Dead-Eye Dick...
Ah. I guess it really is too early for the jokes. Whittington's back in the ICU:
Hunter Shot by Cheney Suffered Minor Heart Attack - New York Times : By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Filed at 1:51 p.m. ET CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas (AP) -- The 78-year-old lawyer who was shot by Vice President Dick Cheney in a hunting accident has some birdshot lodged in his heart and he had a ''a minor heart attack'' Tuesday morning, hospital officials said. The victim, Harry Whittington, was immediately moved back to the intensive care unit for further treatment, said Peter Banko, the administrator at Christus Spohn Hospital Corpus Christi-Memorial in Texas. Banko said there was an irregularity in the heartbeat caused by a pellet, and doctors performed a cardiac catheterization. Whittington expressed a desire to leave the hospital, but Banko said he would probably stay for another week to make sure more shot doesn't move to other organs or to other part of his body.
''Some of the bird shot appears to have moved and lodged into part of his heart in what we would say is a minor heart attack,'' Banko said in a news conference outside the hospital. The doctors said Whittington did not experience symptoms of a heart attack or any other problems. They left the birdshot in place and said he could live a healthy life with it there.... Whittington had initially been placed in intensive care after the accident Saturday evening. He had been moved to a ''step-down unit'' Monday after doctors decided to leave several birdshot pellets lodged in his skin rather than try to remove them.
A Texas Parks and Wildlife Department report said Whittington was retrieving a downed bird and stepped out of the hunting line he was sharing with Cheney. ''Another covey was flushed and Cheney swung on a bird and fired, striking Whittington in the The wildlife department issued a report Monday that found the main factor contributing to the accident was a ''hunter's [i.e., Cheney's] judgment factor.'' No other secondary factors were found to have played a role.
The rumors from South Texas are that Cheney dodged seeing the sheriff until Sunday to give time for his blood alcohol level to drop...
It's too early for the jokes: Whittington's still in the ICU in Corpus Christi.
But when he does get out of the hospital, then it will be time for:
So pull up a chair and stand me a drink,
And a tale to you I'll tell
About Dead-Eye Dick and...
