Head of Yorkville Endoscopy, where Joan Rivers stopped breathing, forced out
The medical director of the private Upper East Side clinic where Joan Rivers went into cardiac arrest has reportedly stepped down.
Dr. Lawrence Cohen was asked to leave Yorkville Endoscopy eight days after the death of the 81-year-old comic legend, according to ABC 7.
Cohen, a gastroenterologist, allowed Rivers' personal ear, nose and throat specialist into the clinic even though the doctor wasn't authorized to practice medicine there, ABC 7 reported.
Repeated calls to Yorkville Endoscopy went unanswered Friday.
A source on Tuesday told the Daily News that an ear, nose and throat specialist who accompanied Rivers to the clinic performed an unplanned biopsy on her vocal cords.
The Aug. 28 procedure - which the clinic denied ever took place - is not supposed to be performed outside a hospital.
The biopsy caused Rivers' vocal cords to seize up, a condition doctors call a laryngospasm, cutting off her air supply, the source said.
The News reported that Rivers' doctor asked if he could use the clinic's instruments after 'something' was spotted on her vocal cords.
'He asked, and they let him,' the source said. 'A huge no-no.'
The source added that Rivers had only signed off on an endoscopy - not the far more risky biopsy of her vocal cords.
Rivers' death is being investigated by the state Health Department and the medical examiner.
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