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He would n't have taken it had he known about the heart attack risk , lawyer Chris Seeger told jurors.Merck repeatedly reminded jurors that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration had approved it as safe and effective on four occasions for use against different types of pain , the last a month before Merck recalled it.The company 's lawyers cited Humeston 's elevated blood pressure , weight and stress from an ongoing dispute he was having with his U.S. Postal Service bosses , saying they were to blame for his heart attack , not Vioxx.The night before the heart attack , Humeston was called by his personal physician in response to an office visit by Postal Service fraud investigators in which they showed him a secretly-recorded videotape of Humeston working on a car at his home.Merck 's expert cardiologist testified that that call was the " absolute trigger " for the heart attack.While Humeston made for a sympathetic plaintiff , he also was a relatively healthy one , appearing in court for nearly every day of testimony and taking the stand for one day.In the Texas case , the victim was a Wal-Mart produce manager who died after taking Vioxx ; his widow was the plaintiff.Merck 's lawyers also told jurors there was no scientific link between short-term Vioxx use and heart attacks . " shrugged one gum-chewing cardinal in the Vatican yesterday . " On a day rich in religious and ecclesiastical symbolism , Pope Benedict also went to St George 's , the seat of the Greek Orthodox church in Istanbul , to join Bartholomew I , the ecumenical patriarch and spiritual leader of world Orthodoxy , at a service and denounce as " a scandal the divisions among Christians " . He called for a just solution to territorial disputes , " notably those relating to Armenia , the Balkan states , and the territories composing the ancient kingdom of Poland " . Gaziano , an expert in cardiology and epidemiology hired by Merck , contradicted statements of experts who testified on Humeston 's behalf that Vioxx caused his heart attack.He also contradicted the findings of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration , which last April concluded that Cox-2 inhibitors are associated with increased risk of heart attack , stroke and death with long-term use.Merck blames the heart attack on Humeston , saying elevated blood pressure , excess weight and on-the-job stress triggered the attack , which he survived.His case is one of more than 7,000 suits filed against Merck over Vioxx , and plaintiff lawyers say thousands more suits will be filed in the future.In the first Vioxx trial , a Texas jury in August found Merck liable in a Vioxx user 's death , awarding his widow $ 253 million . Many Turks remember remarks he made in 2004 when , as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger , he said Turkey should build ties with the Islamic world rather than the EU.Ankara is currently locked in difficult membership negotiations with Brussels.On Sunday , more than 20,000 Muslim protesters rallied against the Pope 's trip in Istanbul , chanting : " Pope , do n't come " . " The scope of this visit is dialogue , brotherhood , a commitment for understanding between cultures , between religions , for reconciliation , " the pontiff said as he left Rome.More than 20,000 Muslim protesters rallied against the Pope 's trip on Sunday in Istanbul , chanting : " Pope , do n't come " . The U.S. Food and Drug Administration had suggested such changes in October 2001 in light of a 2000 study that showed Vioxx users suffered five times as many heart attacks as those who took the older painkiller naproxen , sold under the brand name Aleve.In Texas , punitive damages are capped at twice the amount of economic damages - - such as lost wages - - and up to $ 750,000 on top of non-economic damages , such as mental anguish and loss of companionship . Superior Court Judge Patricia Collins has set a hearing for Tuesday in Juneau to rule on the motion for acquittal . Her husband , a Wal-Mart produce manager , also ran marathons and was an occasional personal trainer.Ernst 's lawsuit is the first of more than 4,200 Vioxx-related state and federal lawsuits across the country to go before a jury.Reicin reiterated what other current and retired Merck executives have said during the trial : Safety was paramount in 58 clinical trials involving 10,000 patients conducted before Vioxx won approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to go on the market in 1999.But Carol Ernst 's lawyer , Mark Lanier , singled out several of those studies , challenging their results because so many were small and involved patients taking Vioxx for days or weeks rather than years.Specifically , he noted a study in 1997 where an outside scientist noted Vioxx could possibly cause blood clots that may lead to heart attacks or strokes because it inhibited an enzyme that thins the blood . That claim garnered a rebuke from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for making that assertion without scientific proof.After two years of wrangling with the FDA , Merck added warnings about cardiovascular risks to Vioxx 's label in 2002 .