I am now a virtual expert on what killed Three’s Company star John Ritter. And when I say virtual, it’s not some cutesy cyber-wiki-geek reference. I literally know more about what killed John Ritter than most first year med students.

Why so well-versed in aorta aneurysms you ask? (See, I wasn’t just blowing smoke.)

Actually, someone very close to me is in the ICU at Westchester Medical Center right now. She’s been there for a couple of days, following a couple of days at Phelps Memorial. Yes, it’s been a long week. And I’ve been surrounded by the family and close friends of similarly afflicted – or, if not similarly afflicted, no less tragically ill. Heart failure, mesothelioma, brain damage, third degree burns, respiratory failure. Cancer of everything.

And the John Ritter aorta aneurysm? That’s what we’re dealing with. Except it started with a tear instead of the expected outright burst, so there was anemia and fatigue before the pressure on the trachea led to loss of oxygen and heart failure. Then there was CPR and paddles and intubation and ventilators.

And night after night of wondering if they hadn’t sent her home from an empty ER in the first place, an ER that was recently renovated to accept dozens of patients…if the insurance companies weren’t so restrictive about the length of stay and what they consider appropriate care and how much they will actually reimburse the facility…well…I wonder.

I have a Barry Crimmins album from the early 90s that dealt with Bush I, and you could listen to it during the reign of Bush II and it was entirely too relevant. All you had to do was add the middle initial. At one point he says something like (and I admit to paraphrasing because I’m just too tired to dig up the exact quote) –

Whoever decided to combine the healing arts and the profit motive was an evil evil person.