Cheney Shooting Victim Suffers Minor Heart Attack

The man shot by the US vice-president, Dick Cheney, during a quail-hunting trip to Texas, suffered a minor heart attack after a pellet moved into his heart, hospital officials said yesterday.

Harry Whittington, 78, a prominent lawyer and generous supporter of the Republican party, underwent a cardiac catherisation yesterday morning after suffering arrhythmia, or abnormal heart rhythms.

Doctors at the Christus Spohn memorial hospital in Corpus Christi, Texas, where Mr Whittington has been treated since he was shot in the face, neck and chest by Mr Cheney at the weekend, linked the irregularity to inflammation caused by the bird shot as it moved around his body.

"It basically caused him to have a minor heart attack," Peter Banko, a spokesman for the hospital, told a press conference.

Mr Whittington, whose care is being monitored by the White House medical team, was due to remain in intensive care for another week of monitoring, and to ensure that shot does not migrate to other organs.

Doctors at the hospital say that Mr Whittington took more than 100 pellets, and, given his age, there were no immediate plans yesterday 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 Mr Whittington’s injuries brought a sobering note to an event that had been treated somewhat as a joke at Mr Cheney’s expense - even at the White House, where the press secretary, Scott McClellan, wore an orange tie to an off-camera briefing yesterday, saying that he wanted to make sure he would be visible in case the vice-president was in the area.

Meanwhile, television comedians have been dining out on Mr Cheney’s failure to observe a basic rule of hunting: to look before shooting, as well as his failure to obtain a $7 stamp (£4) for his hunting license.

However, there was also anger that Mr Cheney, who has a reputation for secrecy, did not release news of the shooting for nearly 24 hours.

Mr Whittington had been on a hunting party with Mr Cheney in Texas when he fell behind the vice-president to retrieve a shot bird. Another covey was flushed out, and Mr Cheney swung around and opened fire, spraying Mr Whittington with bird shot.

A report from the Texas parks and wildlife department attributed the shooting to "hunter’s judgment factor".