John Ritter Civil Trial Starts
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Almost five years after his death, the wife of actor John Ritter is taking her suit to civil court. On September 11, 2003, John felt sick on the set of his show 8 Simple Rules For Dating My Teenage Daughter and went to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead four hours later:
The physicians failed to properly diagnose Ritter’s pre-existing heart problem, according to Lebovits. He said doctors treated Ritter for a heart attack, using methods that worsened his actual condition, a tear in his aorta.
Lebovits cited statistics showing that 66% of patients with Ritter’s aortic problem survived 24 hours when left untreated, and as many as half survived 48 hours.
“They did everything wrong,” Lebovits told jurors. “Everything gets bad. Everything gets worse.”
Defense attorney Stephen Fraser countered that the case is based on “flawed science, wrong assumptions, speculation upon speculation upon speculation, all wrapped up in the obvious aura of celebrity.”
Fraser said he would show that three years before he died, Ritter was turned down for life insurance because a medical evaluation showed “incredibly abnormal” blood levels, specifically his triglyceride level was seven times the normal level. Fraser said the actor ignored the warnings and missed appointments for follow-ups with doctors.
While his wife, actress Amy Yasbeck, has won millions of dollars in suits against the hospital and certain defendants, she contends that John’s earnings would have been around $67 million dollars had the show continued. The show was in the second season when he died.
I can understand wanting to hold people accountable for the unexpected and possibly avoidable death of a loved one, and I was very sad when John died. He was one of my favorite actors on television, hugely funny and very unappreciated, and I personally believe that his death was preventable. And while I think someone should take responsibility, I’m not so sure that they will. It’s sad that John is gone, but all the money in the world won’t bring him back.
But I do have to step back, remove the tragic death aspect of this, and wonder just what it is that actors do that would earn them in the neighborhood of $70 million dollars. As funny as John was, and as much joy and laughter as he brought into people’s lives over the course of his career, he was just acting. In a time when teachers can barely eke out a living because of budget cuts and doctors work tirelessly trying to find cures for cancer and AIDS, we have actors in Hollywood earning this kind of money, and spouses of deceased actors going after it.
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