ms. rivers. -i am so glad. -i'm a photographer.oan: and you can see there's something going on here that's wonderful. woman: right there, i photographed the same drug store for 20 years, every time they changed the price of cigarettes. joan: oh, how brilliant is that? woman: thank you. joan: where was it shown? woman: life magazine. i have taken over 100,000 photos, so you might even know my work. look up flofox.com. woman: happy thanksgiving. flo: thank you. i can't wait to get out of here and go home and look you up. flo fox, baby. my name is flo fox. tom snyder: i'm with flo fox right now. what happened that caused your eyesight to start to fail? i believe it's connected with multiple sclerosis. i walk with a cane. i'm a little off-balance. first my eyes went and, uh... joan: oh, it's so sad. there's a sexy, young, artistic, edgy, new york-tough, bohemian girl. tom: it's amazing, isn't it? joan: life is so...mean! [indistinct conversation, piano playing waltz] [utensil raps glass] joan: thank you all for being here. this morning

ms. rivers' east side apartment here in new york. she was with her son, 13-year-old cooper, who melissa's joan's only daughter, cooper is the only grandchild. this is a lot of weight on both of them. what we understand from the family, though, is that they were here at the hospital when that painful end of life decision had to be made. and then they were at 1:17 p.m., melissa rivers announced that her mother had died here at mt. sinai hospital. >> miguel, the clinic that you mentioned, that performed what was supposed to be just a routine procedure on her throat is now under formal investigation. i know you said the family is keeping the door open to a possible lawsuit but there's a formal investigation, right? >> yeah. it could get a lot uglier than it could be better. the funeral is set for sunday. but the yorkville endoscopy where ms. rivers went for something to do with her throat, possibly her larynx last thursday morning, she had had a show just late on wednesday night. she had been out to dinner that night. she had a very earl

ms. rivers broke into an all-male fraternity, at a time when many thought women weren't funny.he took the stage and was just as harsh and raunchy as the men. >> the only way i get heavy breathing from my husband is when he's having an asthma attack. >> reporter: she also made herself the punch line, that gave her a uniquely female voice. >> this is all rubber. let me tell you. it's very good because if i fall down, bounce right back up. >> reporter: years later, she thanked johnny carson for putting her in the spotlight. >> edgar, your husband, who made this book happen. and to johnny carson, who made it all happen. that's very sweet of you. that's nice. of course, i didn't make it all happen. >> oh, yes, you did. >> i can only take credit for putting you on the show. but i did say one thing that night which i have seldom said on the night over the years. you finished the routine. and you were devastating. and the audience was falling apart. and i said, you're going to be a big star. that's something you don't say. it sounds like -- >> and i looked behind me. i couldn't believe

ms. rivers was at? >> it's actually very common.re's more than 5,000 of these called ambulatory surgery centers. they're basically a free-standing surgery facility for outpatients only and they're typically owned by the doctors rather than a hospital. some of them are small, like the one ms. rivers was at with just a few doctors that focuses on one or two types of procedures like endoscopy or colonoscopy, but some are quite big and do a range of outpatient procedures and almost look like a hospital. so it can be tricky for a patient to tell the difference between a hospital and outpatient surgery center. essentially, these facilities don't have an emergency room or an i.c.u. and, like i said, are owned by the doctors performing the procedures there rather than a nonprofit or a large corporation. >> sreenivasan: why are they increasing in number? what's creating the market for them to exist? >> two things -- one, more and more procedures are done outpatient because of improvements in technology. you don't have to spend the night in t

ms. rivers, the [bleep] thing? the executive producers are a little concerned about that. joan: and well they should be. i'll probably have one [bleep]. no, exactly, one is fine. and it will be bleeped for tv. man: all right, thanks, joan. see you in a bit. joan: thank you. they're all gonna be so much funnier than i am. see, when you see the lineup, and you know jon stewart had 12 writers work on this, and you know, uh, garry had six writers work on this, and you know, all these people, look who's here. they all have professional staffs. [indistinct conversations] you know, there's a lot of his stuff that's timely. ♪ [laughs] joan, um, what is it like being a comedic icon? i'm sure comedians come up to you and say, "you were an inspiration." joan: i'm not ready to be an icon. i'm not ready to be told thank you. [bleep] you. [laughter] announcer: lewis black, margaret cho, -ben e. king... -don't know him. -denis leary... -clever. -bill maher... -brilliant. -joan rivers. -okay. -garry shandling... -brilliant. -jon stewart. -smart. -ben stiller. -eh...lucky. -and lily tomlin

ms. rivers death will be made, the determination will be made soon.o, clearly, they will do, they will investigate exactly what happened to her and they will have that ruling and it looks like this will probably be a long and difficult legal struggle, as well. >> a memorial in new york on sunday, is that right? >> there will. temple emmanuel in new york. not clear if it will be public or not. all bets it will be a very private event, invitation only and that she will be laid to rest then. in new york, you know, looking at facebook and twitter, some people saying thank god joan rivers died in new york. she would have been very unhappy to have died in los angeles. wolf? >> miguel marquez, very sad story. thanks very much for joining us. >>> let's look now at the groundbreaking career of joan rivers. our entertainment correspondent nischelle turner is standing by. she really did an amazing job paving the way for a lot of other women, especially in comedy. >> oh, thought by many, wolf, as the mother of reinvention because she had a career that spanned fiv

you know, you have the - you have a procedure like with ms rivers, where something wept wrong.n something goes wrong, you would rather be in a hospital where you have staff available immediately to attend to the situation. >> if you had a colon os coppery or elective surgery, did you use the center or did you go to hospital. >> i had a colonoscopy. i lected to go to the hospital. >> because. >> for a number of reasons. when you undergo a colonoscopy you get anaesthesia. i never had demer ol. these are drugs that can precipitate allergic reactions. the throat can close. i felt more comfortable being in a hospital where i knew that there would be staff available to tend to me. >> and our during. >> what are patients being told. what should patients be told that they are not being told? >> well, with regard to outpatients procedures? >> absolutely. >> i can show you that as a practicing cardiologist, and i don't know the specifics, but i would think very hard before referring 81-year-old patient to a surgical center, undergoing an airway procedure, vocal cord procedure. >> facelif

ms. rivers' conditions prior to that procedure?> certainly. >> sure.n, no question that the pre-existing heart condition is relevant. these kinds of surgeries by the way are done in outpatient facilities all the time. the question would be how severe was her previous heart condition that would have -- and remember, you do rely on your physician. you to rely on people.consented say this respectfully, loved her to death, she's amazing, that she consented to go to that if a sil based on the provider's advice. but ultimately in these type of cases, you will go down through the chain of title, if you will, the anesthesiologist, first thing you think about, the nursing care. but most importantly, did they do the proper pre-op testing to make sure they was good enough and n. healtin health, good hea have this type of procedure done in an outpatient facility. >> i have to leave it there and, yes, i think we are all on the same accord that we will mississippi rivers very much. >> absolutely. >> and our hearts and prayers go out to melissa and the rest of her fa

ms. rivers home where you can see the number of flowers being dropped off. the home throughout the afternoon reading the cards, many saying thank you, joan, we'll always remember you. fans clearly moved by her death. the medical examiner saying that the autopsy is complete. it will take some time before the toxicology is finished and that's when we should have our first indication as to the cause of death and then see where the other investigations unfold from then on out. wolf? >> thanks very much. i think all of us agree if there were mistakes made as far as joan rivers is concerned, we want to learn from the mistakes and try to avoid them down the road. based on what we know, the autopsy result, have we learned precisely what happened? >> i don't think we can say that yet, wolf. these investigations take time for the very reason you mentioned. you want to make sure you're covering all of the different angles. when the medical examiner gets involved it doesn't mean there's going to be an autopsy. it could be looking at toxicology levels, how much medicatio

ms. joan rivers so much. we've heard from people time to time again about how generous she was, how supportive she was of other people. not everybody always appreciated her sense of humor though. >> well, that's what i think the big story and headline is here, michaela. while joan rivers was such a pioneer in so many ways professionally, she was the first woman to have a daytime talk show, the first woman to have a late night talk show, she was kind of enduring pioneer of an old kind of humor that people don't get today. it was called catskills and the purpose of it was to go for the joke to the most extreme you could and so many people she was so cruel, how could she do that? but joan did it to herself. one of most outrageous jokes she ever told was the following. so my husband killed himself, get over it. it was all my fault. she says we were making love one night and i took the bag off my head. what did she just say? >> she spared nobody, including herself, to be sure. it's funny. she had even written abou

this morning we're getting a look at 911 calls placed minutes after rivers went into cardiac arrest, during this minor procedure. the ms call history shows first call at 9:40 a.m. dispatcher stated a patient wasn't breathing. a minute later, a call was assign. 9:42. dispatcher reports an 80 year-old female patient undergoing a procedure was not breathing, cpr is not given. 9:43, he noted patient was undergoing a colonoscopy and having difficulty breathing. cpr given. three minutes later fdny arrived on the scene. it is unclear if he meant endoscopy, representatives said the comedian went in for a minor throat procedure. rivers was rushed to mt. sinai hospital where she spent a week in life support before she died. >>> a member of the group, grl is dead, investigators say simon battle killed herself in her west hollywood home on friday. she rose to fame on fox's x factor in 2011, battle joined grg the following year. >>> also another tragic death claiming the life of theater actress molly lynn, she was killed when a tree felon her during a storm. she and her husband had been riding their bikes in the park in chicago whe

morning we're getting a look and listen to the 911 calls placed after rivers went in the cardiac arrest during a minor procedure. msy shows the first call came in at 9:40 a.m. on august 28th. dispatcher stated that a patient wasn't breathing. a minute later the the call was assigned. at 9:42 dispatcher reports an 80 year-old female patient undergoing a procedure was not breathing. cpr at that point not given. 9:43. dispatcher notes that the patient was undergoing a colonoscopy, abe having difficulty breathing, c pr is now given. three minutes later the the fire department arrives on the scene, and it is unclear if the dispatcher meant to say, endoscopy, but representatives for rivers have said that the comedian was in for a minor throat procedure. rivers was rushed to mt. sinai hospital where she spent a week on life support before she died at 81. >>> george clooney, the actor accidentally revealed his big detail about his upcoming wedding. >> well, while accepting an award in italy he revealed his wedding will take place in venice, yes, during his speech he let it slip he and his fiance amal alamuddin will get mar