American comedienne Joan Rivers has been placed on life support as her family keep vigil by her bedside.
The acid-tongued comic, who was initially placed in a medically-induced coma after collapsing on Thursday, is now completely reliant on the machine to keep her alive.
According to reports in the US, her family, led by daughter Melissa, are hopeful she will take a turn for the better.
However sources say the family will have to consider turning off her life support if the situation does not improve.
Insiders say the 81-year-old would not want to live unless she could enjoy “a full and active life … (she) would never want to be a burden on anyone.” on Thursday after she stopped breathing during surgery on her throat.
She had been undergoing treatment on her vocal chords when medics noticed she was suffering complications.
A 911 call was made at 9:39am on Thursday with the caller telling the operator: “We have somebody in either cardiac or respiratory arrest.”
Rivers, who is well known for her use of plastic surgery, was rushed to Mount Sinai Hospital in Manhattan where her daughter Melissa rushed to be at her bedside from LA.
She had showed no sign she was about to undergo surgery on Tuesday as she tapped a special 90 minute edition of the American show Fashion Police which aired that night
The mum-of-one had begun her hectic weekly schedule on Sunday working for the programme attending the Video Music Awards and then the Emmys the following night.
Just hours before the operation she was tweeting her 2.1million followers telling them to watch highlights of TV award ceremony.
