Interesting question from the comments on firedoglake:
http://firedoglake.blogspot.com/2006_02_12_firedoglake_archive.html#113994308286731861"White House physicians who attended to Whittington at the scene after Cheney accidentally shot him were involved in the treatment, the officials said."
I am a licensed physician and I've spent most of the twenty-one years in academic medical centers, hospitals, and the like. I've worked as a consultant with ICU teams and surgical trauma teams. I have NEVER seen a situation in which any victim of violence was subject to care provided by the assailant's associates.
The traveling White House docs - whatever their skills - aren't the only physicians who have ever encountered gunshot wounds or intra-arterial foreign bodies resulting from gunshot wounds. The traveling White House docs also aren't the only physicians able to manage "heart attacks" whether the arterial blockage is caused by lead or plaque.
I watched interns and residents and cardiology attendings for some years in my duties at UCLA. I never noticed anyone from the White House coming by to tell them how to care for patients.
Even if they had come by, they couldn't have been invovled in patient care. In real life, hospitals are well chooy about who gets to come and play with the patients. To practice in a hospital, docs have to be vetted before starting to see patients.
The idea that well - some people who work for the dude who was the shooter and they'd like to to help out here in the ICU - is that OK? - that idea is nonsense.
So what the hell is up with Corpus-Christi Memorial? I'm not doubting the skills of the White House docs - they apparently saved the patient's life in the field. But why are they in the ICU? Are they paid to travel with and provide care for the Veep, or are they paid to take care of his victims after he's left town.
If the latter, the White House docs will be very busy once the Iraq vets are back. One-third are already estimated to meet criteria for the diagnosis of PTSD."