Washington – The 78-year-old lawyer shot by Vice President Dick Cheney in a hunting accident over the weekend suffered a minor heart attack early Tuesday from birdshot lodged in his heart, hospital officials in Texas said.
The lawyer, Harry Whittington, was moved back into the intensive care unit at Christus Spohn Hospital in Corpus Christi to be monitored for up to a week in case the birdshot shifted or additional pellets in his body moved into other organs, the officials said at a televised news conference. Dr. David Blanchard, the emergency-room chief, estimated that Whittington had more than five but “probably less than 150 to 200” pellets lodged in his body.
Blanchard said that the hospital’s cardiologists were optimistic that the pellet in Whittington’s heart would not travel farther and that he would be able to function normally. They said they did not consider the other pellets in his body a problem.
Cheney’s office, in its first official announcement about the incident, released a statement shortly after 12:30 p.m. MST saying that the vice president’s “thoughts and prayers are with Mr. Whittington and his family” and that Cheney had spoken by telephone to Whittington an hour earlier.
“The vice president wished Mr. Whittington well and asked if there was anything he needed,” the statement said. “The vice president said that he stood ready to assist.”
The statement added that Whittington’s spirits were “good,” but “obviously his situation deserves the careful monitoring that his doctors are providing.”
The downturn in Whittington’s health significantly changed the tone of the White House reaction to the accident. In Texas, Carlos Valdez, the district attorney in Kleberg County, said a fatality would immediately spur a new report from the sheriff and, most likely, a grand jury investigation.
Cheney’s aides said he first learned of the change in Whittington’s condition upon arriving at his West Wing office about 5:40 a.m. MST on Tuesday, shortly after doctors in Corpus Christi said that they had picked up an irregular heartbeat from Whittington during their morning rounds.
Doctors said that the pellet, which they had known since the accident was near Whittington’s heart, had evidently moved into the heart muscle, causing “some quivering” called atrial fibrillation.
Local officials have not considered any charges in the Saturday shooting because no one in the hunting party, including the victim, has accused Cheney of wrongdoing.
Under the law, even an accidental hunting fatality could result in criminal charges. Cheney could be charged with negligence, defined as failing to understand the dangers involved and disregarding them, or recklessness, defined as understanding the dangers and disregarding them.