Celebrity Doctors And Their Celebrity Patients

The New York Times has a lengthy puff piece on the ENT surgeon who was present during Joan Rivers' final and fatal procedure, Gwen Korovin, M.D. Dr. Korovin graduated from Cornell then went to SUNY Syracuse for medical school. Upon graduation she did her residency in Manhattan's Lenox Hill Hospital. There, she was mentored by Dr. William Gould, an ENT physician with many celebrity patients. When Dr. Gould retired, Dr. Korovin assumed his practice, retaining many of his famous clients.

Dr. Korovin was highly recommended among the rich and famous. She appeared to have treated everyone on Broadway for throat and sinus ailments. They all loved her. And she loved them back. She was glamorous in her own right, dressing in chic outfits that rivaled her patients and attending their red carpet premiers. Like a good concierge physician, she apparently could be reached at all times day or night by her patients. She received their loyalty when she confronted show producers and demanded they let the stars rest their voices instead going on. So much for the old show business ethos, "The show must go on."

The writer, who admits he has been Dr. Korovin's patient, name drops the doctor's patients throughout the article. Stars like Cher, Bruce Springsteen, Elvis Costello, Ariana Grande, and many others are mentioned. I wonder if all these people that are named gave the author permission to mention them as being patients of Dr. Korovin. If not, this is a huge HIPAA violation.

Perhaps it was these ongoing relationships with VIP patients that ultimately led to her downfall. She may have been just a bit too cocky as she breezed into Yorkville Endoscopy that fateful day last August to treat her good friend Ms. Rivers. She was so sure of her status that she couldn't even bother identifying herself to the staff at the surgery center, some of whom assumed she was the patient's makeup artist.

The coroner's report ultimately stated that Ms. Rivers died from an anoxic brain injury from a propofol sedation that was "a predictable complication of medical therapy." A doctor who has no credentials for working at a surgery center can just waltz in without any identification is a complication of medical therapy? When a doctor can perform a procedure that the patient may not have consented to is a complication of medical therapy? When a surgeon is so confident of her relationship with her patient that she can commit the atrocious act of taking a selfie with her phone while the patient is asleep under anesthesia is a complication of medical therapy? An ENT surgeon who is actually present in the operating room when a patient suffers laryngospasm but incredibly is unable to establish an emergency airway is a complication of medical therapy? Wow. Who paid off the coroner's office in New York?

Whether the doctor will be sued by Ms. Rivers' daughter for medical malpractice is still to be determined. But that is the life of a VIP doctor. Your mistakes are just as outsized as your patients.