Melissa Rivers To Sue Doctor Who Performed Unauthorized Biopsy On Late Mother

Joan Rivers' daughter, Melissa says she will be suing Dr Gwen Korovin, the throat specialist who performed a procedure on Joan before her death. The doctor was allegedly unauthorised to practice at the Yorkville Endoscopy Clinic in Manhattan where Joan died after a routine endoscopy caused her cadiac arrest.

Although the medical centre's director Dr Lawrence Cohen stepped down following the death Rivers, it is believed Dr Korovin has continued working and accepting new patients at the practice.

A close friend of the Rivers family told MailOnline:

''Melissa does plan to sue the clinic. It's very difficult to discuss something so unpleasant with her, but she is going to launch a lawsuit.''

CNN reports that clinic workers claim both Dr Cohen and Dr Korovin were treating the late star in the hours leading up to her death with Dr Korovin performing an initial laryngoscopy followed by an endoscopy to help determine the cause of a sore throat and hoarseness she was suffering from.

Dr Cohen then ordered Dr Korovin to perform a second endoscopy and laryngoscopy - during which Joan's vocal chords are said to have swollen, cutting off the oxygen supply to her lungs and leading to the cardiac arrest that killed her.

Rivers claims Dr Korovin was unauthorised to practise the procedure and was only meant to observe Dr Cohen as she was not certified to practise by the clinic and therefore outside of the regulations of New York health law.