The death of Joan Rivers was "100% preventable," her daughter, Melissa, tells an interviewer on the "Today Show" in a segment that aired this morning. "How about paying attention to the vital signs?" she adds. "How about having a properly equipped crash cart?"

Melissa Rivers, who has filed a multimillion-dollar malpractice suit against 5 physicians and Manhattan's Yorkville Endoscopy, says she became aware of the severity of the situation while traveling. "I'd gotten emails on the plane that she was already in a medically induced coma," she says, "and they were dropping her body temperature, which I knew was bad because that is the protocol for catastrophic brain injury."

Joan Rivers, then 81, entered Yorkville Endoscopy for a throat procedure last Aug. 28, and was transferred to Mount Sinai Hospital after suffering complications. She died on Sept. 4, having never regained consciousness. Investigators have said that those treating her made numerous mistakes both before and during the surgery.

Jim Burger