THE anesthesiologist involved in Joan Rivers’ botched throat procedure — who, experts say, could have prevented the comedian’s death — was Renuka Reddy Bankulla, The Post has learned. Bankulla, 47, was the third doctor responsible for Rivers’ treatment besides then-Yorkville Endoscopy medical director Lawrence Cohen and celebrity ear, nose and throat specialist Gwen Korovin, but she has never been identified publicly.
Besides administering anesthesia and sedatives, anesthesiologists “must vigilantly watch the patient’s heart rate, blood pressure and other vital signs,” to ensure the patient can breathe, and “intervene promptly” when the patient is in trouble, said Dr. Karen Sibert, a private anesthesiologist in Los Angeles who specializes in treating high-risk adults.
Approached by The Post outside her home in Scarsdale, Bankulla jumped in a car and left.
“Neither Dr. Bankulla nor I have any comment on this subject,” said her lawyer, Bruce Brady.
Bankulla has been mum since the fateful Aug. 28 procedure at the East 93rd Street clinic.
The comedian, who had been seeking a scope of her vocal cords to find out what was causing her hoarseness, went into cardiac arrest during the procedure. She died Sept. 4 at age 81.
When investigators for the US Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services tried to question Bankulla about Rivers’ treatment, she declined to cooperate.
Bankulla had said “she was advised by counsel not to discuss the case at this time,” according to a federal report, which identified her as “Staff #2.”
She told probers only that she gave Rivers 120 milligrams of the powerful anesthetic Propofol — not the 300 stated in medical records. She explained that she had mistakenly “double-clicked” on computerized records.
Bankulla failed to record Rivers’ weight, which is critical to determining how much anesthesia to administer.
“The physicians in charge of the patient failed to identify deteriorating vital signs and provide timely intervention during the procedure,” the report says.
The city medical examiner has ruled Rivers’ died from a severe lack of oxygen to the brain.
Sources say Rivers suffered a laryngospasm, causing her vocal cords to constrict. Anesthesiologists commonly use a muscle relaxer to open the airway.
“It’s Anesthesia 101,” said Vincent Carlesi, medical director of Pain Management Associates in Stamford, Conn. “The first thing they teach you in anesthesia training is to control the airways” to prevent cardiac arrest.
Jeffrey Bloom, a lawyer for Rivers’ daughter, Melissa, who plans to file a multimillion-dollar wrongful-death suit, declined to comment.
Bankulla got her MD in 1991 from Gandhi Medical College in Hyderabad, India, state records show. She trained at Flushing Hospital and Beth Israel Medical Center. She no longer works at Yorkville Endoscopy, the clinic said.
