Gulf Coast Confidential with Mollye Barrows
Gulf Coast Confidential with Mollye Barrows
VIP treatment – How celebrity clinic culture failed Joan Rivers
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
The bright lights of showbiz faded into a dim New York outpatient clinic on August 28, 2014, when comedy icon Joan Rivers walked in for a routine throat procedure and never spoke again.
What was supposed to be a brief examination of her vocal cords instead unraveled into a chaotic display of gross medical malpractice, where star-struck doctors reportedly suffered from "VIP syndrome" and prioritized cell phone selfies over critical patient care.
When the 81-year-old’s airway began to swell shut under the heavy sedative propofol, the clinic’s medical director famously dismissed the supervising anesthesiologist's desperate warnings as "paranoid," steering a routine medical checkup into a fatal, oxygen-starved catastrophe.
The tragedy left the entertainment world reeling, stripping Hollywood of its sharpest wit and exposing a terrifying lack of oversight in outpatient surgical centers.
Following her death from irreversible brain damage a week later, a high-stakes legal battle culminated in a confidential multi-million-dollar settlement, forcing the physicians involved to publicly accept full accountability for her death.
While Rivers spent her legendary career fearlessly exposing the absurdity of celebrity culture, her final, tragic chapter ultimately pulled back the curtain on the deadly consequences of medical arrogance.
Join us Tuesday for the latest episode of the Gulf Coast Confidential Podcast, “VIP treatment – How celebrity clinic culture failed Joan Rivers!”
This episode is brought to you by Czarzar Law. I'm investigative journalist Molly Barrows. For years, I've covered the stories that made headlines in Northwest Florida and all along the Gulf Coast. Murder. Missing persons. And mysteries of all kinds. These cases are far from over for many victims. Because the full story has yet to surface. Join me for Gulf Coast Confidential, where I dive into the saltier side of the style and expose the lies, greed, and corruption that often weighs down the truth. It's time to turn the tide and get a shot at justice. Hey y'all, and welcome to the Gulf Coast Confidential Podcast. I'm Molly. Hey y'all, I'm Pam. And if you haven't already, please like and subscribe and know that we would just love to hear from you. Leave a comment or a suggestion about a case, because there is always something what the Feezy Brew, and not just here in our beautiful neck of the woods in Northwest Florida, but well beyond the Gulf Coast. So today's episode is called The VIP Treatment: How Celebrity Clinic Culture Failed Joan Rivers. The bright lights of Showbiz faded into a dim New York outpatient clinic on August 28th, 2014, when comedy icon Joan Rivers walked in for a routine throat procedure and never spoke again. What was supposed to be a brief examination of her vocal cords instead unraveled into a chaotic display of gross medical malpractice where star-struck doctors reportedly suffered from, quote, VIP syndrome, unquote, and prioritized cell phone selfies over critical patient care. So we're going to break down what happened in that tragic case. I remember that, you know, that was just awful. And it was so sudden, but I don't think I really fully understood what happened until we started researching it for this episode.
SPEAKER_00Definitely. And we researched it before when we first started doing Ben Brown. And we research it all along because a lot of the things that are happening may or may not be similar, but for the most part, most physicians and surgeons and doctors and nurses and people in operating rooms don't operate like either one of these cases. Well, I'm glad to hear it. Right on.
SPEAKER_01All right. Well, I'm looking forward to learning more about it and sharing that with all y'all as well, what we have learned. But first we're going to cover a couple of cases that we're following. And like I said, you know, we like the what the feasie, and no place delivers what the feasie better than Florida. So, Florida man David Allan O'Brien, he's a 67-year-old resident of the villages. He was arrested not too long ago, just this month, in fact, after police say there was a violent confrontation involving a woman that he met on Tinder. You know, no good story ever ends with, or begins, I should say, with a meeting on Tinder. It may end well and it may not end well. In this case, it did not end well for Mr. O'Brien. And if you're not familiar with the villages, it's like the largest master planned, age-restricted retirement community in the world. It's almost 50 miles northwest of Orlando, and sometimes they call it the adult Disney World, which is just kind of disturbing in light of this particular story. But police say that he promised a 21-year-old woman $1,000 to be his quote unquote sugar baby. And then she came over to his place at the villages. He gave her 800 bucks. She started getting uncomfortable, decides she just does not want to be his sugar baby, does not want him to be her sugar daddy. Yeah. All this sugar that's getting spread around. She doesn't want any part of it. So she takes off, calls a friend, he comes to get her. And then uh Mr. O'Brien, according to police, was not happy about it. He wanted his money back. He chases them down with his truck, uh, starts ramming their car. I mean, it just was a chaotic scene, all because she quote unquote felt uncomfortable. And he just lost his mind, it sounds like.
SPEAKER_00Oh, well, he's 67, like me. Yeah. She's 21. Okay. And he's at the villages. And I I don't know which way they mean that there, you know, Disneyland or whatever. But the thing is, there is there is a minimum age. You have to be over 55, I think, to live there full time. You might can have people visit or this, that, and they're like your family. But as a rule, it is a retirement uh community. And like you said, 50 miles here or there from Disney World. And it covers 50 square miles. Wow. The villages cover three counties in the middle of Florida. Wow. I mean, I have friends that live there. I have friends that go, come live down here. I'm like, I'm I'm good right up here.
SPEAKER_01Well, you're not on Tinder, Pam. Apparently that might change.
SPEAKER_00And I will never be on Tinder. Uh uh. I don't blame you.
SPEAKER_01That is just a tragedy waiting to happen in my world for sure.
SPEAKER_00Well, mostly you get around there by golf carts and stuff, and a lot of people, this villages has all kinds of uh rumors and urban legends and urban myths about it. And one of them, or two of them being, see that little loofah sponge right there? Okay. They all say that upside down pineapple club and people can be there. They want to say that, but because they say if you see a white loofah on somebody's golf court, they brand new, or something like this, or if this color and that color. Yes, I guess. I didn't get too far in it because I'm uninterested. But I did read a little bit. And then because I got to thinking about this, because Dollar Tree sells a lot of loofahs.
unknownOh man.
SPEAKER_01You know what? I guess at least they're clean.
SPEAKER_00Well, and I have seen people at the Dollar Tree come out of the Dollar Tree or something. And somebody's got like a hundred loofahs on the back of their car because somebody put it there, you know, just trying to aggravate them. Man. But it is, I think, this is what I think. Even my age, you know, 67, I can't find my car sometimes. I think people put those on the back of their car to go, I got a purple loofah.
SPEAKER_01Oh, that makes sense. Right.
SPEAKER_00Or they were like, they put the pool noodles on there too, and just trying to make stuff, whether it is or whether it ain't, I personally think that I could go for this more innocent cloth. I got a purple pool noodle on my car.
SPEAKER_01They can just get a bumper sticker, you know?
SPEAKER_00It's everybody's golf cart looks the same. It's all golf carts. So there's all kinds of wrecks and stuff, because you know, it's not necessarily like the road, but there's hundreds of miles of like golf trails and stuff. And remember pickleball? They got their own pickleball down there. They got tennis, they got dancing, they got uh live music almost every night of the week. 365. Yeah, I know. I think people at a certain point would. But I had always wondered about that, that loofah and the pool noodle and this, that, and the other. But the the either way, I guess, makes sense, but I choose the more innocent one of those. And this guy, he decides that he's mad because she asked her sister and a friend to come pick her up. She's like, wait a minute, I might have jumped in this too far. I ain't trying to be nobody's whole box of sugar babies. Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_01I mean, you gotta think you're walking into a little bit of a sketchy, potentially troublesome situation by agreeing to accept money for a date.
SPEAKER_00A thousand dollars, and then he said, I'll take you shopping. I'll and he took her to go buy lingerie or lingerie as the nigga said.
SPEAKER_01Man, it's just so much. Getting richer and richer. It's crazier. So he's all revved up, raring to go. He's ready to spend uh an evening with this young sugar baby, but she decides she doesn't want a sugar daddy. Right. So she calls up her sister, and then her sister comes with a male friend. So the two of them come to take her, and they get in their car to leave, and he's just not having it. So he just starts chasing them, according to police, I guess, and then uh rammed them twice near his house, and they end up like crashing into this telephone pole, but he's not done yet, right? Like he pulls out a gun or something on him.
SPEAKER_00Yep. Well, he orders the man friend out on his face with this 22 caliber hand with his Ruger there. And so about that time, then 911's been called. 911 police are walking up on this. By that time, this guy has like uh crawled off somewhere, so not to be shot by this 22 from this crazy guy. Wow.
SPEAKER_01My goodness. So this kid got away from him, like trying to sneak away, and then police got there before he shot anybody, hopefully.
SPEAKER_00He just got way over there away from this psycho. Hiding in some brush or whatever.
SPEAKER_01But yeah, it I I the police were saying that he was arrested at the scene. They charged him with one count of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, four counts of aggravated battery, and he's free on like $90,000 bond, which is nuts to me. I mean, not nuts that that's the perfect amount to give him. I'm gonna say it, like he certainly deserves the charges, it sounds like in a in a high bond. But I imagine that that night did not go as he planned.
SPEAKER_00Oh no. Well, I mean, and then here's what your very best thinking got you there. And thank God, uh her very best thinking or very worst thinking got her there. But thank goodness that she, you know, said, Let me get out of this and call my sister. I agree. And so she did. But the reason this is kind of a story right now is because this just happened. This happened like eight days ago, ten days ago. And we're like, what in the world? We don't have all this going on.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I know that's crazy. Um apparently, I guess it happened. He was booked into the jail the day that it happened on July 22nd, and then he was released the next day on that big bail, $90,000 bond. So he's gonna be arraigned on August 14th in Sumter County, where this went down. Um, but I think it's interesting though, Florida State laws were saying that individuals released on felony bonds for violent offenses involving firearms, they face mandatory standard conditions alongside some restrictions. So basically he can't have any contact with these victims. Um, and then he's got a I think something to do with the handgun. He's legally barred now from possessing, owning, or carrying any firearm or ammunition while he's out on bond. He's also restricted to staying right there in Florida. And he, you know, probably can't go too terribly far from his house. I mean, he's probably relatively infamous, I would think, at this point.
SPEAKER_00Oh, I'm pretty sure that spreads through there like wildfire, and people are like, we don't want you messing this up for us here. But we'll learn a lot more about this case and about the villages when we talk about his next appearance.
SPEAKER_01All right, looking forward to that. And then another big case this week, Colt Gray was sentenced to life in prison. He was the teenager in Georgia who was sentenced just this week to life in prison without the possibility of parole on July 28th. And of course, you may remember that this happened in connection with a September 4th, 2024 mass shooting at Appalachie High School in Winder, Georgia. Gray was just 14 years old at the time, and his dad was also tried for this and convicted because his son had been showing signs of disturbing behavior, potentially violent behavior. The FBI had even come knocking on his door. His dad excused it, um, gave him a gun for Christmas, and that's the very gun that he used to walk in and do this attack, which killed two students and two teachers and injured nine other people. But because he was so young, the death penalty was off the table. Um, but it's interesting. I guess that was like a three-day hearing before they decided on what his sentence would be. But he's a young man, and it sounds like that he will spend the rest of his life behind bars.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and he learned nothing. Yeah, because I agree. He's he was 14 years old when it happened. His dad, his dad got, like you said, convicted. His dad gets sentenced tomorrow, and that will be July 30th. We're recording a little bit ahead. And his dad is facing up to 180 years in prison. Wow. Now, that's why people, you know, the school and the police and stuff ain't coming out to your house just to giggle and laugh. They're out there telling you, you know, and this dad, I mean, even this guy right here, Colt, he was talking to his mom on the little jail phones there. And he's told her, let me make sure I get this right. He's like, uh, basically he he said, Can you believe it, mom? I took over Thomas Crooks in popularity. Take that. I'm in the big leagues. Well, Thomas Crooks is the person that tried to assassinate Donald Trump, President Trump.
SPEAKER_01Wow. Well, apparently he had like thousands of pictures of Nicholas Cruz and other school shitter. So it sounds like he idolized these pillars. Right.
SPEAKER_00He did have that at his house, and his parents saw that. Remember, he had that poster up there. We've done a whole episode on this, and we'll be releasing it later this month. But, you know, and his mother basically was like, yeah, she was kind of egging him on. But so he got life in prison without parole, and the dad is facing up to 180 years.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and he was convicted of second-degree murder and involuntary manslaughter for providing his son with that AR-15 style rifle that was used in the attack. So looking forward to seeing what the dad gets. But I imagine after seeing his son get life in prison, he's got to know that there's a good chance that he's not gonna see the light of day outside of a jail cell for a long time as well.
SPEAKER_00Well, this might have some sort of like other appeals and stuff that happened because they tried that daddy before they tried, or this boy made his plea or whatever. The daddy wasn't the one that shot and killed the people at school. He knew all this stuff, and uh certainly they've got some responsibility with him there, else he wouldn't be facing all this and convicted of all that. But it it it's I I just look for that to just be something we just never get through hearing about.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, you're probably right about that. And that's sad and unfortunate, but I imagine that's got to be some relief for the victims' families. All right, well, we'll continue to follow that dad and see what happens there. Another case that we're following in Alabama. This is a shout out to our Coleman County fans. We love those folks in Alabama. You may remember Cornbread Hell and Whitney Cheatham and the most beautiful mugshot ever in all the world. Just came out of Coleman. Well, we got another interesting case that we're following. This is about an attorney named Sarah Baker. She, in fact, is the former Coleman County attorney, and she's accused of repeatedly trying to poison her husband with fentanyl. Y'all, not once, but more than once, a couple different times, now they're saying. So she was initially arrested late last year in November of 2025, and she was suspended by the Alabama State Bar. Now she's facing a string of felonies, including three counts of attempted murder, conspiracy to commit murder, elder abuse, domestic violence, and multiple counts of solicitation to commit a controlled substance crime. So basically, detectives are saying that she systematically tried to lace her husband's food and drinks with fentanyl on multiple occasions, and she was his full-time caretaker as well. Um, and she's maintained a plea of not guilty, but her bond's been revoked because there were these new allegations that came up. She was awaiting trial in this 11-count indictment, free on $400,000 bond, but it was revoked after investigators um discovered that she had violated some pretrial terms, which included not making contact with her husband's caretakers and interfering with his medical care. So prosecutors did also introduce evidence that she asked a caretaker for an empty prescription bottle belonging to him, and she later returned that bottle inside a black bag and told the caretaker to sneak it back into the house. So I guess we're trying to figure out exactly what was in that bottle, and police say it was a purple powdery substance, and that field test came back also testing positive for fentanyl. So what's crazy to me is that her husband is a former Auburn University football player. His name is James Doyle Baker. And didn't he testify that he didn't want anything bad to happen to her bacon?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, well, see, I think we got to go all the way back to the beginning a little bit. I don't think that he has an awareness of a lot of things on a daily level. I think she was his caregiver to the point that he basically depended on her so much. And that back in that September of last year is when they say she tried to uh overdose him with fentanyl on three different occasions during that September. And then she got arrested at that time in November, right after that. So I think it it may be more of a, and I don't even like to say this word, but you know, like self-unalive type of thing packed with him. And I don't know if they've discussed that or whatever. It just and then there's a lot of people the other way and go, no, she just being evil, you know. So there's this way or that way. But when she got arrested again on just July the 14th, a couple of weeks ago, she was over in Mountain Brook. You know, that's a little ways from Coleman, that's uh near Birmingham. Right. And so they you'll see her in Mountain Brooks very posh, and Mountain Brook don't have the perp walk coming out of it too much, you know. But there was a lady across the street looking out her window or or where she could see like that, and they were walking her out to the car because of this second time here, going back and giving the caretaker the asking for the bottle and this that. It was the caretaker that turned her in, you know, because like she's like, they already told you this is what's happening with people. When you get told what to do, that's what you have to do. But I don't know if it was like a one last hurrah or I don't listen to the law, but by all, you know, accounts, they say she's a very decent attorney, and like you said, she had been a prosecutor, and then a lot of people have written, you see it on the internet too, like, well, she helped me, or someone like she got me out of a hot mess, right? All kind of stuff, and she's not a dummy, and she is an older lady. So what this right here, i i it's not Corey Richard's type of poison you with fentanyl like in a Moscow mule.
SPEAKER_01Right, trying to get the life insurance policy to pay off her debts and be with her lover.
SPEAKER_00So I don't know if it's that I love you so much, which I I don't know. If I love you so much I'm gonna help you, or I love me so much I'm gonna help you. Right. Type of thing.
SPEAKER_01Oh, that's so sad. Well, it's sad for for all of them. If that is certainly the case, that's tragic. But yeah, I mean, for her to keep trying, it sounds like she certainly was motivated.
SPEAKER_00Well, to go all the way, this is about two, two and a half hours away from Coleman. She was staying far enough away. If she just would have done what they said, and then now she's gonna have to stay in jail until her trial. They're not letting her out again.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, the irony will be if he goes ahead and passes anyway due to natural causes, and there she is stuck behind bars.
SPEAKER_00Right. And he is the one, he told the judge, he testified at this last little hearing of hers. He said, He said, Judge, what we kept all that clean. I didn't see her. See, he doesn't know that that with the caregiver and stuff was just as much of an infraction as seeing her.
SPEAKER_01Interesting. Well, that's uh we'll continue to follow that and see what happens there. And another case that we've done an episode on, y'all may remember Kimber Mill. She was the 18-year-old Cleveland High School cheerleader who was shot in the head and leg during this early morning bonfire party in Pinson, Alabama, at a place called the Pit. This was in 2025, so last fall. Um, bunch of kids basically showing their butt, if you will, starting a fight. Somebody starts uh waving guns. I can't remember all that happened with that crazy case, but uh do you remember?
SPEAKER_00Well, there's just the talking and brawling and pushing and shoving, and there's a bonfire, and there's kids from school and adults is just out there where they shouldn't, they're all trespassing.
SPEAKER_01Teens and young adults trespassing on some power line property, and then one guy started kind of getting talking big or whatever, or they thought that he was, and they were coming after him, and he's like, No, no, let me be. And then they kind of all pile up on him, and then he has a gun and starts firing at him. Yeah, that's what I remember. And then she got hit in the head.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. And they're saying some of them are saying, Well, Kimber was in the middle, this, that, and the other. And we don't even know. I mean, I went to school up there in Middle Alabama that we do bonfires and things like that, and we go out and stuff, but uh, you know, my mom knew where I was by 10. I couldn't be out there. But things are different now. But there's just a whole bunch of them out there. You have to remember it's like during the fall. It's kind of a nice thing to do. That in the spring they'll be graduating. You're just feeling your oats and stuff. You're in the left the twelfth fixing to be graduating, you're 12th grader. Yeah. So she was fixing to be a nurse or go to school to be a nurse, and these guys, they probably going to go somewhere to play football or something. It's just a very sad thing. I mean, it just it but now there's more stuff going on.
SPEAKER_01So yeah, now there's this the guy that was charged with killing her, Steven Tyler Whitehead, he has filed a motion just this week officially requesting a pretrial immunity hearing to dismiss all the charges. He's claiming a stand your ground offense. Alabama has that same law that we do here in Florida, and they're arguing that his use of deadly force was legally justified because he was acting in self-defense while being violently assaulted by what he called an angry mob at this Pitt bonfire party. So if the judge does end up granting him pretrial immunity, the defense only needs to prove that he acted in self-defense by a quote unquote preponderance of the evidence. And if successful, the judge is gonna dismiss that murder and attempted murder charge with prejudice, meaning that they can never be refiled. So the judge has yet to rule on this request. But it is interesting because I think a lot of people thought that he was going to make this motion, if you will. He was gonna ask or defend himself by saying it was stand your ground because there's video. There was all this video of what happened. Different people had cell phone video of it, so it was from different angles. And some people were saying that Kimmer Mills was amongst this group that was attacking this guy. Some people were saying that wasn't the case, uh, that it was just a melee and it was hard to tell who was doing what. But I don't think it's disputed that a lot of people are on this one guy. And if he did start firing on some level, I can I can see why he would want to defend himself. But again, why do they show up all these kids and young people with weapons to what is supposed to be just a good time? Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Well, I mean that's happening more and more and more everywhere at every little thing. I mean, no matter where you go, you don't know if someone's got a weapon. Because with this here, they a plea deal he could have pled to twenty years, or if it's uh if he's convicted, it could be life in prison, or it can be this stand your ground. So definitely we've even seen all different kind of videos and stuff, and you hear all kind of stories and and you know, i it's all fresh and everything. So I mean, still that wasn't that long ago.
SPEAKER_01No, and it's all gearing up for the trial if he if the judge basically says it can move forward. September 3rd is when they've got a formal motion hearing to address these outstanding legal arguments, including this immunity request. And October 5th is when his trial is supposed to begin. So the judge definitely said there's not going to be any continuances, no delays, except under extraordinary circumstances. So if he is convicted at trial, he faces life in prison. He may be sorry he didn't take that 20-year deal. Or the judge may end up being like, hey, you were defending yourself and it may not even go to trial. So we just don't know. Yeah, we'll keep folks posted. So we're about to dive into our main topic, but before we do, we just want to give a shout out to personal injury attorney Joe Zarzar and thank him for being a supporter of Gulf Coast Confidential. Because, you know, catastrophes can happen when you least expect it to you or a loved one. And when that happens, sometimes you just need insurance companies to pay. You might not have your job anymore. Your loved one who supported you might not. You might be injured, and there's through no fault of your own. And so you have questions, you need to have somebody who is on your side because insurance companies often aren't. And so when a general practice attorney isn't going to cut it, you need a specialist. And Joe Czarzar with Czarzar Law is a board certified civil trial specialist. And he does not just settle cases, he prepares to win them in front of a jury. No upfront fees, no excuses, just the aggressive representation that clients deserve. So don't settle for less, demand the best, and call Czarzar Law at 855 Hire Joe or visit czarzarlaw.com and he will be sure to answer all your questions. Well, now back to our main episode on the tragic and unnecessary death of Joan Rivers. So she died on September 4th of 2014. She was just 81 years old. And I say just 81 years old, because my dad was just 74 when he passed. So now the older I get, and then viewing it, I'm like, oh, 81. Yeah. You know, you're not a whippersnapper, but you know, hopefully you still got a couple, at least a decade or so, a few more years left in there. But she wasn't ready to go, that's for sure. She wasn't expecting to die. But this was basically like a not so funny comedy of errors, literally, that happened one right after the other. And what I think is such an interesting um predicator, if you will. It's almost like she predicted what was going to happen. She had, you were telling me she joked around with her family the night before, you know, don't if I die.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it was actually at a com comedy club type of thing, told them, y'all have a story to tell. And then, but she had she always very careful to physicians and stuff because her dad was a physician. And she he would say, like, be careful with anesthesia. And she told them, Look, be careful with me because Melissa all Melissa only has me.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and and and sadly they were not. So she was going to see the doctor basically because she was having some issues with her throat, and it was just supposed to be a routine, outpatient procedure at the Yorkville Endoscopy Clinic in Manhattan. Um, she underwent this scheduled procedure and they were going to investigate what she had like chronic acid reflux and hoarseness, and that was really to me part of like her charm. She always had that little raspy voice, but I think there were some issues, so she wanted to get it checked out. And according to police, she was under the sedative propofol, and her own personal ear, nose, and throat specialist performed an unapproved vocal cord biopsy that she had not given consent for her to perform, and she did it anyway. And then come to find out as police start to investigate this after she passed, that there was just that was just the beginning of what the problems were that were happening. So tell us a little bit about what went on.
SPEAKER_00Okay. Well, she has a physician in there, the main surgeon that's doing this basically to look and see what's going on with her vocal cords, because they're a little raspy and like you said, a little bit of reflux. But like it wasn't needing this whole big procedure. The doctor that was in there at the time, the ENT doctor, was her personal ENT doctor. And that doctor was in there also, and she just was going to go ahead and do a biopsy, not informed consent, not she hadn't signed for it or anything, but she was already right there, and she shouldn't have done that. That's not you can't do that. But she didn't even talk to Joan about this before, and she didn't even have uh privileges at that center either. So Dr. Cohen is the main surgeon there, and Dr. Coravin is her ENT or her voice, that's what's called voice doctors. Because in New York, you basically got all these Broadway singers and all these actors and actresses, they can't afford to have that raspy voice or or strain in their voice and vocal cords and stuff. So this lady was was pretty uh well established, Dr. Coravin. Well, she's in there and just decides she's gonna do a biopsy. So when you go in there, the the vocal cords and everything in there just poking around in there, you can have a spasm. Well, that's what happened. And Dr. Bancula was the anesthesiologist. So we got these three doctors in here. We got Cohen the surgeon, Dr. Corvin, the ENT, and Bancula, the anesthesiologist. Well, the anesthesiologist, Dr. Bancula, tells Cohen, hey, things are happening here, something's fixing to happen, and he kind of just dismisses her, goes, Oh, you're quite the curious cat. You're always you you just always want to understand what's going on. So he waved her off. Well, when the voice doctor, Corvin, saw what was going on, she fled out of that room. She didn't want to be caught because A, she didn't have informed consent, and B, she is not, does not have privileges to practice there or to do a surgery there.
SPEAKER_01Wow. And at one point they were also taking selfies while she was unconscious before all this began, right?
SPEAKER_00That was doc that was the main doctor, Dr. Cohen. He was the main one that did that. And he said, Well, I think she will want that. It's not for you, it's not what you think. It's not if you decide to do a biopsy. And the only one to me that has sense was the anesthesiologist that was going, hey guys, you know, something's happening here. Because once those folds fold over like that, you have to establish an airway. And they didn't do that either because they couldn't put something else further back down her throat.
SPEAKER_01Was she having some kind of an allergic reaction to it?
SPEAKER_00It was just, I think, just going ahead and, you know, poking around in there and they hadn't she should have been in a OR or a hospital at 81 years old. And that was not even something they had planned on. The anesthesiologist wasn't ready for that. Cohen didn't seem like he cared. He just gonna do a a surgical selfie like that with her under sedation and fixing to have a procedure. That was wrong.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, all part of that toxic VIP celebrity culture. That's awful. I guess they saw an opportunity, got caught up and swept up in the fame, and then forgot the seriousness and also what they were there to do. First do no harm. Not first take a selfie.
SPEAKER_00Oh no. Well, and also they said that happens a lot more than we would think, that people get starstruck and stuff. I mean, we've got a facility right over there in Gulf Breeze that a lot of athletes come to, you know, and you just kind of got to use some sense if you're a provider or a uh healthcare person or something, you know, you've been taught not to do that. I've field prescriptions for lots of famous people, but you just don't talk about it. They're just a regular patient to you at that moment. Now, if they want to say something about it, that's different. But, you know, he he had gotten to where he was too close to her. The ENT doctor was too close. The only one maintaining any professional decorum was the anesthesiologist.
SPEAKER_01And so what officially was her cause of death?
SPEAKER_00Onoxic encephalopathy.
SPEAKER_01Which is in layman's turn. So she just, yeah, it swelled up and she couldn't breathe and nobody responded. I can't believe the doctor that just ran out of the room. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Well, this is a surgery center, too, you know, so it's not the oh, oh, she wasn't gonna get caught. That lady. I mean, what does that tell you? I mean, that's your that that's her private patient, her own personal patient. Joan Rivers could have paid cash for this. And so why would you do that to her? You are not a you she should have lost her license forever, and I don't know if she did or didn't, but you bailed on her while she is under sedation, and you did that to her?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, that's insane. And then giving her irreversible brain damage, cutting off oxygen to her brain. That is terrible. And I think it's fantastic that her daughter, I mean, my heart just goes out to Melissa Rivers, but I think it's great that she filed a medical malpractice suit against them because you need to hold them accountable for that.
SPEAKER_00Well, there's a lot of things too that they've come up with. They they didn't have a crash cart in there either. So, I mean, it was a surgery center. I'm funny about that. I want surgery at the hospital. Uh I mean, I don't care what it is. If I can have it at the hospital, that's what I want. Because now they've also got uh these laws that you cannot take your cell phone into the operating room. I mean, there's zero tolerance.
SPEAKER_01Well, I guess they might be considering that at Jay Hospital as well now. We've talked a lot about what that what's going on there. Joe Zarzar, in fact, is handling a lawsuit on behalf of a person who basically says that the hospital approached them to give them a payout because staff were taking pictures while they were unconscious or sleeping and making fun of them on social media essentially when they were in vulnerable positions. So yeah, and I thought that was interesting studying up on VIP syndrome, and that's what these doctors are accused of having that they were starstruck, nervous, fumbling, and that caused them more to focus on her celebrity status as opposed to taking their job seriously and treating her like the patient that she was and allowing her basically to suffocate, you know, to have her brain starved of oxygen, not following any basic safety protocols. And then they had her under propofol. So tell us a little bit about that because I think that's a pretty powerful, fast-acting anesthetic. And even though it's common, um, it's not, you know, common to use it. I mean, it's not uncommon that it can cause patients to stop breathing in and of itself.
SPEAKER_00Well, I mean, that's what uh Michael Jackson died of propofol, you know, and this is not meant to be willy-nilly uh at your house. It's called, you know, they call it milk of amnesia, not milk of magnesia. Wow. And or mother's milk. It people just feel so uh calm about it, you know. It you've had it before, probably I have. It just don't even remember anything, and and it's a peaceful sleep. But I I I don't talk about that too too much on things because I don't know what dose that they gave and who was doing what. Thank God the anesthesiologist seemed like to be the only one checked in. But also you have to keep in mind too, the anesthesiologist is doing his or her part, but also they're doing the vitals also. So we got vitals going everywhere this way and that way and the other, and neither one of these two helping.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, that's terrible. Well, and all the more reason if you are gonna use a powerful anesthetic like that, that you need to have your crash cart available, you need to have the proper tools on hand in case something does go south. Because you're right, her age alone made her a potential risk for that. And then for them to just panic and and handle it like bumbling idiots, really, pardon my French, but not the anesthesiologist, at least they tried. What's interesting to me is that there were no criminal charges filed. I guess they looked closely at the case and decided that criminal charges didn't apply, but it certainly ended in a civil battle. And Melissa Rivers sued the medical clinic and the doctors individually for gross negligence. And in May 2016, they accepted full responsibility according to legal documents for her death, and they agreed to a substantial, confidential, multi-million dollar settlement. So I'm I'm glad for her sake that that happened.
SPEAKER_00Oh, yeah. Well, and also in these surgery centers, you don't have that peer review like we talk about. You know, sometimes people can skirt around that. And the layering, just the layering, layering, layering, wouldn't it have been wonderful if we would have had three physicians that each did their own job and she would still be here.
SPEAKER_01Right. Well, I mean, it's bad enough that one doctor might drop the ball, but you had two essentially that dropped the ball, and the third one that was trying to get their attention, but just couldn't overpower the bumblingness of the other two. Which I think that's another reason why Melissa Rivers wanted to settle because as quickly as she did, because she just wanted them to own up to their actions publicly, and let that be a warning, you know. I guess if they're if if some doctor is suffering from VIP syndrome, then let this be a warning, you know. Put the patient first. Right, right. Your your interest and your celebrity starstruckness aside.
SPEAKER_00Right. And her mama's death is the reason that they can't be having their cell phones in there and stuff, and zero tolerance. You cannot have your cell phone in there.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I saw that that was uh one of the things that came out of it too, that there were stricter safety regulations, more oversight at some of these outpatient surgical centers. So I'm happy for her in that regard. I mean, this is just a tragedy to lose her mother, not just for her, but also to the world. Joan Rivers was a great entertainer. I know you and I remember when Johnny Carson was on the air and you said that she was the only female comedian he really liked.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, at first there and everything. I remember uh when I was younger, she had two jokes, and I'd tell them all the time my mom would get tired of hearing them basically. She said she didn't know, like with uh Queen Elizabeth that she said she confuses me. I don't know whether to curtsy or lick the back of her head, you know, because you stamp. And then she'd then she'd talk about her husband. Because Edgar, her husband, he had he he he loved her so much, and and she said basically she went out and bought some lingerie, some you know, peekaboo lingerie, and she said, Well, Edgar peeked and he booed, you know. So But that is silly little stuff you remember. I mean, and that's when I was like a teenager remembering that because I always loved how she told a story. She'd get real fast and she'd get slow, and then you know, she'd go, Oh no, you know, no, she said something that was maybe wrong to people that she didn't care, you know. She always said, Can we talk? you know, and so she had her jewelry line, she had the fashion police, she reinvented herself. She had uh her home in New York was worth 25 million. Wow. And she, I think, was well over a hundred million. So Melissa didn't need this money, but I say all that about her finances. See that milk dud thing right there? Yes. In her purse, Melissa was like, Why there's all this milk dud stuff in your mom? Because she took care of herself. She didn't eat a lot of junk and this, that, and the other. But Joan Rivers saved her money and she she wasn't cheap or anything. But that's when she traveled, she'd put her ones and fives and tens and stuff in there in that. So somebody getting her purse, they don't say that that's milk duds, that ain't money.
SPEAKER_01That sounds like somebody who's lived in New York a long time.
SPEAKER_00Exactly. And she she had gone out to California because Melissa had moved out there, and it was the hardest thing. They have a show. Melissa and Joan had a show, and it was about her going to California, and it was so hard for her. But you see her, you know, just do like grandmom's will because her little grandson was out there. And so she wanted to stay out there, but they would mix it up sometimes, but not very long, because they adored each other. Melissa loved her mother and Joan loved Melissa. But that way she said when she was cleaning out her mom's apartment, she's like, Where are these dang of milk duds tanks everywhere? So she said she looked in books and robes and things like that, you know. So, I mean, she definitely, she definitely was funny. Some people didn't like her because she's sardonic or smart aleck sometimes, but I liked her.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I did too. And I follow Melissa Rivers on social media. She's funny in and of herself. And I just love her. I think she's very down-to-earth and she's cute, and I always enjoyed her mama too. And she references like funny things that her mom would say. So I, you know, her mom gets to live on through her great and sweet daughter, too, it sounds like. All right. Well, I appreciate it, Pam. Thank you so much. And we thank you for joining us. That is it for VIP Treatment, How Celebrity Clinic Culture Failed Joan Rivers. I'm your host, writer, and producer Molly Barrows, with co-host and researcher Pam Hill. And a big thanks as always to our director, editor, and production engineer James Roy. Remember, you can check out more episodes of Gulf Coast Confidential wherever you listen to your favorite podcast. Or don't forget about our YouTube channel. You may be watching it right here. And if you are, please don't forget to like and subscribe, and we will see you next time.