The 78-year-old lawyer who Vice President Cheney accidentally shot in a hunting accident suffered a minor heart attack this morning after a piece of birdshot moved and lodged in his heart, doctors said.
Doctors treating Harry Whittington said the Republican lawyer was moved back into the intensive care unit and will need to remain hospitalized for at least a week.
Some of the birdshot appears to have moved and lodged into part of his heart,” Peter Banko, spokesman for Christus Spohn Memorial Hospital, told reporters outside the Corpus Christi hospital. Banko said the birdshot caused a minor heart attack.
Asked if the birdshot could move more and endanger Whittington’s life, Dr. David Blanchard, emergency room chief at the hospital, said: “When birdshot is in your body, there’s always the risk they can move. We’ll watch very closely for any migration.”
BY TOM TOMORROW