The 78-year-old man shot by the United States Vice-President, Dick Cheney, during a hunting trip to Texas suffered a heart attack after a pellet moved into his heart on Tuesday, igniting fresh criticism of White House secrecy about the event.
Harry Whittington, a prominent lawyer and generous supporter of the Republican party, underwent a cardiac catherisation on Tuesday morning after suffering arrhythmia, or abnormal heart rhythms.
The seriousness of Whittington’s injuries brought an abrupt halt to the levity with which the episode had been treated, with the focus shifting to Cheney’s refusal to acknowledge the incident in public until Tuesday afternoon when his friend’s condition worsened. An aide issued a statement saying: ”The vice-president wished Mr Whittington well and asked if there was anything he needed.”
That did not blunt mounting irritation in Republican circles at the handling of the affair. On Tuesday, Martin Fitzwater, who served as White House press secretary to Ronald Reagan and the first president Bush, told Editor & Publisher he was appalled at Cheney’s silence, and that the vice-president had ”ignored his responsibility to the American people”.
A fuller picture of Whittington’s injuries began to emerge on Tuesday when doctors at the Christos Spohn Memorial hospital in Corpus Christi, Texas where Whittington has been treated since he was shot in the face, neck and chest by Cheney on Saturday, linked the irregularity to inflammation caused by the bird shot as it migrated around his body.
”It basically caused him to have a minor heart attack,” Peter Banko, a spokesperson for the hospital told a press conference.
Whittington, whose care is being monitored by the White House medical team, was due to remain in intensive care for another week.
Doctors at the hospital say that Whittington took more than 100 pellets, and, given his age, there were no immediate plans on Tuesday to operate in an attempt to locate and remove the shot around his heart. ”It’s a silent heart attack, an asymptomatic heart attack. He has not had a heart attack in the traditional sense,” said David Blanchard, the hospital’s emergency room chief.
News of the severity of Whittington’s injuries brought a sobering note to an event that had been treated somewhat as a joke at Cheney’s expense — even at the White House, where the press secretary, Scott McClellan, wore an orange tie to an off-camera briefing on Tuesday, saying that he wanted to make sure he would be visible in case the vice-president was in the area. – Guardian Unlimited Â