Birdshot is lodged in tissue
By Bryan Bender and Michael Kranish, Globe Staff | February 15, 2006
CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas -- Harry Whittington, the 78-year-old Texas lawyer whom Vice President Dick Cheney accidentally shot on a hunting trip Saturday had a minor heart attack yesterday when a piece of birdshot lodged in his heart, triggering an abnormal rhythm, hospital officials said.
The sudden turn in Whittington's condition stunned the White House, which seemed confident that Whittington would quickly recover. At midday, officials at the hospital where Whittington is being treated said his condition had changed dramatically.
''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," Peter Banko, a spokesman for the Christus Spohn Hospital in Corpus Christi, told reporters.
The White House was informed of the heart attack yesterday morning, but Scott McClellan, press secretary, did not mention it during his regular news briefing, which followed the White House's failure to confirm that Cheney shot Whittington until 20 hours after the accident.
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2006/02/15/hunter_shot_by_cheney_has_a_heart_attack/