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Vioxx Press Kit
Statement of Monty Huggins before the House Energy and Commerce
Committee
 Health
Subcommittee Hearing on "Current Issues Related to Medical Liability
Reform"
February 10, 2005, 1 p.m. EST
Mr. Chairman and Members of the Subcommittee:
Thank you for inviting me to testify before you today. My name is
Monty Huggins and I'm from Knoxville, Tennessee. I was born and raised
in the Florida Panhandle. I'm a life-long, active Republican, having
believed in the platform we have stood for for many years, that is,
until now. I'm here today because I'm concerned that Congress is trying
to take away the rights of people like me. You see my wife Janet suffered
a sudden heart attack and passed away on September 25, 2004. She had
been taking Vioxx for about one month prior to her death and she was
only 39 years old.
She was in great shape and had no history of heart problems. She
didn't smoke and she wasn't overweight in the slightest. She was proscribed
Vioxx by her doctors because she had an early onset of rheumatoid
arthritis and had been taking the drug for one month, right up until
her death.
Janet was very involved in her work. She was project scheduler on
large contracting projects like the Cleveland Brown Stadium and a
$350 million project with the Department of Energy. She enjoyed her
job very much and took pride in the projects that she worked on.
Personally, Janet loved hiking, cooking and doing other family activities.
Anything she could do to spend more time with me and our son was always
her top priority. Janet also had a very close relationship with God
and was involved in a variety of church activities and projects for
the needy. We originally met through a church ministry and had just
celebrated our one-year anniversary in Gatlinburg the weekend before
she died.
My wife was an amazing human being and a wonderful mother to her
9-year-old son. We both miss her very much. Her death has impacted
our lives in so many ways. Elijah, her son, will grow up without the
love, tenderness, and advice of his mom. He will not get to enjoy
the pleasures and benefits of having her there for his graduations,
marriage and grandkids. The morning I was getting ready for her funeral
is the morning they pulled Vioxx from the market. This was medicine
that our doctor gave her to make her feel better. Medicine that was
supposed to heal her. If they had pulled this deadly drug from the
market even six to eight weeks earlier, my wife would still be alive
today.
The proposed medical malpractice bill supported by the President
will protect the makers of drugs like Vioxx. Why do you want to protect
companies that may have knowingly killed people? Especially at a time
when we know that our own government is doing a lousy job of protecting
us from dangerous drugs.
When I heard about that guy from the Food and Drug Administration
talking to the Senate it made me extremely angry. The way I understand
it he's one of the top safety officials who approves drugs for the
government. Here's one of the top safety guys telling the Senate that
he and everyone else at the FDA can't do one thing to protect the
American people from medicines that can kill you.
Our own government can't protect us and now they want to give companies
like Merck a free ride and protect them from accountability? People
need to know about this. Because my wife is not the only one who has
died from Vioxx—it could have potentially killed thousands of
others too.
I am not here before you just for me. I am here representing the
tens of thousands that have been affected by this drug and more importantly
to help make sure that we don't have another Vioxx. A defective drug
does not discriminate. This affects everyone in this room. We all
take prescription drugs for various ailments and over the last several
years we have seen the failure of the FDA to protect us. There must
be deterrents to make sure that pharmaceutical companies do not knowingly
put defective drugs on the market all in the name of profits.
This just isn't right. We depend on our government to protect us
from things like this. And now that they can't do anything to get
dangerous medicines off the market, it's just plain wrong to give
the big drug companies this kind of legal protection.
These pharmaceutical companies should be held accountable if their
drug caused my wife's death and the deaths of others and not be allowed
to escape responsibility. This proposed bill would prohibit anyone
from punishing drug companies for bad conduct.
As far as I'm concerned Merck took my wife away from me. They should
be punished—not let off the hook.
Thank you for allowing me to be here today.
For more information, see our Vioxx Press Kit:
Products Liability Resource Center
February 14, 2005
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