Renuka Reddy Bankulla is a name that is likely to become somewhat familiar in the coming months, as she is the anesthesiologist who has been named in Melissa Rivers's malpractice suit that was filed on behalf of her mother, Joan Rivers. Bankulla was named in the suit, along with the Yorkville Endoscopy Clinic and the individual doctors who were in the procedure room at the time of Joan's cardiac arrest. Melissa's filing alleges that Bankulla failed to take the necessary steps in order to try and save her mothers' life. It is a claim that it did not take the anesthesiologist long to respond to.
In fact, according to a report by Page Six, it took Bankulla just three days to file a response in Manhattan Supreme Court.
"Melissa Rivers' suit," said Bankulla, "failed to demand or request a crash cart" when Joan's oxygen level dropped below 90 percent and her heart rate plummeted.
But the board-certified anesthesiologist said a crash cart was available in the operating room.
Bankulla also disputes Melissa's claim that doctors could have saved Joan if they had administered a muscle relaxant, succinylcholine, which loosens seized vocal cords.
"The laryngospasm had already broken, and Joan Rivers was being adequately oxygenated with mask ventilation," Bankulla said in last Thursday's [Jan. 29's] Manhattan Supreme Court filing," said the source.
So far, Bankulla is the only one to file a response and fight back against allegations of negligence. Up until now, the other two doctors, Drs. Lawrence Cohen and Gwen Korovin have all but gone into hiding. They have yet to even try to battle the deck that is stacked in front of them.
Readers: Do you think that maybe Bankulla really did do her job, but once the other two made mistakes there was nothing she could have done to save Joan? Tell us your thoughts in the comments section below.
