Hunter Shot by Cheney, Harry Whittington Suffers Minor Heart Attack – Birdshot Lodged in Heart
by Pamela LeaveySo much for the meme that Harry Whittington suffered minor injuries when accidentally shot by Dick Cheney on Saturday. Much speculation has been raised as to why Whittington was in intensive care, it appears that the answer could be the fact that some birdshot was lodged in his heart.
The 78-year-old lawyer who was shot by Vice President Dick Cheney in a hunting accident has some birdshot lodged in his heart and he had a “minor heart attack,” a hospital official said Tuesday.
Peter Banko, the hospital administrator at Christus Spohn Hospital Corpus Christi-Memorial, said Harry Whittington had the heart attack early Tuesday while being evaluated. He said there was an irregularity in the heartbeat caused by a birdshot pellet, and doctors performed a cardiac catheterization. Whittington expressed a desire to leave the hospital, but Banko said he would probably stay for another week.
Whittington, a prominent Republican attorney from Austin, was accidentally sprayed with shotgun pellets when Cheney was aiming for a quail Saturday.
Whittington had initially been placed in intensive care. He had been moved to a “step-down unit” Monday after doctors decided to leave several birdshot pellets lodged in his skin rather than try to remove them.
Still keeping a low profile and avoiding reporters, Cheney was nabbed arriving at the White House through a back gate again this morning. Yesterday, I posted a similar photo of Cheney sneaking into the White House to avoid the press. No doubt with this news of Whittington suffering a heart attack, Cheney may just opt for hiding in the secret bunker.
Cheney, an experienced hunter, has not been joking or saying anything publicly at all about the accident.
UPDATE: The WaPo reports that “cardiologists at the hospital were consulting with White House doctors because the doctors had first treated Whittington after Cheney accidentally shot him on a Texas ranch” and one ER doctor at the hospital said, “what happened to Whittington was extremely rare.”
Filed under: In The News, Politics, Republicans | Get Permalink or trackback |
My son called me from France this morning just astounded at this news. Europeans can’t even believe this. Are we so immune now to all the ridiculous and crazy things–including a war based on lies–that these people do that we are not realizing how shocking this is to the rest of the world??
Our Vice President shot a man–with a shotgun–in the face and upper torso and it penetrated to his heart. This is not a mere pellet gun or BB gun; it is a lethal weapon that could blow your face off.
The VP shot a man and he is in intensive care. OMG!!
Janet
I’m sure we are the laughingstock of half the world at this point. Obviously they have been keeping his “condition” under wraps and no doubt monitoring him more closely than we have been told. Cheeny should just go quietly into the bunker and draft a resignation letter.
Can’t help but think of that twisted saying;
“Time wounds all heels”. In this case, the well heeled lawyer and, in a different way, the VP.
As I pointed out before, the “birdshot isn’t dangerous except to birds” argument has some exceptions. This one is pretty bizzare. Maybe it was too warm in Texas to be wearing proper hunting protection on his chest?
Having worked (6 years) in that kind of “step down” unit, in a hospital with a state of the art heart center (2 cath labs and one electrophysiology lab), I am really puzzled by the information. The doctors had moved him from ICU to the step down unit after deciding not to remove the birdshot “lodged in his skin”. The atrial fibrillation (irregualr heartbeat when the upper chambers are beating too fast for the ventricles to keep up) was caused by a pellet lodged in his heart.
There’s a significant amount of anatomical distance from the skin to the heart. Including, sternum, ribs, intercostal ligaments and muscles, lungs and the pericardial sack..
* The initial force of the pellets would allow a close range shot to penetrate an unprotected chest at the right gap.* But once lodged in the skin over the chest, the pellets would not be able to migrate into the heart. So he had at least one pellet that penetrated into his heart on the initial shot plus some in his skin?
Did someone suggest that the reason the information was delayed so long was that they were trying to figure out if the guy was going to live? Aside from the pellet in his heart, atrial fib, and minor heart attack, he’s got other potential complications. Can (would) Cheney be charged with involuntary manslaughter if Whittington dies of complications? Stay tuned, the media may actually stay on this.
**The really interesting possibility here is poetic justice to me. The probability is that the pellet that penetrated his heart entered his body in the the area under or around the arm – just beyond the range of a lot of protective gear.
Does this strike any LOUD bells? The armor protection the Iraq soldiers were missing was the piece that goes over the shoulders and arms to protect that part of the chest. Many combat deaths were due to the victim getting hit in that gap.
I”ll bet neither Pat Robertson or Jerry Falwell will make any profound Religious Judgements on this one.
Oh, this really brings back the first reaction the Dems had to Poppy announcing Quayle as his running mate:
“Praise the Lord and Pass the ammunition”
It will be quite amusing and interesting to see how this plays out. I’m glad the rest of the world is still able to be stunned by BushCo.
Ginny
I was hoping for some medical analyis from you or Ron on this. Do you have time to C&P this into a post?
My Lordy. Darth Cheney has about killed that man – or at the very least just shortened his life by about 5 years. Good grief.
Dick, no more hunts for you!
Remember all the hubub and mockery they raised over JK hunting? Big Bertha, Rove and Co. all dressed up in green camo? They all got such a nice lil’ chuckle off of that – which I’m sure DC did too. Not so funny now is it? I don’t wish premature death on anyone but God, I do LOVE karma.
As a resident of Wyoming, there is no love lost on my part for Mr. Cheney but in this case I suggest we give him a break. Accidents happen when you are hunting as they can in any sport. I hunt and once had a close call when a friend of mine shot in my direction. He, and apparently his friend too, made a mistake and they are lucky it didn’t turn out worse. (It still could I guess.) You can bet Cheney feels terrible and incredibly embarassed about what happened. Wouldn’t you?
What if you had a car accident that was your fault because you were on the phone or looking down at a map or something and it injured or killed a friend or, worse, a friend’s child? Would it be fair to take everything you’ve ever done or said in the past and tie it to the accident? Sure, Cheney is tough, arrogant and foul-mouthed. He has not been kind to others in the past; his statements about John Kerry and his hunting trip for example. But, does that give license to jump on him for an accident?
Attack his policies but treat him like a human…even if he doesn’t do that all the time himself. Part of what’s wrong with civil discourse in this country is that we too often take the attitude that “he’s got it coming.”
Show some humanity and maybe you’ll get some in return.
Look, I grew up in Montana. I took rifle safety; I was in rifle club in high school. My father and mother hunted game and birds. My brother in Montana still does as do all three of his sons who all live in Montana. My husband used to hunt birds and was a trap shooter in competition. His Dad was a champion trap shooter and bird hunter in Montana. They used to fill their own shot gun shells. My two brothers in law hunted. My uncles hunted. My Grandpas going back to the turn of the century hunted birds.
Never in my life have I heard of an “accident” like this. They are not a common thing at all.
“He has not been kind to others in the past; his statements about John Kerry and his hunting trip for example. But, does that give license to jump on him for an accident?”
YEP!
Like I said, I don’t wish death upon anyone but there is a thing called karma and we all eventually answer to it. My post and that of others isn’t full of gloat. We’re just pointing out the irony in this situation. Gloating and being ugly would mean wishing the guy would die so DC would suffer for life. No one here has, or would ever – ask for that. I’m sorry, but you can’t live a life of hideous misdeeds as DC has and then escape having to answer for them when you hit an ironic rough patch. No way. He has gotten enough free passes for a lifetime on the bs he has committed. The best any of us can hope for out of this is that ShrubCo realizes the irony of the situation and hopefully will think twice in the future before conducting a campaign based solely on the low art of character assassination again.
Roger
He’s a public official, the Vice President and the public has a right to know. Yes, it was an accident and accidents happen hunting but that does not mean that people shouldn’t know what happened or the seriousness of the man’s condition.
If it was Kerry they would be having a hey day with this. If a famous actor or musician accidently shot someone it would be the same thing.
This man is not an ordinary man that one could easily have human sympathy for. He has consistently terrified the American people for years and the theft of money can’t be measured. Even if some people do feel sorry for him with his head down and the his shame obvious, they shouldn’t give in to it. Nor should they be too cruel.
Part of why we get despicable people in power is our lack of reason and emotional detachment. It is perfectly natural for people to express the feelings they do just out of relief at the possibility of being released from this man’s cruel and murderous grip.
Roger,
I respect your opinion and appreciate the comments. It is wise to look at our opinions and judgements for fairness – since we don’t like to be unfairly judged either.
I have been surrounded by safety consciousness for as long as I can remember (now 50 years). My ex is an Environmental Engineer who works hazardous waste cleanup and frequently is the site safety officer. Their prime directive:
“Safety is no accident”.
My grandfather drilled “always handle a gun as though it is loaded” into our brains long before any of us started hunting.
As a critical care RN, I have also known that a lot of people end up in a burn unit by their stupidity (same for the frostbite victims at the Anchorage “Thermal” unit.)
While working Home Care, our local police had an inservice for us on driving safety. They do not consider
“accidents” that occur because the driver is on the phone, or even adjusting the ventilation system, to be true accidents. They are the fault of a driver not following driver safety. If you want to change the CD, check directions or drink your coffee, do it at a stop light or pull off the road.
As far as tying things to what people have said and done in the past, that is part of character judgement. Is the person consistent or do they change the rules/morals when it suits them. Are they unable to see the correlations and consequences of their inconsistencies? And we do have some expectation that our elected officials will not change their character from private to public life.
He’s the (powerful) VP of the only remaining superpower. He is very responsible for sending thousands of American military people into combat – without adequate protective gear- in a situation far more unsafe than a bird hunting trip.
There’s a difference between forgiving someone and not allowing them to continue being able to cause harm.
For some, it’s a life sentence in jail. Others may need to resign or be relieved of their office. In Dick’s case, it isn’t one incident, it’s the history and ongoing indifference to his responsibility. I have sincere doubts as to how badly he feels about this. He has yet to make any statement.
I lived in a Denver suburb very close to Columbine when the shooting happened. My son was a senior, a jock, and often in the library of his school. He and my daughter have the same names of three of the victims. What this country did to the parents of those boys was totally out of line. I could see my son with the gun just as easily as with the bullet.
In short, I agree that argument applies to many situations,
not this one.
Its true that Cheney has brought alot of this on himself by how he has acted in the past. Its possible too that he is so thick skinned that he doesn’t care.
I’m just more and more distressed about how uncivil this country has become. I’d like to think that we can disagree but still respect each other as humans. I’m just empathizing with the guy for a mistake that I myself could have made.
Corny as it sounds…maybe I can help “soften” Cheney by cutting him some slack on this one.
Roger
I agree that the merriment and frivolity around this show a bad streak in human nature. But sympathizing with Cheney isn’t the answer.
Awareness of our lack of civility is. And an investigation into how men like Dick Cheney can get into power and lead other men. Something is wrong with all of us that could stand correcting. Sympathy with Cheney could be better placed as criticism of our lower nature in general.
Roger,
Cheney deserves what he gets, but I would prefer that the criticism was based upon his actions based upon policy rather than this accident.
Unfortunately the media reports simple stories. He might lie us into war, expose a covert CIA agent’s identiy in retaliation for criticism, and do other sorts of evil things, but these are far too complicated for the media to convey to the average person. This is a story which people understand and the type the media likes to cover.
Teresa
What you said!
Roger
I think the perspective here is that while it’s understood it’s an accident and much worse it appears than first reported, there is a level of distrust now so deep for and quite frankly from the Bush White House that even a simple matter like this gets distorted.
Had Cheney and the White House been more forthright with information about this at the time of shooting it would not be such a media and blogosphere spectacle.
I think this analysis by the LA Times has some good points.
/www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/politics/wire/sns-ap-cheney-analysis,1,7754419.story?coll=sns-ap-politics-headlines&ctrack=1&cset=true
I think the pattern of evading the press is one that continues to escalate the problems for many of us.
Ginny
Very good points from the L.A. Times.
Jumping up and down now!! Roger, Cheney is not getting anywhere what they have done! Torture! Do you hear that! They are torturing people and against the Constitution and Geneva Convention. A little joke and a kick in the imagined backside, is mild compared to what they have done to our country.
Slack?? I have but one response to that–New Orleans and the rest of Louisiana! Accident? I have watched people talk about hunting. I have grown up in the woods behind of my house. I grew up hunting. I am former military. I never had a friend shoot me or any of our friends. Down the bayou where I am from, the woods was our playground.
The number one rule, was never shoot till you see what it is!! Never Shoot it, unless you plan to clean it and eat it. If you are unsure, NEVER SHOOT!!
Donnie!
I was wondering if you were going to get in. Should we add that if you have gotten to the point where you don’t realize you should be unsure, stop hunting…
BTW, I especially like rule #2.
Ginny, I made it to the party
I am Cajun, and I shoot what I will eat. I have also never had someone open a cage to let my prey out!! I hunt as my ancestors have for many generations. Unless like Bush, My people were here in the south, in the very early 1700’s. Cheney is a fool and an old one at that.
Speak it brother Donnie!
“Unless like Bush”
Should have said, “Unlike Bush” OOPPSSS!!
Dave, This is so bad, someone wants me to have feelings for Cheney??? Yea right, and I’ll go on a hunting trip him too—Geez!!!!
It appears that the ranch manager actually videotaped the shooting! Check it out here:
http://collegeguru.blogspot.com/2006/02/dick-cheney-and-harry-whittington-star.html