Michael jackson cause of death, Joan Rivers died of a therapeutic complication as a result of throat surgery. The New York City Office of Chief Medical Examiner released the results of their investigation into the comedian's death today, saying that she died due to brain damage as a result of a lack of oxygen, which they call 'a predictable complication of medical therapy,' meaning her death is the result of a risk that is associated with her surgery.
Rivers died in New York City on September 4 at the age of 81 following a minor throat procedure at Yorkville Endoscopy. Hypoxic arrest is caused by a drastic reduction in oxygen supply to the brain.
That then leads to anoxic encephalopathy, which is brain damage due to lack of oxygen.
The laryngoscopy and upper gastrointestinal endoscopy refer to the diagnostic procedure Rivers was having performed at the time.
Propofol, the drug Rivers was on while her operation was being performed, is used to induce or maintain anesthesia during surgery and is the same drug that caused the death of Michael Jackson when he overdosed on it back in 2009.
And lastly, gastroesophageal reflux disease is why Rivers was having the surgery performed.
Dr Gwen Korovin, Rivers' throat specialist, was one of the doctors in the room when the incident occurred. The report means that Rivers died when she stopped getting oxygen to her brain, said Manhattan gastroenterologist Dr. Jerome Waye, past president of the American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy.
'That may have happened from a heart attack, or a stroke, or too much sedation,' said Waye, who has spoken with physicians from the Yorkville facility.
Waye said speculation among New York physicians is that Rivers had a vocal cord lesion that was being biopsied when she had some sort of vocal cord spasm.
'No one really knows what happened, but the scuttlebutt is that she had a biopsy of a vocal cord lesion. That’s what it sounds like, that an ENT was there, took a biopsy for the lesion, and we don’t know what the connection is between that and her going off to the hospital is.
There’s a big disconnect there – what happened between the biopsy, we don’t even know if she had the rest of the endoscopy – and the loss of oxygen to the brain?'
Waye said such complications are uncommon.
'These are very, very rare complications,' Waye said.
'There are millions of endoscopic investigations done every day under propofol, and yet so infrequently do we see a situation like this.'
He added, 'It’s unusual we just never see spasms of the vocal cords that would cause someone to have an anoxic encephalopathy.'
Rivers was rushed to the Mount Sinai Hospital on August 28 after she stopped breathing as a result of serious complications during a routine throat procedure.
She was put into a medically induced coma and then, two days later, placed on life support.
Four days after that she passed away.
