John Ritter’s Family Sounds Alarm Over Condition That Killed Him at Just 54

John Ritter‘s family is urging others to learn the warning signs of the condition that unexpectedly killed the beloved actor more than two decades ago.

John, who was best known for playing Jack Tripper on Three’s Company, would have turned 78 on Thursday, September 17. The actor died at age 54 in September 2003 after suffering an aortic dissection — a tear in the wall of the body’s main artery.

Now, the actor’s widow, Amy Yasbeck, and son Tyler Ritter are using his birthday to raise awareness about the potentially deadly medical emergency, particularly for people with a family history of sudden death.

“We always heard, ‘Oh, those Ritters die of their first and last heart attack,'” Yasbeck, 64, told the New York Post in an interview published Thursday, September 17.

John’s father, country singer and actor Tex Ritter, died in 1974 at age 68 after suffering what was believed to be a heart attack. However, the family now suspects an aortic condition may have been responsible for his sudden death as well.

“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.”

According to John’s biography on the John Ritter Foundation for Aortic Health’s website, John became ill while working on his ABC sitcom 8 Simple Rules… for Dating My Teenage Daughter on September 11, 2003. He was taken to Providence St. Joseph Medical Center in Burbank, California, where doctors initially believed he was suffering a heart attack.

“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,” Yasbeck told the New York Post. “This happens way too often.”

Doctors later discovered the Sling Blade star had suffered a massive aortic dissection. He died that night.

Following his death, Yasbeck established the John Ritter Foundation for Aortic Health to increase awareness of thoracic aortic disease and improve its detection and treatment.

Tyler, 41, stressed that knowing a person’s risk before an emergency occurs could make a crucial difference.

“We’re just ringing the alarm,” he said. “If we can catch it ahead of time, we can prevent it.”

The family’s latest push comes during Aortic Dissection Awareness Week, which runs from September 13 through September 19 this year.

More than 20 years after John’s death, his loved ones hope his story will encourage other families to investigate unexplained sudden deaths in their own family histories rather than assuming they were heart attacks.