Jury Awards Widow $253.4M in Vioxx Trial
The Associated Press
ANGLETON, Texas -- A Texas jury found pharmaceutical giant Merck & Co. liable Friday for the death of a man who took the once-popular painkiller Vioxx, awarding his widow $253.4 million in damages in the first of thousands of lawsuits pending across the country. A seven-man, five-woman jury deliberated for 10 1/2 hours over two days before returning the verdict. Merck said it plans to appeal. Plaintiff Carol Ernst began to cry when the verdict was read while her attorneys jumped up and shouted, "Amen!"

Health Officials Say Nursing Shortage Hitting Rural Hospitals
Grand Forks Herald
BISMARCK, N.D. -- Nursing shortages will hit rural hospitals hard in the next five years, a health education official says. Michael Dennis, executive director of the Prairie Area Health Education Center in Denton, Texas, spoke at a University of North Dakota rural health workshop this week. "The average age of a registered nurse in the United States is 47 years. It's never been that high," Dennis said. "The average age at which a nurse in the United States leaves a patient's bedside is 53, and the average age of a nurse goes up every year, because we simply do not have enough young people coming into nursing.

Brenau Nursing Program Applies For Additional Accreditation
Access North Georgia
GAINESVILLE -- The Brenau University Department of Nursing has applied for initial accreditation through the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education (CCNE) for the baccalaureate degree program. The accreditation review will take place Nov. 7-9. Brenau’s Nursing Department currently is accredited by the National League of Nurses.

Massachusetts Jury Finds Doctor Negligent In Delivery of Infant
MSNBC Health
BOSTON -- A Massachusetts jury awarded a family $40 million in damages after finding a doctor negligent in the delivery of brain-damaged baby, the largest such award in state history, the family's lawyers said Thursday. Dr. Jacqueline Halladay was found negligent Wednesday for waiting over five hours to deliver Philip Antonelli Jr. in a Caesarean section despite tests showing fetal distress. The boy, now 8, has cerebral palsy and functions at the level of a 2- to 4-year-old. His speech is garbled and he needs help with dressing, bathing and other basic tasks.

Tort Trials Fall by Nearly 80 Percent
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON -- The number of tort trials in federal courts has fallen by nearly 80 percent in less than two decades, a government study found Wednesday, a trend the Bush administration would like to see duplicated at the state and local levels. Legal experts attribute the drop to Supreme Court rulings in the 1990s that made it much more difficult for people bringing lawsuits in federal courts to prevail.

Survey Finds Fewer Drug-Free Schools
ABC News
WASHINGTON -- More teens are saying there are drugs in their schools, and those who have access to them are more likely to try them, said a Columbia University survey released Thursday. Twenty-eight percent of middle-school-student respondents reported that drugs are used, kept or sold at their schools, a 47 percent jump since 2002, according to the 10th annual teen survey by Columbia's National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse.

Community-Based Homes Seem to Help Addicts
American Psychological Association
WASHINGTON -- Self-supporting group homes have high success rates in helping individuals recover from alcoholism and drug addiction, researchers from DePaul University reported Thursday. A pair of studies being presented at the annual meeting of the American Psychological Association found success rates of 65 percent to 87 percent for the homes.

Anthrax Kills Hundreds of U.S. Cattle
The Associated Press
ENDERLIN, N.D. -- An anthrax outbreak has killed hundreds of cattle in parts of the Great Plains, forcing quarantines and devastating ranchers who worry how they will recover financially. More than 300 animals in North Dakota have died from anthrax in what officials call the worst outbreak among livestock in state history. In South Dakota, at least 200 cattle have been killed. Two ranches in Texas were quarantined last month after anthrax was found in cattle, horses and deer, officials said.

Lawsuit Seeks Cancer Tests at Pa. Company
The Associated Press
PHILADELPHIA - Thousands of employees at a chemical company should be tested for brain tumors because of a high number of deadly cases among workers at a research campus, a retired worker argued in a lawsuit. Rohm and Haas Co. conducted its own study in 2004 and found no significant links among 15 workers who developed brain tumors at its suburban Spring House campus since 1973. All but one died. It said Wednesday it is reviewing the deaths.