The routine surgical procedure Joan Rivers was supposed to undergo turned deadly when a doctor who arrived at the clinic with the legendary comic’s entourage performed an unplanned biopsy on her vocal cords, a medical source who was briefed on the case told The News.
Such a procedure is not supposed to be performed outside of a hospital, according to medical experts.
The Aug. 28 biopsy at Yorkville Endoscopy, an E. 93rd St. clinic that usually only deals with digestive issues, caused Rivers' vocal chords to seize — a condition doctors call a laryngospasm — cutting off her air supply, the source said.
“A biopsy like that should only be done in a hospital setting,” the source said. “If she had been in a hospital when it happened, she might have been okay,” the source said.
Rivers never recovered and died a few days later.
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