On what would have been John Ritter’s 78th birthday, the late actor’s family is renewing a public warning about aortic dissection, the condition that killed him in 2003 at a Burbank hospital after doctors initially treated him for a heart attack.
Ritter, star of “Three’s Company,” arrived at the hospital sweating, vomiting and complaining of chest pain. Because heart attacks are far more common than aortic dissections, doctors treated him for a cardiac event before imaging confirmed the real problem. By the time a massive aortic dissection was discovered during a cardiac catheterization, it was too late.
“The sad truth of the matter is that because it’s so much more common for it to be a heart thing, John was treated for a heart attack before they had done any imaging, and that exacerbated it,” said his widow, Amy Yasbeck, 64. “This happens way too often.”
An aortic dissection occurs when the wall of the aorta, the body’s main artery, tears, allowing blood to force its way between the artery’s layers and potentially cut off blood flow to the brain, kidneys or heart, according to UChicago Medicine. “Time is of the freaking essence when this happens,” Yasbeck said. “Fifty percent of people don’t even make it to the hospital.”
A wrongful death lawsuit filed by Ritter’s family argued that a chest X-ray could have revealed his enlarged aorta and pointed doctors toward emergency surgery instead of the blood thinners and catheterization he received, which the suit called the “exact opposite” of what he needed. Both of Ritter’s doctors were later cleared of wrongdoing, though his children and Yasbeck reached settlements in other suits, including one involving the hospital.
A pattern that ran in the family
Ritter’s father, country singer Tex Ritter, died suddenly decades earlier in what was assumed to be a heart attack. The family now suspects that death, too, may have actually been an aortic dissection. “We always heard, ‘Oh those Ritters die of their first and last heart attack,'” Yasbeck said. “He clutched his chest and fell over. He was 60-something years old.”
Four years after John’s death, his brother Tom had surgery to repair part of his aorta after imaging detected a previously unknown aneurysm. “a full new lease on life,” Tyler Ritter, 41, John’s son, said of the outcome.
The John Ritter Foundation estimates up to 80% of patients could survive an aortic dissection if it’s caught and treated quickly. Family history is a key warning sign: as many as one in five people with a thoracic aortic aneurysm or dissection have a relative with the same condition, and researchers have identified genetic variants across 11 genes linked to aortic disease. Inherited conditions such as Marfan syndrome, Loeys-Dietz syndrome and bicuspid aortic valve disease can also weaken the aorta and run in families.
Genetic testing can flag many known mutations and help doctors decide on medication, scan frequency and whether preventive surgery is warranted. It can also identify at-risk relatives.
“Raise your suspicion of this,” Yasbeck said. “Maybe your family didn’t all fall off their tractors and die. Maybe they died first and then fell off their tractors.”
Advocating for yourself
All four of John Ritter’s children now get annual scans of their aortic health. “If we can catch it ahead of time, we can prevent it,” Tyler said, adding that people who suspect a misdiagnosis in their family or know a relative who’s had a dissection “are the people we want going in right this second.”
About 20,000 aortic dissection cases are documented annually in the U.S., though Yasbeck said the true figure may be higher since many go undiagnosed or are attributed to other causes. Other risk factors include chronic uncontrolled high blood pressure, stimulant or illicit drug use, and chest trauma.
Tyler urged patients to trust their instincts with medical providers. “If you sense — and I’ve had this personal experience — that your doctor or cardiologist is putting you down or saying you don’t know what you’re talking about, maybe find another doctor,” he said. “You want to find your right fit.”
The foundation recommends people at risk carry a card, or keep information in a phone’s medical profile, noting their diagnosis and family history, and encourages remembering the acronym STAT as a guide to recognizing symptoms.
“It’s important that you’re treated for the right thing,” Yasbeck said. “Our whole thing at the foundation is to be able to aid in a world where people can avoid the suffering our family went through — and it’s working. But the fight continues.”
