Joan Rivers’ Will Specified Charities

Joan Rivers has been mourned heavily since her death in September, when she stopped breathing during a throat procedure, and among those who feel the loss of the comedian are the people she endowed he...
Joan Rivers’ Will Specified Charities
Written by Amanda Crum
  • Joan Rivers has been mourned heavily since her death in September, when she stopped breathing during a throat procedure, and among those who feel the loss of the comedian are the people she endowed her generosity to. Now, details of her will have been released, and it looks like there are specifications for several charities to receive money from her large estate.

    Rivers left her daughter, Melissa, in charge of dividing up her assets and reportedly asked that money be given to Guide Dogs for the Blind, Jewish Guild Healthcare, the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, God’s Love We Deliver, the Simon Wiesenthal Center and the Jewish Home and Hospital Foundation in Manhattan. The amounts aren’t known.

    The 81-year old actress and comedian was undergoing a procedure on her throat at a New York clinic when she suffered a spasm of her vocal chords, which limited her breathing and caused her to go into cardiac arrest. She was put into a medically-induced coma and transported to a nearby hospital, where she stayed for several days unconscious before her death, which was ruled as caused by a “therapeutic complication”.

    “The classification of a death as a therapeutic complication means that the death resulted from a predictable complication of medical therapy,” the autopsy report explained.

    Rumors began to circulate earlier this year that Melissa Rivers was planning to sue the clinic that performed the procedure, with The Daily Mail reporting the news from a source.

    “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,” the source said.

    For Melissa, a lawsuit would be more about getting answers as to why her mother died than anything else.

    “It’s not about the money. For Melissa, this is about getting an answer about why this happened and making sure it never happens again. The only way to get these answers is to file a lawsuit. Melissa wants answers—not money,” a source said in October.

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