Reddy is an alum of Gandhi Medical College.
By The American Bazaar Staff
NEW YORK: Dr. Renuka Reddy Bankulla, the New York-based Indian American anesthesiologist who is among the individuals and entities sued by Joan Rivers’ daughter, Melissa Rivers, had settled two malpractice cases in the past decade, according to reports.
Melissa Rivers filed a multi-million dollar lawsuit claiming that her mother would be alive today if doctors at a New York City endoscopy clinic had not carried out unauthorized medical procedures, ignored advice from an anesthesiologist and taken selfies with the late Fashion Police host during an operation last year, reported Rolling Stone.
The comedian died last September of brain damage caused by low blood oxygen, New York City’s Medical Examiner said at the time. The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages, according to The Associated Press.
Melissa released a statement along with the lawsuit directing harsh words at the clinic, Yorkville Endoscopy. “What ultimately guided me was my unwavering belief that no family should ever have to go through what my mother, [my son] Cooper and I have been through,” she said. “The level of medical mismanagement, incompetency, disrespect and outrageous behavior is shocking and frankly, almost incomprehensible.”
Defendants in the suit include Yorkville, a company that partially owns the clinic and is responsible for approving doctors, Rivers’ personal physician and three anesthesiologists, including Bankulla. The suit alleges that even though the team tried to revive the comic when the operation took a turn for the worse, no one performed a tracheotomy to allow her to breathe, a decision that led to her death.
Rivers family lawyer Jeffrey Bloom said the doctors acted as “groupies” in a statement, according to the New York Daily News, and that the comedian “would have been doing Fashion Police last week,” if they had done their jobs. Bloom and another attorney, Ben Rubinowitz, expressed further anger when speaking to the AP. “To put it mildly, we are not just disappointed by the acts and omissions leading to the death of Joan Rivers, but we are outraged by the lack of care and concern for Ms. Rivers on the part of her treating physicians and the endoscopy center where the treatment was rendered,” they said.
Lohud reported Bruce Brady, who is representing Bankulla as saying of the lawsuit by Melissa Rivers: “The claims of malpractice are unfounded,” said
It was unclear what company Bankulla was working for while she administered anesthesia to Rivers.
Many hospitals and clinics hire outside companies to provide anesthesiologists. Bankulla formerly worked for one such company in New Rochelle, Somnia Anesthesia. A spokeswoman said Bankulla hadn’t worked for the company in three or four years, reported Lohud.
Bankulla went to medical school in India; is an alum of Gandhi Medical College. She has no record of disciplinary actions against her, according to her profile with the state Department of Health.
Records show that she settled malpractice claims in 2005 for an undisclosed amount of money.
Bankulla was also the subject of a lawsuit brought by the family of a Bronx woman who died in childbirth at Bronx Lebanon Hospital in 1999. Bankulla delivered an epidural painkiller to the woman, who died shortly after delivering a son. That lawsuit was settled in 2006 for $4 million, according to Jean Prabhu, who represented the family.
The New York Daily News reported Bankulla objected when Yorkville’s medical director, Lawrence Cohen, came into the room with River’s ear-nose-throat specialist Dr. Gwen Korovin, according to the court papers.
Korovin was in scrubs, prepared to examine Rivers’ windpipe, but Bankulla objected because Rivers had not authorized the procedure, could not do so because she was already sedated, and Korovin, a celebrity voice specialist, was not authorized to do any medical procedure at the clinic, according to the suit.
Cohen dismissed Bankulla’s concerns and Korovin put a tube into Rivers’ trachea. After she complained that she couldn’t see anything, Cohen went into Rivers’ esophagus, took internal pictures and did a biopsy.
Bankulla objected again when Korovin said she was going back into Rivers’ throat because Cohen’s pictures showed substantial swelling inside Rivers’ throat, but Cohen again overruled her, the suit says. Korovin dove in and Cohen whipped out his cell phone to take pictures of the doctor working on the celebrity patient, the suit alleges.
Rivers’ vital signs plummeted after her larynx went into a spasm. With her brain deprived of oxygen, Rivers’ heart failed.
Rivers went into cardiac arrest during a procedure in which doctors performed jobs Rivers had not authorized. When trying to revive Rivers, the doctors also skipped some steps that could have saved her life, the News reported. Rivers went into cardiac arrest during a procedure in which doctors performed jobs Rivers had not authorized. When trying to revive Rivers, the doctors also skipped some steps that could have saved her life.
Ultimately, Cohen did chest compressions and Bankulla used a manual pump to try to put oxygen into her patient but nobody administered a muscle relaxant that was supposed to be on a crash cart to loosen the patient’s throat and nobody cut into her trachea to give her air, the suit says.
Rivers, 81, died a week later at Mount Sinai Hospital.