Testimony Continues In John Ritter Wrongful Death Trial

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John Ritter,Meredith Vieira,Courts,Celebrities
 
 

FIRST PUBLISHED: March 3, 2008 7:24 PM EST
LAST UPDATED: March 3, 2008 7:29 PM EST

LOS ANGELES, Calif. --

John Ritter’s widow, Amy Yasbeck, feels her husband didn’t have to die and faults his doctors for a misdiagnosis.

On Monday, Yasbeck returned to court to finish her emotional testimony in the wrongful death lawsuit she filed against two of Ritter’s doctors for $67 million.

“There were opportunities to save John,” Yasbeck said. “John didn’t have to die.”

Last Thursday, the voice of the late actor echoed through the courtroom as Yasbeck played a message Ritter left on the day he passed away.

“Hi honey, this is John. I’m in my dressing room and not feeling very well,” Ritter said on the message. “I think I have food poisoning… They’re going to call a doctor to look at me.”

During an interview with the “Today” show’s Meredith Vieira last month, Yasbeck said that when she got to the hospital, there was no “race against time” to save John, as his doctors have claimed.

“I was there. John was talking and sitting up and laughing, throwing up a little bit, and trying to make me feel better,” Yasbeck told Vieira.

It was then that Ritter was wheeled away.

“I said, ‘I love you’ and he [held up his hand in an ‘I Love You’ sign]. And that was the last time I saw him,” she added.

Ritter was treated for a heart attack, but died of a torn aorta. He died the same day as their daughter, Stella, turned five.

“And I told it to Stella, which nobody ever wants to do,” an emotional Yasbeck concluded.

Copyright 2009 by NBC Universal, Inc. All rights reserved.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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