Survivor of heart attack joins lawsuit in Vioxx case

HAYDEN – “Fit at 50” became Marilyn Hainsworth’s mantra as she closed in on her half-century birthday a year ago.

She packed her life with healthy swims, runs, bike rides, kayak trips and hikes between directing air traffic and taking care of her aging father.

With yoga and her near-vegetarian diet, Hainsworth believed she had a long future ahead of her, until a doctor put her on the arthritis pain drug Vioxx in the fall of 2003 for abdominal muscle pain from a repaired hernia.

Four months later, Hainsworth was in Kootenai Medical Center’s new cardiac center recovering from a heart attack.

Now, she’s a plaintiff in one of 42 lawsuits against Merck and Co. Inc., the manufacturer of Vioxx, that the Owens, James, Vernon and Weeks law firm in Coeur d’Alene has filed.

“When I made it to 50, I said, ‘Yes!’ ” Hainsworth said recently, pumping her fist in the air. “Two months before, I was on a metal slab and could’ve been in the morgue.”

The 42 lawsuits represent people from Grangeville to Bonners Ferry in Idaho and from Asotin County to Spokane in Washington, attorney Craig Vernon said.

Spokane attorneys Robert Crotty and Matthew Zuchetto are filing another two dozen similar lawsuits against Merck, according to a Spokesman-Review story published last week.

“Some treating physicians referred patients to us,” Vernon said. “Some people are educated and want to participate after reading about Vioxx.”

Merck and Vioxx became household words last fall after the company pulled its popular pain drug from the market after data showed it doubled the risk of heart attacks and strokes.

Vernon filed Hainsworth’s lawsuit Jan. 14. His law firm also is representing the family of a Sandpoint man who died after he took Vioxx, Vernon said.

Hainsworth was caring for her father in his Post Falls home on Jan. 24 last year when she felt a pain just above center in her back.

She had broken her back in a fall while hiking years ago and assumed the pain was related. She said she tried to relieve the pain with yoga moves. It grew worse and she became sick to her stomach.

Hainsworth recognized heart attack signs from her years as a trained wilderness first responder and lifeguard. She had no history of heart problems. Her father called 911.

During the ambulance ride to the hospital, “I felt like someone was driving pile-drivers into my armpits,” she said.

Emergency room staff couldn’t pinpoint the problem, so Hainsworth was admitted for observation. A few hours later, the monitors to which she was hooked began beeping and whistling. She was having a heart attack.

Doctors found an artery blocked. They opened it with a stent and allowed her to watch on a monitor as they worked.

After surgery, Hainsworth admitted she’d started smoking about five cigarettes a day two years ago to handle the stress of caring for her father.

Doctors suggested smoking cessation classes and diet to lower cholesterol. Her cholesterol measured 127 five years ago at her last test before the heart attack. After the attack, it measured 274.

Six months later, Hainsworth participated in her first triathlon, swimming a quarter mile, cycling 12 miles and running three miles. Her family took a picture of her crossing the finish line.

Last fall, she decided to update her medical record so she could return to work as an air traffic controller. That’s when she heard Merck had pulled Vioxx off the market. The symptoms she read the drug caused were too familiar to her, she said.

Those included shortness of breath at high altitude, although she had lived comfortably at 8,000 feet in Colorado for years.

While taking Vioxx, Hainsworth mentally tuned out periodically, got sick to her stomach and once slept for two days straight, she said. She said her family asked her about nonsensical phone calls she’d made and couldn’t remember.

Vernon said his firm has doctors assess medical cases for validity before accepting them. The firm has rejected more than 10 requests for representation against Merck, he said. Merck was just informed of the lawsuits and has 30 days to respond. Vernon said he expects the lawsuits to move from state court to federal court.

“It could drag on quite awhile,” Vernon said. “I’m thinking 2006.”