5 1
O C T O B E R 2 0 1 4 | O U T P AT I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E O N L I N E
C O V E R S T O R Y
I
s fame to blame for the death of Joan Rivers?
That's what New York plastic surgeon Elan
Singer, MD, says. He writes in Forbes that Ms.
Rivers "died because of VIP Syndrome. She died
because her VIP status caused the people taking
care of her to alter their routine."
Did Yorkville Endoscopy veer from its normal
procedures in a misguided effort to accommodate Ms. Rivers's celebrity
and guard her privacy? It's likely true, says Kenneth Rothfield, MD, MBA,
chairman of the department of anesthesiology at Saint Agnes Hospital in
Baltimore, Md. "Providers are no less immune than everyone else to
being starstruck, and it can cloud your judgment."
In trying to provide star-worthy care, says Dr. Rothfield, physicians
often end up losing perspective. "I think providers are thrown for a loop
when dealing with VIPs. The natural urge is to provide extra-special
care. You wind up doing stuff you wouldn't normally do, and sometimes
the results aren't good. The best care typically is the care that's adminis-
tered to strangers — to the average patient who shows up. My word of
caution to celebrities would be to make it clear you want the same care
the average Joe gets."
"Family, friends, VIPs and people who have surgery on Mondays,"
says Gary Lawson, MD, ticking off the list of patients who tend to have
the worst surgical experiences. Dr. Lawson, an anesthesiologist at the
Adult & Children's Surgery Center of SW Florida in Fort Myers, says the
key is consistency. "Don't let it cloud your judgment, and remain ever
vigilant. I've serviced the Prime Minister of Japan and 2 Presidents of
the United States, and everything turned out fine."
— Jim Burger
VIP SYNDROME
Was Joan Rivers a Victim of Her Own Success?
