Cheney victim suffers heart attack

The Texas lawyer accidentally shot by U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney during a weekend quail hunt suffered a minor heart attack on Tuesday when some of the birdshot still in his body lodged near his heart, a hospital spokesman said.

Harry Whittington, 78, was moved into intensive care and ordered to stay in the Corpus Christi, Texas, hospital for at least another seven days to monitor his condition, said Christus Spohn Memorial Hospital spokesman Peter Banko.

The news suddenly gave a serious edge to the incident that the White House had begun making light of on Tuesday after tense exchanges with the press the day before over failure to disclose the shooting for almost a full day.

Dr. David Blanchard, the hospital's emergency room chief, said at a news conference doctors noted an irregular heartbeat during a morning examination of Whittington and it was determined he was having a minor heart attack.

He was moved into the hospital's intensive care unit and underwent cardiac catheterization for his quivering heart.

"We picked up an irregular heartbeat. At no time did he have any chest pain, the classic signs of a heart attack or anything like that," Blanchard said.

Whittington, a Republican stalwart in Texas, was peppered by an estimated 200 pellets on Saturday when the shotgun-wielding Cheney whirled to shoot a covey of quail on a southern Texas ranch and hit Whittington instead.

Cheney spoke to him by telephone from Washington on Tuesday after watching a televised hospital news conference on Whittington's health setback.

"The vice president wished Mr. Whittington well and asked if there was anything he needed," Cheney's office said in a statement. Cheney has not spoken publicly about the incident.

Doctors and officials had assured the press that Whittington suffered only minor wounds, but Blanchard said on Tuesday, "We knew he had some birdshot very near to the heart from the get-go."

At least one of those pellets had gotten close enough to the heart to cause "irritability," which led to Tuesday's heart attack, he said.

Blanchard said doctors would have to keep a close eye on the birdshot in case it continues to move.

Trauma surgeon Soumitra Eachempati at New York Presbyterian Hospital/Weil Cornell Medical Center said the moving pellet could require an operation.

"Since the pellet just moved into the heart area, it might be necessary to do open heart surgery," he said.

CONTROVERSY OVER DISCLOSURE

The story blew up into a major controversy because news of the shooting only came out on Sunday, nearly 24 hours after it occurred, when ranch owner Katharine Armstrong, also a Republican stalwart and lobbyist, called the Corpus Christi Caller-Times to report it.

Neither the White House nor Cheney's staff disclosed the accident, saying the primary concern had been making sure Whittington received proper care.

After the shooting, he was immediately treated by emergency personnel with Cheney and eventually flown by helicopter to the Corpus Christi hospital. The vice president did not accompany him.

Before news of Whittington's setback, White House spokesman Scott McClellan opened a Tuesday briefing with a one-liner about the Cheney mishap when he previewed a White House appearance later in the day by the orange-jerseyed University of Texas football team.

Hunters often wear orange vests so they will be visible to other hunters.

"The orange that they're wearing is not because they're concerned that the vice president may be there -- although that's why I'm wearing it," joked McClellan, who was wearing an orange necktie.

He did not repeat the joke at a later televised briefing, nor did he disclose information he knew of Whittington's new health problems.

The sheriff's department in Kenedy County, where the 50,000 acre Armstrong ranch is located, said on Monday it had found no misconduct in the incident.