Hunter Shot by Cheney Has Heart Attack

Hunter Shot by Vice President Cheney Has Heart Attack Due to Pellet Lodged in His Hear, Doctor Says

Associated Press | February 14, 2006

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas - 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.

"However some of the bird shot appears to have moved and lodged into part of his heart in what we would say is a minor heart attack," Banko said.

Whittington, who had been moved from intensive care into a "step-down unit" Monday, was moved back to the intensive care unit for further treatment. Doctors had decided to leave several birdshot pellets lodged in his skin rather than try to remove them.

White House physicians who attended to Whittington at the scene after Cheney accidentally shot him were involved in the treatment, the hospital officials said.

Whittington, 78, a prominent Republican attorney from Austin, was accidentally sprayed with shotgun pellets when Cheney was aiming for a quail Saturday.

A Texas Parks and Wildlife Department report said Whittington was retrieving a downed bird and stepped out of the hunting line he was sharing with Cheney. "Another covey was flushed and Cheney swung on a bird and fired, striking Whittington in the face, neck and chest at approximately 30 yards," the report said.

The wildlife department issued a report Monday that found the main factor contributing to the accident was a "hunter's judgment factor." No other secondary factors were found to have played a role.

Last modified February 14, 2006