Reply #180: Remains at risk

[nomatrix]

Hunter shot by Cheney suffers heart attack, remains at risk
BY RON HUTCHESON
Knight Ridder Newspapers

"WASHINGTON - Vice President Dick Cheney's hunting incident took on a more serious edge Tuesday when the shooting victim suffered a heart attack caused by Cheney's errant birdshot.

Doctors said Austin, Texas, lawyer Harry Whittington, 78, remained at risk from a pellet embedded in his heart muscle. The birdshot triggered a mild heart attack and forced Whittington to undergo a cardiac catheterization. The procedure is typically used to look for arterial blockages or other problems.

"Some of the birdshot appears to have moved and lodged into part of his heart in what we would say is a minor heart attack," said Peter Banko, the administrator of Christus Spohn Hospital Corpus Christi-Memorial, at a news conference. David Blanchard, the hospital's chief of emergency care, said Whittington suffered "a silent heart attack" that lacked many of the typical symptoms.

Cheney is unlikely to face any criminal charges because law enforcement officials have found no evidence of wrongdoing, experts on Texas hunting laws said."