This summary is based on a report issued moments ago by Harris Martin Publishing:
An Illinois state court jury has found Merck & Co. Inc. to be free of negligence in the Midwest’s first Vioxx trial, rejecting a widower’s claims that the company failed to adequately warn his wife’s physician about the alleged dangers of Vioxx and that Vioxx caused her fatal 2003 heart attack.
Frank Schwaller claimed that his wife, Patricia Schwaller, suffered a fatal heart attack on August. 8, 2003, at age 52 as a result of using Vioxx for approximately 20 months. Merck maintained that it acted swiftly to try to warn doctors that Vioxx carried possibly dangerous side effects and that Schwaller’s other health problems might better explain her death.
