Actor John Ritter’s death two decades ago helped raise awareness about a heart condition that's sometimes misdiagnosed and often misunderstood but preventable in many cases.
His wife, actress Amy Yasbeck, continues to honor her husband's legacy while helping a Maryland family that's been touched by tragedy in the same way.
“This medical part of the legacy, that's the part that I feel like I need to carry on,” Yasbeck said.
At 54 years old, the beloved actor who gained fame with of Jack Tripper on “Three’s Company” suffered an aortic dissection — a tear in the main artery that carries blood from the heart to the body. Doctors initially thought it was a heart attack because the symptoms are similar.
“Completely different treatment,” Yasbeck said. “John went in with chest pains, and they start treating him with blood thinners and running an angiogram up, and he was dissecting. It wasn't a block; it was a tear. It wasn't his heart; it was his aorta.”
She created a foundation in his name to save and change lives.
“Because what I had heard in the hospital when John died was he can't see this coming. It's a ticking time bomb, and I'm like, but I'm MacGyver. Ticking time bombs don't scare me. What if you know how to, you know, defuse it,” Yasbeck said.
On the John Ritter Foundation website, Ritter’s Rules educate about how to recognize, treat and prevent aortic dissection. Yasbeck’s inbox floods with emails from strangers who've been impacted by her husband's passing.
“We have the most amazing inbox, our foundation, because people feel so lonely when this happens to them, because they're told this is very rare, we couldn't see it coming,” she said.
Yasbeck will host a fundraiser next month in honor of a family in Frederick, Maryland, that's been impacted by the same heart condition.
“There is a family that's very close to my heart as, as the aorta is close to the heart, right?” she said. “Cindy Retterer lost her husband, Jeff and we talked forever, because it's a lonely thing. Widowhood, anyway, lonely thing. But when it comes along with the possibility of the rest of your family getting taken out by the same thing, it activates every person.”
Aortic dissection has a genetic component. After Ritter's sudden death, his brother was screened and found out he had a similar heart condition and was successfully treated with surgery. Genetic testing and CT scans can diagnose an aortic dissection.
“If you have any suspicion, if you have unexplained early deaths in your family before 60, proceed with caution and safety,” Yasbeck said. “And if you go in with chest pain to the hospital, you could say, ‘Please, you know, measure my aorta. Check me for the John Ritter thing.’ You have to know what it's, what it's called. People's lives have been saved that way.”
The March 15 fundraiser at the Citizens Ballroom in Frederick will feature games and prizes. The goal is to raise $50,000. Tickets are available here.
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