James Woods Takes Brother's Death to Trial

Canada

James Woods Takes Brother's Death to Trial

Mon., Nov. 9, 2009 7:25 PM PST by Natalie Finn

AP Photo/Stew Milne

James Woods wants answers.

The actor and counsel were in court Monday for opening arguments in Woods' negligence case against a Rhode Island hospital, which he maintains made fatal errors that resulted in his 49-year-old brother's death from heart failure in 2006.

Woods, who filed the suit the suit on behalf of Michael's estate and teenage son, says that the doctors who treated his brother at Kent Hospital failed to realize his heart was failing, even after an EKG came back abnormal.

After taking him for an X-ray, hospital staff then left him on a gurney in the hallway because no room was available, and Michael went into cardiac arrest, dying about three hours after he arrived at the hospital, according to Woods' camp.

The defendants' attorneys said, meanwhile, that Michael got to Kent complaining of a sore throat, denied that he was experiencing chest pains, and insisted he was having an anxiety attack. His symptoms were inconsistent with a heart attack, according to the doctors.

The younger Woods brother had plaque buildup in an artery and suffered from myocardial ischemia, caused by lack of blood flow to the heart, the defense said.

His heart and arteries were too far gone and there was no way to save him, they added.

"Only a psychic could have known what was actually wrong with him," said attorney Jason Preciphs.

John Ritter's widow, Amy Yasbeck, lost a wrongful-death suit against two doctors who treated her husband at two different times before his death in 2003 from a preexisting heart defect. She had alleged negligence against a radiologist who didn't detect any problem in a body scan several years prior to his death, and against the cardiologist who was called in to treat Ritter for a heart attack, when in fact there was a tear in his aorta.

The defendants countered that there was nothing that anybody could have done to save the actor.

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