Posted on 07/18/2005 10:19:53 AM PDT by The SISU kid
ANGLETON, Texas - Merck & Co.'s top epidemiologist faces the potential for a tough week when testimony begins in the nation's first Vioxx-related lawsuit to go to trial.
Nancy Santanello, executive director and head of Merck's department of epidemiology, attended opening statements in the case last week and was expected to return to the courtroom Monday.
If so, the plaintiff's lawyer, Mark Lanier, aims to make her his first witness.
"It's my intention to really go after her," Lanier said Sunday.
Lanier tried to get Santanello in the witness chair last week after jurors listened to hours of opening statements from him and Merck lawyer David Kiernan. But state District Judge Ben Hardin ended the day's proceedings and said testimony would commence Monday.
Kiernan ended his opening statement by mentioning Santanello along with a string of other current and retired Merck executives as having taken Vioxx before the company pulled the popular painkiller from the market last year.
The trial centers on the May 2001 death of Robert Ernst, a 59-year-old produce manager at a Wal-Mart in Cleburne, near Fort Worth. Ernst also ran marathons and worked as a personal trainer. According to the plaintiffs, he took Vioxx for about eight months to relieve pain in his hands, and died in his sleep next to his wife, Carol, one month shy of their first wedding anniversary.
His autopsy report says he died of an arrhythmia, or irregular heartbeat, secondary to plaque buildup in two major arteries.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
At least we aren't subject to that heinous "It's a Beautiful morning" song anymore.
Thanks F.A.!!1 Now I'll have that firkin song stuck in my head all day!!
}^)
OK, just think Viking Kitties & the Immigrant Song, and everything will be OK.
"It's a beautiful Morning" </Dorothy Hamill>
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