Las Vegas widow blames husband’s cancer death on diabetes drug

Maurice Iorio traveled from Las Vegas to Chicago in the summer of 2013 for what was considered a procedure of last resort: surgery to remove his bladder.

Iorio, who once worked as a bailiff in Clark County District Court, never returned home after the Aug. 2 operation. He died on Nov. 25, 2013, at the age of 74.

"I got a call 6 O'clock Monday morning that he had passed away," recalled his widow, Mary.

The woman testified Monday and said she believes the diabetes drug Actos caused the bladder cancer that ultimately led to her husband's death.

Mary Iorio, 78, is one of two plaintiffs in a product liability trial in Las Vegas against Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd., the Japanese company that makes Actos. The other plaintiff, 77-year-old George Decou, was diagnosed with bladder cancer four years ago.

Thousands of people across the country have sued Takeda, which makes the prescription drug pioglitazone under the trade name Actos. They have accused the company of failing to inform consumers and medical professionals about the risk of bladder cancer associated with Actos, which went on sale in the United States in 1999.

Company representatives insist the drug is safe.

Mary Iorio said she and Maurice grew up in the same Chicago neighborhood and became high school sweethearts. She was 17 when they began dating; he was 15.

They married in May 1960, and Maurice spent two years in the Army before joining the Schiller Park Police Department in Illinois. They tried but could not have children.

Maurice retired after 20 years as a police officer, and the couple traveled in their motor home.

They settled in Southern Nevada in 1990, and Maurice held several security jobs at Las Vegas casinos before District Judge Ron Parraguirre hired him as a bailiff. They chose not to follow Parraguirre to Carson City when he became a Nevada Supreme Court justice.

"We didn't want to go back in the cold weather," Mary Iorio testified.

Maurice Iorio retired from his court job in 2007, and he and Mary celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary in Chicago in 2010.

The following year, a tumor was found on Maurice Iorio's bladder. Mary Iorio remembered it being described as a "spot."

"Nobody mentioned the word 'cancer,'" she said.

Maurice Iorio had his first surgery in August 2011, but the "spot" returned.

Mary Iorio said she realized her husband had cancer when he was told that he needed to have his bladder removed. She said the two held hands and exchanged few words on their last flight to Chicago.

"We didn't discuss what was going to happen," she said. "It was too painful."

Mary Iorio said she stayed by her husband's side for weeks as he struggled to recover from the surgery, but he persuaded her to return home on Nov. 21, 2013, to attend to some personal affairs, such as renewing her driver's license.

"It was his idea for me to do this," she said. "I'd have never left him."

Contact reporter Carri Geer Thevenot at cgeer@reviewjournal.com or 702-384-8710. Follow her on Twitter: @CarriGeer.