It sucks when people die.

Even if someone has been sick for a while and you have expected that their death was imminent, it is never easy when that time comes.

When a death comes unexpectedly we search for answers, we all do. We mourn those we have lost, but we look for an explanation as to why it happened. Our brains use reason every day so it only makes sense that our brains try to use reason to search for a logical, reasonable answer.

In most cases the reason is crystal clear, leaving no doubt why (or how) someone died. Sometimes, however, we are left wondering. We are left searching for answers. It’s not fair that our loved one was taken so soon, so we need to find that answer.

That answer is not always the one we set out looking for.

The family of John Ritter has lost its $67-million wrongful death lawsuit against a cardiologist and a radiologist, after a California jury on Friday cleared the doctors of negligence in the diagnosis and treatment of the late actor.

The jurors found that Ritter failed to follow radiologist Dr. Matthew Lotysch’s advice to see a physician once Lotysch had done a body scan on him in 2001, the Associated Press and L.A. City News Service report.

Ritter died of a torn aorta in 2003.

The other defendant in the case was Dr. Joseph Lee, who treated Ritter the night he died.

John Ritter was advised to see a physician after having a full body scan in 2001. He did not. I’m sure his family misses him very much, but trying to “compensate” for that loss by suing two doctors who clearly did everything they could to save him just doesn’t make sense.

Doctors, and radiologists, make good money, but everyone on this planet knows they do not have $67 million between them. Hell, I bet they don’t even have $6.7 million between them.

From everything I have heard, John Ritter was a good man. Why would you want to bring down the reputation and livelihood of two other good men, just to compensate for Mr. Ritter’s “potential earning power”?

If there was obvious negligence, I could see the reason for making things right, but John Ritter should have followed up with a physician in 2001 and he didn’t. Because he didn’t he showed up at the emergency room presenting with symptoms of a heart attack and the staff did everything they could to save him.

Losing a loved one is hard, but sometimes we just have to let go. Being heartbroken because your loved one didn’t tell you about their medical problem doesn’t give you the right to destroy the lives of those who dedicated their lives to saving him.

1. Trial lawyers usually handle medical malpractice cases on a contingency fee basis, i.e. they get a percentage of whatever award the jury makes to the plaintiff. The usual contingency fee is 33%. If Amy Yasbeck’s lawyers had a 33% contingency fee arrangement with her, if she had won $67 million, more than $22 million of it would have been pocketed by her lawyers. In other words, the plaintiff’s lawyers had an 8 figure personal financial interest in proving John Ritter’s doctors guilty of negligence. Maybe this is why this became a big court case.

   Comment by Jim on Mar 14th, 2008 @ 19:28

   
   

2. I have no doubt that the lawyers involved were going to have a big payday if they won the case, but the fact of the matter remains.

   There would have been no case if Amy Yasbeck hadn’t pursued it in the first place.

   Death is hard on people and everyone reacts differently. It’s too bad she couldn’t let her children see her celebrate his life rather than try to drag down the names of two good men.

   Comment by Slobokan on Mar 14th, 2008 @ 21:05

   
   

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