E&P: First Doctor to Treat Cheney Victim ... Wanted to Send Him Home

[Newsjock]

Stand back -- here comes more spin!
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1001996547

First Doctor to Treat Cheney Victim Tells Texas Paper He Wanted to Send Him Home

By Joe Strupp
Published: February 14, 2006 12:05 PM ET

NEW YORK While news reports from The New York Times to the Austin American-Statesman have been describing the injuries to Harry Whittington, the victim of Vice President Dick Cheney's accidental shooting, as more serious than first believed, as he remains hospitalized today, the tiny Alice (Texas) Echo-News Journal will offer a different version later today, E&P has learned.

According to the afternoon daily, located about 60 miles from the shooting site, the first doctor to treat Whittington immediately after the Saturday shooting contended that his wounds were superficial and not in need of further hospitalization.

"If it were just a normal citizen, he would have sent him home with antibiotics," said Ofelia Hunter, Echo-News Journal editor, who talked to the doctor. "He felt that it was more royal treatment that he was getting."

.. ."He felt he was transferred because of his prominence, and that he was already stable," Hunter said. "It was more because of who he was." That is in marked contrast to reports in most major newspapers that Whittington required intensive care treatment, was hit with more than 100 pellets, and that some of the wounds were so severe the pellets could not be removed.

[liberal N proud]

1. Stable but in ICU?

[The Backlash Cometh]

5. Evidence that Cheney's biggest political donors don't have

national health insurance high on their priority list?

[superconnected]

15. Stable but in ICU for 4 days.

[onenote]

16. happens all the time

"stable" is a subjective term used by hospitals for communicating with the media; the American Hospital Association recommends against it, since you end up with odd sounding combinations: critical but stable, or serious but stable. But its hardly unusual for someone who's condition is "stable" - i.e., vital functions are not deteriorating or fluctuating, to nonetheless be in ICU, particularly if its an older patient that is being observed closely for any changes in condition.

onenote

[librechik]

28. By definition, ICU is intended for patients who are NOT stable

they might need emergency resuscitation and lifesaving efforts at any time, that's why they keep them in ICU with the good monitors and a very high nurse/patient ratio. Once they are stable, they can be transferred to a regular room.

Not to say that in a little town where rich people have certain privileges they wouldn't stretch the definition a lot, just to keep the guy with his own nurse. Who knows?

I'm just talking about hospital routine here.

[kskiska]

39. Arial Sharon is stable, too. n/t

[Up2Late]

38. Or as The Daily Show put it last night, Stable, but still Shot in the Face

:evilgrin:

[Scout1071]

73. Stable but life flighted to Corpus Christi? nt

[Roland99]

2. The first doctor was Frist. Cheney had sent him a video tape.

[AzDar]

7. LOL!! n/t

[mom cat]

25. I just remembered, The first doctor was on Cheney's medical team!

It was Cheney's doctor who wanted to minimize the wounds!

[Roland99]

37. And coverup the story.

Quick! Get him some band-aids and some penicillin!

[BrotherBuzz]

45. The doctor wanted to patched him with band-aids and send him on his way...

but they only had purple heart band-aids on hand - not gonna do it...wouldn't be prudent :rofl:

[ShockediSay]

58. Point well taken............n/t

[AnneD]

75. Too funny,

I am surprised the guy made it through the metal detector for the hospital. No MRI's for you...

[tanyev]

3. It just got weirder.

[grytpype]

4. I see the hand of Karl Rove in this...

... they'll say anything to minimize the incident.

[Norquist Nemesis]

9. Or to change the story. Remember Friday's news?

...Cheney ordered Libby to out Plame.

[kayice]

62. Sounds like it, and what right does that doctor have to be speaking

on the condition of the patient? Did Wittington give his permission? It sounds like word has gotten out that a down spin is needed. I hope Wittington and his family gets good and pissed by the treatment from Dickie and his hostess, Armstrong.

[Norquist Nemesis]

6. Because of who he was and who he was with!

Not to mention that 20 hours of guaging pros/cons of the incident and how to handle it ends with the conclusion that Cheney shooting a friend is a MUCH bigger story that Cheney ordering his Chief of Staff to out a NOC CIA agent.

[Peace Patriot]

26. I like your mind, Norquist Nemesis! That's how they think: Both planned

and opportunistic DISinformation.

Either you' re right, and the whole thing was designed to bury the Cheney Traitorgate story (or they took opportunistic advantage of the shooting in order to do that), OR...

Cheney had some motive for shooting Whittington (or Whittington had a motive for shooting HIM--all that stuff about him leaving the group and sneaking up on Cheney), Cheney missed (either trying to kill Whittington or trying to kill him before he himself was killed), and then they tried to finish Whittington off in the hospital. (Maybe that's why he was flown out--alert doctors/nurses noticed something wrong.)

I don't believe this "accident" story at all. For one thing, the Secret Service would NEVER let a member of a Cheney hunting party, with a damned rifle in his hand, break out of the group and go off to some unseen spot. Never happen--unless the Secret Service was involved in some way.

[Selteri]

33. That is an excellent point.

Someone sneaking away from the group or trying to when the VP is away from the group would be shot before he'd be allowed near the VP.

[habitual]

8. I smell a BIG FAT RAT

hahaha, then the next doc came along and said "hey, this guys f&&$#@ed up better airlift him outta here to a more capable facility rather than send him home with antibiotics....

hmmmm another ridiculous twist coming soon....

[Missy M]

10. "If he were a normal citizen", what does that mean....

what the doctor really meant to say was if he were shot by someone other than the Vice President of the US. I guess us normal people just don't get the same health care as anyone associated with the VP.

[kayice]

63. 'normal citizen' would have had the cops there taking a report

on the scene, checking to see if someone was drunk, and making a freaking report so we could see who the broads Cheney was spending the weekend with, sans the Missus, were........

Once again, it is being made to seem like the victim is at fault or receiving special treatment when it is Cheney!

[babylonsister]

11. I wonder if he's related to Frist? nt

[Frank Cannon]

12. "Take two aspirin and call me in the morning, pellet-face"

This is such blatant horse manure I can't even believe it. The man was airlifted to an ICU! He is STILL in the freaking hospital!

[habitual]

14. This doctor:

A. Is a really bad doctor who would have made a really bad decision considering that this man is still in the hospital and was airlifted to another facility after the first doctor examined him.

B. Has a strong desire for the limelight even if it makes his professional evaluation seem completely incorrect.

C. Has just received a large sum of money in an offshore account that makes it worth ruining ones career.

[mom cat]

30. D. HE WAS CHENEY'S DOCTOR!

[mom cat]

35. Actually, the doctor mentioned in the article was at the hospital, not

Cheney's doctor!;

"If it were just a normal citizen, he would have sent him home with antibiotics," said Ofelia Hunter, Echo-News Journal editor, who talked to the doctor. "He felt that it was more royal treatment that he was getting."

Hunter's comments referred to Dr. Raj Subnani, who treated Whittington at the Christus Spohn Hospital in Kingsville where he was first taken before being transferred to the Christus Spohn Hospital Memorial in Corpus Christi, where he remains.

That still leaved the question of hw long it took them to get hin to the hospital.

[CrazyOrangeCat]

20. Isn't this the most absurd crap??? n/t

[KansDem]

13. Give the benefit of doubt: maybe the lawyer had a home-ICU kit...

...purchased as the local WalMart?

Or maybe the doctor didn't want Cheney's friend to have to pay the "overnight" co-pay if he stayed in the hospital longer than 23 hours?

(My copay is $1,500--ouch!)

[louis-t]

27. The guy's a gazillionaire

I don't think they're worried about any co-pays.:eyes:

[jbnow]

56. That is ouch

(not for that guy of course. This is just about your co-pay)

So if you stayed 2 weeks would it still be the $1,500 amount, or even higher? I wonder how common that is.

What an incentive for many patients to refuse to stay if they are not well off. The stress of that financial burden would make people unwilling to stay 2 days.

Insurance companies try to hurry people out one way or another. I wonder how many people end up much worse off because they leave too early.

[jody]

17. If Whittington was hit with 100 pellets, then a 3/4 oz 28 ga has about 308

#8 pellets, the size Cheney probably used, and with a typical choke used for quail, that means Whittington was probably no more that 10 yards away when hit.

He's very lucky he did not lose an eye.

[Xithras]

24. 7 1/2 shot at 30 yards.

The police report put the range at about 30 yards, which is probably what saved the guys life. At 10 yards, even a 28 guage would have removed the guys throat and killed him instantly.

[jody]

60. The press may report 30 yards but #7 1/2 shot has about 262 pellets per

3/4 oz load for the 28 gauge.

I doubt very seriously that a pattern from a typical quail gun, perhaps modified choke, would be dense enough at 30 yards to produce 100 hits on the victim.

[Thor_MN]

71. What percentage of a 30" circle would be "head, arms and chest"

From http://www.progressivefarmer.com/farmer/rs/article/0,19846,1039478,00.html

"On a percentage basis, the 28-gauge will put as much of its pattern into a 30-inch circle at 35 yards as a 12- or 20-gauge will."

I'm thinking either Deadeye was "Dead on", or thirty yards is BS. Putting 40% of the load into a target that you are not aiming at would be unusual. Then again, this wasn't a typical quail gun, unless you can afford to blow most of a year's income at mininmum wage or more on a shotgun.

[BikeWriter]

66. No shit, at fifty yards, or more, a few pellets can kill a rabbit or duck.

[kineneb]

18. ICU=isolation from reporters

maybe there is something they don't want us to know about...how more convenient than to sequester said "victim" in ICU where he can't talk...

[Peace Patriot]

29. Yup. That's what I'm thinking. Either he's not badly hurt and he's in

ICU to cover that up--in order to use this story to smother the Traitorgate story--or something even worse is going on, say an attempted murder (Cheney of Whittington? Whittington of Cheney?) and they're keeping him isolated to cover it up (or, another possibility, somebody tried to finish Whittington off en route, after the "accident," or in emergency care/ICU--maybe this very doctor who is saying he wasn't badly hurt--and THAT'S why he was RETURNED to ICU.)

[jobycom]

19. Wow. I can see reasons that either one would be a lie

If the wounds were more serious than first advertised, then Cheney has more of an excuse to have delayed the story while making sure he got proper medical care.

If the wounds were less serious, then the whole affair is overblown and Cheney looks less like a big time asshole, and the issue goes away more quickly.

The four days in ICU could easily be an attempt to keep the man away from reporters.

Knowing Cheney, they are probably both lies. I'm starting to wonder if Cheney suffered a major heartattack and the whole thing is a cover for it. It's quit common for bird hunters to be "peppered" with shotgun pellets as the pellets fall from the sky and strike them, usually leaving no real injury. The ranch owner almost said as much about this accident. Maybe all of the medical attention was really for Cheney.

Who knows what happened? All we know for sure is that Cheney is lying about something, and that's so common, it's hardly newsworthy anymore. I'm going to ignore this story from now on and focus on the Katrina report.

[Straight Shooter]

21. "Dear Doctor Rovescheme: Your $100,000 deposit is on its way."

Signed, "Dead-Eye Dick Cheney."

[Lars39]

22. This guy was not the first doctor to treat the injured man.

Cheney travels with an entourage of doctors and medical personnel, so at least one of his doctors was on the scene treating the man. That's probably one of the reasons for the delay in taking him somewhere, too...Cheney's little hospital on wheels.

The whole thing stinks of cover-up and privilege. If that was one of us who had shot a man, we would still be trying to make bail.

The question to be asked: Why is Cheney above the law?

[mom cat]

31. BINGO ... IT WAS CHENEY'S DOCTOR! ... THIS IS HUGE!

Rate this up and don't let it die!

[mom cat]

36. I missread the story. It was not about Cheney's doctor, but it still

raises a lot of questions.

[Lars39]

42. Yes, the doctor in the article was not Cheney's doctor.

I think Cheney's doctor(s) was the first to treat the injured man.

[mom cat]

72. Right!

[Roland99]

34. He's not above the law. He *is* the law.

:eyes:


Bastard traitor!!

[Lars39]

40. His sense of entitlement demands it.

They're having to do some serious CYA, though, 'cause it's messing with their base's little minds.
The "aw shucks, their just like you and me" repub voters are getting to see that this isn't necessarily true.

[Megahurtz]

23. Anything for a coverup. n/t

[grasswire]

32. the guy is 78 freaking years old

I am expecting that he might not pull through. Seriously. It might have been so much of a shock that it will kill him yet.

[Solon]

41. He's a gunshot victim....

It doesn't matter if its a bloody graze, and is one of the shots barely broke the skin and skipped off, for a 78 year old, he could still have gone into shock and died from that. Not to mention stress, etc. at best such a person would be sent to the hospital for observation for 24 hours, as is standard for such situations. Hell, my friend's cat was hit by a pellet gun once, came in limping, and they sent her to the vet right away. It was a superficial wound, not much bleeding, etc. but they still pumped her full of anti-biotics and kept her overnight, after a week home she was right as rain, but could have died from the stress alone, humans are no different.

[Wordie]

43. K&R...this is something to watch.

I noticed last night that some spokesman said "most of the wounds were not severe," but that also means that some of them were, doesn't it?

[Wordie]

44. CNN apparently now reporting he is now back in ICU...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x415646

[Rose Siding]

47. They need to call Frist for a video consult

[Wordie]

49. ...

:rofl:

[SoCalDem]

48. "Mild" heart attack..an asymptomatic heart attack.."sure"!

Testy doctor..He MUST at least know Cheney:)

This old guy's gonna end up croaking.. This whole story reminds me of the old joke..

"Mom, the cat's on the roof".

[Wordie]

50. Yeah...a "move along now, nothing to see here" moment if I ever saw one.nt

[qanda]

51. I guess it wasn't so minor afterall

[Wordie]

57. The doctors are still trying to make it sound like it's nothing...

I have my doubts. Let's face it, ICU means serious.

[Wordie]

46. Birdshot triggers 'minor' heart attack in wounded Cheney companion (CNN)

Birdshot triggers 'minor' heart attack in wounded Cheney companion

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas (CNN) -- The man shot and wounded by Vice President Dick Cheney has suffered a "minor heart attack" after a piece of birdshot migrated and became lodged in his heart, a hospital spokesman said Tuesday. (Posted 1:23 p.m.)

http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/02/14/tuesday/index.html

Note, I posted all of it. If you follow the link, you may need to search for that article.

And, according to what they are saying on CNN now, it did not actually lodge in the heart, but is located against the heart and caused inflammation, which lead to an "asymptomatic" heart attack.

[LizW]

52. Oh, man, they just can't stop screwing up!

This is obviously a planted story to minimize ther seriousness of Whittington's injuries. But it comes out just as we learn that a pellet got into an artery and migrated to his heart, causing a mild heart attack!

[demo dutch]

53. Were they drinking??? I bet that they were!!

[Divernan]

55. Why did USA Today story say that no alcohol was involved, but not

give any specifics? Sounds like another stenographer calling himself a reporter. Any news story about whether someone was under the influence of alcohol should state who was tested for alcohol, what type of test was used (breathalyzer, blood sample, etc.), the exact results of the test and absolutely most important, WHEN WAS THE TEST GIVEN RELATIVE TO THE TIME OF THE ACCIDENT????

The USA TODAY story was written as though it was repeating a vague statement from Cheney's people and there were no specific facts provided. The fact of drinking on the part of either or both Cheney and the shooting victim would very much explain a delay of hours before taking the victim in to a hospital for treatment.

[Coexist]

54. further down the rabbit hole we go...

:eyes:

[mainer]

59. So the doctor is either a liar or incredibly incompetent

Whittington was reported to be in atrial fibrillation when he was admitted. A 78 year old guy in new atrial fibrillation would not be sent home. It's possible the A fib is a chronic problem he has, but the news report specifically mentioned it as the reason he was admitted to ICU.

So the first doctor who saw him didn't want him be hospitalized? Is he stupid? You don't need an EKG to diagnose A fib. You can figure it out by feeling his pulse, out in the field.

[fooj]

61. KandR!

Peace.

[understandinglife]

64. K&R. And, he's back in the ICU with a CV event ...

Peace.

[Hekate]

65. Apparently a wee little pellet is interfering with his heart rhythm

This is actually quite serious and not a "mild heart attack" at all.

Well, I hope the old guy recovers, but it's more than entertaining to see everyone from the WH Press Corps to Chris Matthews suddenly discover there might be something wrong with an administration that harbors a VP who closely resembles Darth Vader in personality and secrecy.

Hekate

[understandinglife]

67. Yes, indeed, it is quite serious. And, it's not the only pellet in his ...

... system. And, any one of those pellets could cause peripheral or central damage depending on which part of the circulation they migrate into. He's almost certainly going to have to undergo some type of CV procedure to remove the pellet from his coronary circulation. That's why I've been telling folks this is not a joking matter, unless one likes to joke about blasting people with a shotgun at close range.


Peace.

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

68. What? Did he want to send him home to die? n/t

[wicket]

69. Him being hospitalizaed could have SAVED his life!

If this guy had had his way and sent him home, he wouldn't have been surrounded by the hospital staff when he suffered his heart attack this morning. The fast treatment quite possibly saved his life!

[stickdog]

70. Raj Subnani, the quack in question.

http://www.imakenews.com/dri/e_article000311344.cfm?x=b11,0,w

The estate of a man who died after surgery to remove diseased bowel tissue could not convince a Texas jury that his treating physicians were negligent. After undergoing surgical release of a bowel obstruction, Antonio Lalusin, against medical advice, went home. He later returned to the emergency room, where Dr. Raj Subnani operated on him to release an additional obstruction and removed the diseased tissue, which amounted to about 80% of his bowels that had become diseased.

He died six or seven hours later from heavy bleeding. His estate sued the physician in charge of his care in the hospital, Jose Ugarte, who settled before trial, and Subnani, alleging that he didn’t give him enough red blood cells after surgery.

[radio4progressives]

74. Too late to Rate This Up but needs a kick..

:kick:

[goclark]

77. Kicky for Dicky nt

[Maddy McCall]

76. More reasons that "tort reform" is a sham. ADMITTED Malpractice.