The damages available in a case involving a heart attack or stroke caused by Vioxx use are much the same as the damages available in other personal injury cases.
The basic idea behind damages in a lawsuit, whether decided by a jury or by settlement, is to put the victim in the same position he or she would have been without the injury to the extent possible. Therefore, damages to reimburse the victim or his or her family for medical expenses, burial expenses, loss of work, or any other out-of-pocket type expenses will be compensated. As a practical matter, this means collecting and documenting your lost income, your medical expenses (i.e., ER care, hospital, doctor, laboratory, diagnostic tests, therapy, etc.), travel expenses, and burial expenses.
Other items of damages are somewhat more difficult to put a figure on. Damages for things such as pain and suffering, loss of economic opportunity, loss of benefits, loss of enjoyment of life, and loss of companionship (in a suit brought by a spouse) are some of the damages that your attorney will include in any settlement discussions or argument to the jury. While it is difficult to put an objective measurement, such as a dollar figure, on a subjective complaint, such as pain and suffering or loss of enjoyment of life, the courts and insurance adjusters both have a great deal of experience in working with these concepts. (See also our section on pain and suffering for further information.) Depending on where your case is brought, there will probably be other similar cases that your attorney and the other side will rely on as a starting point for these damages.
Punitive damages may also be a possibility in your case. The sole purpose behind these damages is to punish the defendant – in this case, probably Merck Pharmaceutical, the manufacturer of Vioxx – for promoting Vioxx when they knew it was an unreasonably dangerous drug. In other words, was Vioxx’s carelessness so bad with respect to the Vioxx product sold to the public, that the injured party should be awarded more damages, designed to punish Merck, especially if it can be proven that Vioxx was dangerous and Merck was aware of that danger. Punitive damages are not allowed in every state and proving them can be difficult.
You may read about settlements in other Vioxx cases. While other settlements can be informative, you should know that different people get different settlement offers based on many things: where the case is brought, what the particular facts of a case are, who the insurance adjusters are, your character and credibility; extent of the injury, objective evidence, and, to some extent, who the attorneys are. Therefore, you should not necessarily think that your case will receive the same type of settlement award as another case. Depending on your case, your settlement offer may be higher or lower. You will have to work with your Vioxx attorney to decide whether a particular offer is suitable or not.