Doctors have said that it was only a matter of time before John Ritter's heart gave out. The late actor's wife, however, believes he may have been robbed of his remaining time.
Former Wings star Amy Yasbeck, who was married to Ritter for four years, is moving forward with a malpractice lawsuit against two doctors, one who met with her husband two years before his death and one who unsuccessfully treated him on Sept. 11, 2003 for what turned out to be a preexisting heart condition that wasn't diagnosed until it was too late.
Yasbeck says that none of the facilities that treated Ritter nor the doctors or other personnel involved has admitted any wrongdoing or apologized. She's planning to remedy that.
"You can't treat my kid's dad for something and kill him in the process," the actress told the Los Angeles Times in a recent interview. "I think the money will show how angry the jury will be about what happened to John and what could happen to them."
Yasbeck has already settled up with Providence St. Joseph Medical Center in Burbank, where Ritter died, for $9.4 million and received more than $4 million from other civil-suit targets. But now she's going after radiologist Matthew Lotysch and cardiologist Joseph Lee for more than $67 million in damages.
Ritter's untapped earning potential merits such an abnormally high sum, Yasbeck's lawyer says, especially considering he had recently found sitcom success again with ABC's 8 Simple Rules.
The Emmy winner was on the set of his new show when he became dizzy and experienced nausea and chest pains.
He arrived at St. Joseph's emergency room at about 6 p.m. Various tests were run and, at first, doctors at figured that Ritter had suffered a heart attack and administered anticoagulants, a standard mode of treatment.
When they tried to insert a cardiac catheter, however, Ritter's condition deteriorated and doctors discovered a preexisting condition—sizable aortic dissection, or, a tear in the aorta, which is the largest blood vessel in the body. The condition can be fatal if the aorta ruptures or blood flow is blocked to the coronary arteries.
Attempts to revive him failed and Ritter was pronounced dead at 10:48 p.m. No autopsy was performed.
He died on his daughter Stella's fifth birthday and a week shy of both his 55th birthday and his fourth wedding anniversary.
Yasbeck says she was told afterward that nothing could have been done to save the former Three's Company star.
"The doctors told it to me like I was five, and I told it to her like she was five," she said. "The truth is, it's a lot more complicated and it's a lot more sad."
While the hospital was cited the following month by state regulators for various lapses in care, including the failure to take the chest X-ray that had been ordered by an ER doctor, lawyers for the specialists who remain in the crosshairs maintain that Ritter's heart was a ticking time-bomb.
"I really, really believe that for whatever reason, John Ritter's time was up," Lotysch's attorney, Stephen C. Fraser, told the Times. Yasbeck's camp claims that the radiologist should have noticed Ritter's enlarged aorta when he gave him a full body scan in 2001 at HealthScan America.
"I'm comfortable that a reasonable juror would understand that Dr. Lee was between a rock and a hard spot and had to make a judgment call," added lawyer John McCurdy, who represents the cardiologist.
Yasbeck's attorneys are arguing that the chest X-ray probably would have revealed Ritter's enlarged aorta and surgery could have been performed immediately. The issue at hand is whether doctors jumped the gun by treating him for a heart attack and whether his symptoms were pointing definitively in that direction.
As for the unusually large chunk of change Yasbeck is asking for, she told the Times that the upcoming trial will be about more than money. She'll handle the inevitable digging that the defendants will do into her finances and Ritter's health, she said.
"It's never comfortable, but the idea of the awareness that this brings to the issue trumps that," the actress said. "My discomfort is nothing compared to people who are losing their family to aortic dissection. I can be uncomfortable for however long the trial goes. I'm ready."