San Francisco Chronicle, "Texas Coroner Deposed in Vioxx Trial"

          Lawyers on both sides of the nation's first Vioxx-related civil trial on Tuesday deposed the coroner who autopsied a man who died of an irregular heartbeat eight months after beginning a regimen of Vioxx.
          Dr. Maria Araneta is a crucial witness to the question of whether the once-popular painkiller caused Robert Ernst's death.
          Plaintiff's attorney Mark Lanier had planned to call Araneta as a surprise witness Tuesday to testify that a heart attack more than likely killed Ernst, but that he died too quickly for his heart to show damage.
          Araneta was an assistant coroner in the Johnson County Medical Examiner's office when Ernst died in May 2001. She attributed his death to arrhythmia, or an irregular heartbeat, secondary to clogged arteries.
          Vioxx maker Merck & Co. has repeatedly pointed to that autopsy as proof that Vioxx couldn't have caused Ernst's death. The company pulled the multibillion-dollar seller from the market last year when a study showed it could double the risk of heart attack or stroke if taken for 18 months or longer. Merck contends no studies link Vioxx to arrhythmia.
          But Lanier said Araneta intended to testify that Ernst died too quickly for his heart to show damage and that he likely died of a heart attack.
          Repeatedly during the nearly two-week-old trial, Lanier has pointed to Merck's medical manual, which says arrhythmia occurs in more than 90 percent of heart attack patients.