort of directive for helping her loved ones. All the best for her recovery.
Eighty one years of being able to work and enjoy life is amazing.
Cary Grant once said there is no reason to worry about growing older when you think of the millions who have been denied the privilege. I think of that quote often, as I am in my 40s and have several friends who led healthy lifestyles but succumbed to cancer or a sudden heart attack in their 30s or 40s.
I hope that no matter the outcome, that Joan’s family can find peace and be thankful for the time and the good health she enjoyed for so many years.
I think that suing is dependent on the cause of her arrest. If she was over sedated and it wasn’t caught quickly enough, thus resulting in a respiratory and subsequent cardiac arrest, then yes, they should absolutely sue. Part of my job involves supervising patients during these “conscious sedations”, monitoring vitals and providing immediate airway management when necessary, including intubation. I have definitely had patients who have stopped breathing, who required that I ventilate them, etc. I hope that this is not what led to Ms Rivers arrest. Perhaps she had a heart attack, or stroke. But it doesn’t sound like it. So although yes there are risks involved, a well trained professional should be present and able to quickly identify and successfully deal with a patient who has stopped breathing.
My dad is due for a conscious sedation procedure (test) next year. He will be 75, and recently learned he has a somewhat rare muscle disease that can suddenly affect breathing to the point of intubation. Even though the test is preventative for a disease that runs in his family, I am concerned. He’s had the same test during the past several years and it seems like even conscious sedation gets harder as the patient gets older.
Your comment alleviates some of my worry — assuming medical staff will pay close attention to him and recommend exactly what to do that day in terms of proper medications.
Tania what I don’t understand is that it sounds like her brain was without oxygen for some time. In a facility for ENT procedures, wouldn’t you be set up for immediate CPR until you could get emergency personnel there to take over and get her to the hospital? It sounds like they dithered around and didn’t start immediate CPR, which should have kept her brain oxygenated (from what I would understand).
Blannie, yes, you are correct! They had a failure somewhere–either they weren’t watching her breathing or there was some problem with the monitoring. Also, monitors are only useful if you’re paying attention to them. For her to go from respiratory arrest into cardiac arrest, I would give or take a few minutes time depending on the patient. That alone would cause hypoxia but the hypoxia is worsened by the downtime during resuscitation. We don’t know how long it took to get her back. It could have been 10 min it could have been 25? We also don’t know the quality of the CPR. She may have massive cerebral anoxia, which would result in death or worse, a persistent vegetative state. Something went terribly wrong during this procedure and it is my professional opinion based on the facts that are public that the appropriate actions were not taken or were much too late.
Thanks, that’s what I think too – somewhere there was a big failure at the clinic. Poor Joan!
While I was surprised that they’d perform surgery at an outpatient clinic on an eighty-one year-old, there is the possibility that Joan’s insurer only provided coverage for the procedure at that kind of facility.
I have bilateral vocal cord paralysis from having my thyroid removed. I wasn’t breathing when they took me off the ventilator, and ended up in ICU with a trach for longer than I care to remember. I doubt that they were doing any kind of vocal cord surgery on her at that time, because vocal cords are extremely delicate, and take a long time to heal after any sort of procedure. I think what happened is that they were doing an endoscopy to look at her vocal cords and make an assessment – and they spasmed, causing her to stop breathing. The vocal cords regulate breathing (another thing I didn’t know prior to my ill-fated thyroid removal). There’s no way she would have been able to do a gig the next day after vocal cord surgery. I hope she comes out of this kicking and telling us wild hospital stories, but I have a feeling she’s not going to fair that well. I might not always agree with what she has to say in her act, but I respect her right to say it. Fingers crossed, Joan.
You’ve been through the wringer. Hope things have gotten easier for you!
This whole thing with Joan has really shaken me up. She’s a lot older than I am, but last week I had to have a surgery (my first), and it was also the first time I ever had anesthesia. I was terrified, especially about the anesthesia, and so worried something might go wrong, even though I was having an outpatient procedure (but in a hospital). I am still recovering, and when I read what happened to her I got chills. You just don’t know what might go wrong, even during a supposedly simple procedure. It is so scary. I have always loved Joan and her biting comedy, and she is so very close with her daughter and her grandson. I pray she makes it through this and that I’ll see her snarking about fashion on my tv again here soon.
I can see both sides of the equation because I worked in different surgery units for years. I know first hand that any surgery is not really “routine”. This is partially why I’ve been chicken to have a nosejob even when I’ve wanted one for years for both cosmetic and medical reasons. The idea of elective surgery makes me nervous. I was so scared when I had my appendectomy last December. Thank goodness I met the surgeon and the anesthiosologist ahead of time and they made me feel better. It all came out well. I recall thinking before I went in that I wish I didn’t know as much as I do about the surgery process. On the other side of this equation I fully understand the reaction of Joan’s family considering a lawsuit. When my son and i almost died during childbirth twelve years ago I considered bringing action against the hospital for releasing me too soon resulting in an accute eclamptic seizure that nearly went to a stroke. I was also in ICU on a breathing machine in a medically induced coma and my son was in the NICU for 7 weeks. IF the hospital had not released me and told my OB the truth (she told me later that they said I was fine to go home and my blood pressure was down.) I would have been on medical bed rest for the duration of my pregnancy intead of having emergency surgery that began in the hallway because we were so critical. It was that dire. After a legal consultation, I decided not to pursue legal action because my OB stepped in and saved our lives and I didn’t want to involve her in a lawsuit. Sometimes I still ponder if that was the right choice only because I’m now an advocate for pre eclampsia prevention and the pursuit of a cure. I am just grateful that my son and survived and are happy and healthy today. If Joan ends up with permanent damage I hope Melissa at least considers legal action.
People are never, ever vegetables. I wish this repulsive term would be as completely removed from common language as are other now-not-PC words we find equally horrible.
Vegetables no. Persistent vegetative state, yes. And it is as sad and horrible as you could ever imagine it to be. I wouldn’t wish it on anyone.
So true- it is miserable for all involved- the patient, family and medical personnel.
Why did Melissa let her mom go into a clinic by herself? Family should have been with her at the time she had surgery. I guess some of us are so independent as we grow older, that we don’t want to bother our kids that live so far away. She probably gagged on the instruments placed in her throat and couldn’t breath which caused her problem/s. She should have been with Melissa at one of the best throat specialists in New York which was probably at Mt. Sinai, but not that clinic that botched this procedure. I had throat surgery at Flower Fifth Avenue Hospital (which is not opened anymore.) I had a thryoglossal cycst removed from my throat. I went into the hospital the night before and the next morning Dr. Kempner (no longer) operated on me. He made an incision so tiny that he put it in the crease of my neck. I had to eat ice cream for a while and whisper much like Rachel Ray’s operation. Yes, it has grown back somewhat but I hope it is a dorman lipoma. I would never want surgery anywhere but Mt. Sinai. Her nostrils may not have had much elasticity or the airpassages may have been very small and could not compensate for the blocked airwaves in her throat. It is definitely a lawsuit.
I hope this poor lady comes out okay.