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A “substantial” settlement has been reached by the family of comedian Joan Rivers with Yorkville Endoscopy, a Manhattan, NY-based outpatient surgery center, and the physicians who the family said were responsible for her death after what has been described as a routine surgical procedure on Aug. 28, 2014.

Rivers went into cardiac arrest during the procedure and died several days later. The physicians accepted responsibility for her death. The amount of the settlement was undisclosed, although the family’s lawyers said the amount was “substantial.”

Melissa Rivers issued a statement, published in The New York Times, which said that she was glad to be “able to put the legal aspects of my mother’s death behind me and ensure that those culpable for her death have accepted responsibility for their actions quickly and without equivocation.” She said she would “work towards ensuring higher safety standards in outpatient surgical clinics.”

The lawyers for the Rivers family, Jeffrey Bloom and Ben Rubinowitz, said they did not reveal the amount of the settlement because they wanted to focus on improving patient care. But they said it was “substantial,” according to the Times.

A spokesman for Yorkville Endoscopy was quoted in the Times as saying, “The parties agreed to settle this case to avoid protracted litigation. We remain committed to providing quality, compassionate health care services.”

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services previously noted these errors could have contributed to Rivers’ death

• failing to identify deteriorating vital signs and provide timely intervention;
• failing to record Rivers’ weight prior to the administration of medication for sedation;
• failing to consistently document the dose of propofol, a sedative, administered;
• failing to obtain Rivers’ informed consent for each procedure performed;
• failing to ensure that she was cared for only by physicians granted privilege in accordance with the clinic’s bylaws
• failing to abide by its own policy by allowing a photograph to be taken of a surgeon and Rivers while she was under sedation. (For more details of the case, see “Malpractice caused Joan Rivers’ death, critics say,” which was published previously in our Same-Day Surgery publication.)

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By Joy Daughtery Dickinson, Executive Editor

'Substantial' Settlement Reached in Joan Rivers’ Death