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American Morning

Look at Causes of Death of John Ritter, Johnny Cash

Aired September 12, 2003 - 09:42   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Fifty-four-year-old actor John Ritter died suddenly yesterday, working yesterday on the set of his ABC sitcom "Eight Simple Rules for Dating my Teenage Daughter."
Ritter became ill, and now we know he has died at the age of 54. Dr. Sanjay Gupta, more on the heart condition that reportedly took his life. What more are we learning, Sanjay?

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well you know, when you say became ill, he had symptoms that are very similar to a heart condition, probably, chest pain, lots of pain suddenly in the chest. But interestingly, that can occur not only from a heart condition, but also from something that he probably had which was an aortic dissection.

Now the aorta is the largest blood vessel that actually leaves the heart. It goes on and supplies blood to the rest of the body. There's a side look at the body. The aorta is that blue structure in front that extends from the chest into the abdomen.

Notice it's in proximity to the heart which is why when it fails, as you see here, blood actually gets into the wall of the aorta instead of going down the tube where it should go, it dissects into the wall. You can have a massive amount of bleeding into that wall and that can certainly cause death. Which is probably the case here. Symptoms can be very similar to a heart attack though.

HEMMER: You say it's unrecognized or undetected, whatever word we want to use right now. But can you find this in a precondition situation if you went to your doctor and looked for it?

GUPTA: There's something called an aneurysm of the aorta which is a weakening of that blood vessel. If the aorta actually balloons out that is something that can be predicted. But the vast majority of these are undetected and can also be congenital, meaning they could have been around for a long time.

And now is the time that for some reason it bled. It can be worsened by hypertension, it can be worsened by arthrosclerosis. Again, both of those things also affecting the heart, but in this case, it affected the aorta.

HEMMER: I don't mean to split hairs on this medical procedure either as we talk about him in the passing from yesterday. But you're saying again it was not a heart attack. As a doctor, what does that mean to you that you make this distinction, it wasn't a heart attack, it was another heart-related condition? GUPTA: Yes, you know and splitting hairs might be a little bit important here because people know what a heart attack is. Basically, it's when some of the vessels of the heart itself fail. They get blocked and the heart doesn't get enough oxygen.

This is a different problem. Really not altogether different problem but one of the major blood vessels leaving the heart, that is the organ that failed in this case called the aorta. It did not transmit the blood properly. Blood actually got into the wall of the aorta instead of going down the tube.

It probably doesn't make a huge difference now at this point, but I'm confident that at the time when doctors were trying to treat him, it probably made a huge difference. You're treating a very different problem.

HEMMER: We have a little bit of time here left. I want to talk to you about Johnny Cash. What are you learning about the complications he is experienced this past week?

GUPTA: He was in the hospital. he was in the hospital for what they're calling a minor stomach ailment. This down at Baptist Hospital. You can see there, 71-years-old. They're saying died from complications of diabetes.

He was released Tuesday from the hospital. That's three days ago now. Supposedly was doing well at that point. We tried to get a hold of the doctors down there, did not get a hold of them yet, but they did say on Tuesday afternoon when he was discharged from the hospital, they said he was actually doing well. At that time just a minor stomach condition.

What they're saying he actually ended up dying of though was a respiratory problem. That's a lung problem. Diabetes can cause a whole host of problems including infections of the lung which may have led to the demise. We're going to start get some -- little bit more details about this, as well.

HEMMER: I know you've been in touch with both hospitals, the one in Burbank with John Ritter and the hospital in Nashville with Johnny Cash. Thank you, Sanjay. Good to see you.

GUPTA: Take care.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com






Aired September 12, 2003 - 09:42   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Fifty-four-year-old actor John Ritter died suddenly yesterday, working yesterday on the set of his ABC sitcom "Eight Simple Rules for Dating my Teenage Daughter."
Ritter became ill, and now we know he has died at the age of 54. Dr. Sanjay Gupta, more on the heart condition that reportedly took his life. What more are we learning, Sanjay?

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well you know, when you say became ill, he had symptoms that are very similar to a heart condition, probably, chest pain, lots of pain suddenly in the chest. But interestingly, that can occur not only from a heart condition, but also from something that he probably had which was an aortic dissection.

Now the aorta is the largest blood vessel that actually leaves the heart. It goes on and supplies blood to the rest of the body. There's a side look at the body. The aorta is that blue structure in front that extends from the chest into the abdomen.

Notice it's in proximity to the heart which is why when it fails, as you see here, blood actually gets into the wall of the aorta instead of going down the tube where it should go, it dissects into the wall. You can have a massive amount of bleeding into that wall and that can certainly cause death. Which is probably the case here. Symptoms can be very similar to a heart attack though.

HEMMER: You say it's unrecognized or undetected, whatever word we want to use right now. But can you find this in a precondition situation if you went to your doctor and looked for it?

GUPTA: There's something called an aneurysm of the aorta which is a weakening of that blood vessel. If the aorta actually balloons out that is something that can be predicted. But the vast majority of these are undetected and can also be congenital, meaning they could have been around for a long time.

And now is the time that for some reason it bled. It can be worsened by hypertension, it can be worsened by arthrosclerosis. Again, both of those things also affecting the heart, but in this case, it affected the aorta.

HEMMER: I don't mean to split hairs on this medical procedure either as we talk about him in the passing from yesterday. But you're saying again it was not a heart attack. As a doctor, what does that mean to you that you make this distinction, it wasn't a heart attack, it was another heart-related condition? GUPTA: Yes, you know and splitting hairs might be a little bit important here because people know what a heart attack is. Basically, it's when some of the vessels of the heart itself fail. They get blocked and the heart doesn't get enough oxygen.

This is a different problem. Really not altogether different problem but one of the major blood vessels leaving the heart, that is the organ that failed in this case called the aorta. It did not transmit the blood properly. Blood actually got into the wall of the aorta instead of going down the tube.

It probably doesn't make a huge difference now at this point, but I'm confident that at the time when doctors were trying to treat him, it probably made a huge difference. You're treating a very different problem.

HEMMER: We have a little bit of time here left. I want to talk to you about Johnny Cash. What are you learning about the complications he is experienced this past week?

GUPTA: He was in the hospital. he was in the hospital for what they're calling a minor stomach ailment. This down at Baptist Hospital. You can see there, 71-years-old. They're saying died from complications of diabetes.

He was released Tuesday from the hospital. That's three days ago now. Supposedly was doing well at that point. We tried to get a hold of the doctors down there, did not get a hold of them yet, but they did say on Tuesday afternoon when he was discharged from the hospital, they said he was actually doing well. At that time just a minor stomach condition.

What they're saying he actually ended up dying of though was a respiratory problem. That's a lung problem. Diabetes can cause a whole host of problems including infections of the lung which may have led to the demise. We're going to start get some -- little bit more details about this, as well.

HEMMER: I know you've been in touch with both hospitals, the one in Burbank with John Ritter and the hospital in Nashville with Johnny Cash. Thank you, Sanjay. Good to see you.

GUPTA: Take care.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com