Doc who performed on Joan Rivers denies wrongdoing: lawsuit
The doctor who allegedly posed for pictures while performing an unauthorized procedure on Joan Rivers and then fled when the legendary comedian’s essential signs started plummeting is breaking her silence — and denying she did anything incorrect.
Gwen Korovin, a laryngologist who’s been dubbed “the patron saint of Broadway singers and actors,” says she “was uninformed of any pictures being taken” during her ill-fated laryngoscopy of Rivers last August 28.
The botched procedures at Yorkville Endoscopy sent her into cardiac arrest and then a coma. She died Sept. 4 at Mt. Sinai Hospital.
Korovin has never spoken out about what happened during the procedure, but in newly filed papers in Manhattan Supreme Court, her lawyer denied outright many of the allegations Rivers’ daughter Melissa lodged against her in a medical malpractice suit.
Rivers’ suit charges it was negligence by Korovin and doctors Lawrence Cohen and Renuka Bankulla that led to the “Fashion Police” star’s death.
LIONEL CIRONNEAU/APAs the doctors were allegedly snapping photos, Joan Rivers went into cardiac arrest before going into a coma.
The suit says Korovin should not have even been in the room in the first place, because she wasn’t authorized to do at Yorkville.
“Korovin had no right to perform any medical procedures or render any medical services to patients at the defendant, Yorkville Endoscopy,” the suit says.
Despite that — and despite Rivers not having authorized a laryngoscopy — Korovin announced, “I’ll go first” after the 81-year-ancient was out cold, the lawsuit says.
After Rivers had swelling of her airways during a different part of the procedure, Korovin announced she “wanted to go down again” — and performed a second unauthorized laryngoscopy, the suit says.
Bankulla raised concerns about the second procedure, but Cohen and Korovin ignored her, the suit says.
Cohen then started snapping pics on his buzz of Korovin effective on the comedian, saying that he plotting the “Spaceballs” star would like to like see the photos in the recovery room, the filing says.
Korovin “did not object to the defendant Cohen taking said photos,” the suit says.
Rivers’ essential signs then started plummeting, and Bankulla tried to get her breathing — but when she looked to Korovin for help, she found she’d taken off, the suit says.
Anthony DelMundo/New York Day after day NewsMelissa Rivers, Joan’s daughter, alleges in a lawsuit that it was negligence on the part of the three doctors that led to the death of her mother.
“Korovin, by leaving the procedure room, abandoned her client, Joan Rivers,” the suit says.
She later compounded her wrongdoing by failing to mention the second laryngoscopy “which led to the death of her patient” in a written report.
Korovin’s response to the suit, which was filed in April but just made public this week, issues blanket denials to most of the allegations, but does say Cohen “invited” her to perform a flexible laryngoscopy on Rivers.
Korovin, who’s treated the likes of Hugh Jackman, Celine Dion and Mick Jagger, also said none of the other doctors objected to her being in the procedure room.
Cohen also denied wrongdoing in his response, and denied snapping the photos.
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