More questions about Cheney's shooting

The man that Dick Cheney accidentally shot on Saturday was still in intensive care today.

In an odd disparity, [ranch owner] Armstrong told the Houston Chronicle that Whittington, 78, was "bruised more than bloodied" in the incident and "his pride was hurt more than anything else." Yet he was airlifted to a hospital and has spent more than a day in an intensive care unit. [Editor and Publisher]

Shotgun injuries at close range are no joke. We're not talking a butt full of birdshot. According to the official account, the Veep hit the guy in the neck with a 28 gauge shotgun at 30 yards.

Reddhedd smells a rat:

And call me crazy, but a blast from a 28-gauge shotgun that puts you in the ICU isn't something that's just a surface scrape or anything. It hurts like hell. And no amount of calling it a "spray" or "being peppered" or whatever takes away from the fact that: this man was shot, at close range, by the Vice President of the United States, who then told no one in the American public -- and no one else did either, including the local police -- for 22 hours.

Waiting 22 hours to go public doesn't sound good, not good at all. Nor does avoiding local law enforcement, especially if you have a history of operating under the influence.

Comments

[Barbara]

Were they drinking? Was there knicky knack involved? It is weird. An accident is an accident, and many accidents involve stupidity (duh), but it does seem strange to be so close mouthed about it all -- I would think they'd want to control the spin and at least appear to be forthcoming.

[Joseph]

28 Gauge??? Never heard of one. Are they sure they got that right, the most commone shotguns in use today are the 20 and 12 gauge. There still the 16 gauge and 410 out there to. I have been shooting guns since I was 8(I am 29 now) and have never heard of a 28 gauge. Though I have never hunteed quail I have hunted birds like Grouse and Pheasent.
Hopefully they were using the smaller bird shot that might not penitrate so far into the flesh, if the man had a heavy coat on that may also reduce the power the shot had when it hit him. Seems like Dick needs to identify his target before pulling the trigger and stay aware of where his partners are. Bad form from all parties here. There closed mouth because this will make Dick look bad with the NRA crowd, there always promoting safty and he just blew it big time.

[Joseph]

Yeah I looked around on the net and found some old 28 gauge shotguns. I learn somehting new every day.

[gordo]

Whittington is 78, and was shot by the Vice President of the U.S. I would think they would send him to the ICU for anything more serious than a broken nail.

I think they waited to make absolutely sure they knew that Whittington's condition wouldn't deteriorate (heart attack, stroke, etc) before making an announcement.

[CD318]

"I would think they would send him to the ICU for anything more serious than a broken nail."

You might think that, but that would make your thinking fact-free. The goal in ICU is to get the patient out of ICU as fast as possible. ICUs are expensive and dangerous places to be.

"I think they waited to make absolutely sure they knew that Whittington's condition wouldn't deteriorate (heart attack, stroke, etc) before making an announcement."

...and if his condition did deteriorate? What then? No announcement at all?

[StealthBadger]

[bitterness]You have the right to exactly as much privacy as you can afford.[/bitterness]

[Heraldblog]

I'm sure they're debriefing Whittington big time. It's important in a situation like this for everyone to get their stories straight.

[Dabodius]

A 28 gauge is a much smaller gun than the 12, the standard riot gun. Loaded with fine birdshot, I don't see how a 28 gauge could wound anyone severely, let alone mortally (except a hemophiliac or someone on powerful blood-thinners.) Either the poor shot gentleman suffered a complication like a heart attack, or he's in ICU to keep him from talking to reporters.

[Njorl]

"...and if his condition did deteriorate? What then? No announcement at all?"

Quite possibly. If he lives, he is free to not press charges. If he dies, the matter elevates in serious, not just because of the death, but because the choice of charges to file falls to the local DA.

"I don't see how a 28 gauge could wound anyone severely, let alone mortally ..."

He was shot in the face, neck and chest. The major arteries in the neck are very vulnerable. His eyes could easily be destroyed. Head wounds, even shallow ones caused by small pellets will bleed profusely. His trachea could be damaged, and swell shut.

[Dabodius]

Chesewhiiz, you're right, Njorl.It didn't occur to me that e.g. the fine shot could more easily find its way into an artery or vein. Still, 28 gauge means fewer shot. I still think he's being kept away from reporters.

[CD318]

MSNBC reported that they removed FIFTY pellets. From a 78-year-old man. That's one hell of a "peppering." It is not uncommon for healthy young people to die from a single .22 short that ends up in the wrong spot. He might be fine, he might not. if at 48 hours out dude's still in ICU, he is probably not in good shape.

[Stephen Frug]

What's going to happen if (God forbid) this poor guy dies? Are they going to charge Chaney with manslaughter? How often are cases like this just let go?

[greensmile]

here is a run-down on available shotgun guages. This sort of info is only written up by gun lovers. One paragraph explaining why they don't use lead shot in shotguns anymore seems inadvertently funny:

Then the US government stepped in with their toxic shot legislation. Lead, of course, is not toxic unless somehow introduced into the system, but facts are not important to the anti-gun do-gooders in government,

Who better to demonstrate to these retards how shot can be "introduced into the system"?

[TSB]

I'd love to see Cheney get charged with something. Anything. The conspiracy theorist in me is convinced that he was drunk, and that's one of the reasons why they waited so long.

... of course, should the man that Cheney shot die, or if charges get pressed, somehow this will be blamed on a liberal conspiracy out to overthrow the administration. While if this had happened under the Clinton administration, the republicans would be crying for blood.

[Thad]

Joseph,

If you follow Lindsay's outgoing link to Redd Hedd's post, there's all kinds of information about the 28-gauge shotgun Cheney was using:

Well, that's interesting. A 28-gauge shotgun is a fairly specialized firearm. My dad called it a "ladies gun" when I learned to shoot as a kid -- it was the first gun I ever took out for target practice at the quarry. It shoots a fairly small pattern, compared to the spread you get from a 12-gauge, say, so the buckshot comes out in a fairly concentrated pattern, and there is little to no recoil -- which means you don't get that smack into your shoulder when the gun rebounds from the pressure of the shot like you would with a higher-gauge (stronger) shot. At least, that's what I remembered (it's been a while since I was a kid and went target shooting with my dad), so I did a little research and...yep, I remembered correctly.

Shotgun writer and wingshooter Bob Brister agrees that dropping down in gauge size can make the hunting experience more enjoyable, when the game and situation allow it. Brister, whose detached retinas don’t take kindly to recoil, says that most upland-bird shooting is more pleasurable and just as effective when using smaller gauges, such as the 28. “It’s not how much shot you throw up in the air,” Brister notes, “it’s where the shot goes that’s important. It’s not hard to understand that you’ll shoot better if you’re not being punished, so it makes sense to match the gauge to the game.”

Unlike most other gauges, the 28-gauge shotshell is available in only the 2 3/4-inch length. Though there are a few heavy field loads in this gauge that contain 7/8 to 1 ounce, standard ammunition is loaded with 3/4 ounce of shot. This is 1/4 ounce less shot than a 20-gauge shell and 3/8 ounce less than a standard 12-gauge shell of the same length. With the reduced powder load needed to drive the smaller shotcharge, the 28 is a much sweeter-shooting round than its two larger stablemates. Surprisingly, it also tends to pattern very efficiently. In fact, as far out as 35 yards, the 28 puts as much of its shot payload (on a percentage basis) into a 30-inch patterning circle as the 12 and 20 gauge. That’s a long of bang without a lot of buck.

Since Ms. Armstrong so helpfully points out that Mr. Whittington was within about 30 yards of the Veep, that sounds like a fairly concentrated blast area to me. Which explains why he had injuries to his face, neck and chest from the shot. And why he's been in the ICU -- since Saturday.

Katherine Armstrong told the WaPo that the 28-gauge has a "smaller shot pattern." What she meant to say, I'm sure, is that the shot pattern is "more concentrated" - meaning that the pellets stay in a small circumferance as they move forward, rather than rapidly spreading outward in a larger pattern like you get with a 12-gauge.

Which means that at close range, a 28-gauge can do some serious damage. And at 30 yards, give or take, it explains why the blast pattern on Mr. Whittington was limited to face/neck/chest.

[Thad]

Also -- a reconstructive surgeon weighs in:

I haven't examined Mr. Whittington, the man the Vice President shot, nor seen much detail on his case. But facial plastic surgery is what I do, and I have seen fairly awful traumas to the area. Both during residency in the US and as a volunteer in Kosovo, it's my judgment that it doesn't get a lot worse than a shotgun discharge to the face - few traumas cause pose a greater challenge to surgeons in my field.

Patients with shotgun injuries to the face need to be intubated and sedated at once. Protection of the airway is paramount because hemorrhaging is virtually certain. The primary concern here is aspiration of the hemorrhaged fluid. A secondary concern is emesis of ingested fluid from the fast bleeders in the area - particularly the superficial temporal artery, the angular artery, or the facial artery.

Once the patient is stabilized, the attending physician will examine, visually and by palpation, from the scalp downwards and outwards. He or she will be looking for bone fracture, nerve damage, asymmetry - that sort of thing. It's not typically possible to assess the sensory or motor functions of the face at this stage because the patient is unconscious - and this is probably why Mr. Whittington is in the ICU.

At this point I'd order radiographs to see how much damage is done, and ideally an MRI except that if they use steel shot in Texas, you can't do that. So a CT is probably indicated - lateral obliques through the orbits especially. The anatomy is complicated and fragile in the area, so you really need to be careful.

Finally, surgical repairs. The surgeon will carefully assess and reduce any jaw or bone fractures, debride any remaining shot, bone fragments, and soft tissue that can't be salvaged and then put any displaced but viable soft tissues back where they're supposed to go. And a 28 gauge round contains, depending on the shot size, somewhere between 200 and 400 individual pellets. For a surgery like that, I'd expect to be in the OR pretty much all day. This is not a 90 minute rhinoplasty.

Assuming the patient survives to this point, a complete facial reconstruction procedure can be undertaken, which, assuming good patient health and no postoperative infections, can take several years. Careful counselling both of the patient and his family is indicated, and the surgeon needs to be very honest about expectations.

[StealthBadger]

The reason shotguns are so dangerous is that the trauma to the body (with buckshot) increases at a much higher rate than just a linear progression. I don't have exact numbers, but for sake of argument, 2 shots is three times as much shock/trauma/whatever as one, three is five times as much as one, etc. While this effect is less pronounced with smaller shot, the fact that there are a whole hell of a lot more pellets usually makes up for this as far as lethality.

Internal hemmoraging and shock, especially when spread out over what sounds like a quarter of Mr. Whittington's body, could have easily killed him.

Despite the wider blast area because of the range, he's fortunate Cheney didn't hit him at closer than 30 yards. The impact velocity would have been much higher, with much deeper and more serious wounding.

Keep that man away from deadly weapons.

[Thad]

he's fortunate Cheney didn't hit him at closer than 30 yards

Actually, there's some confusion about that -- the International Herald Tribune said 30 feet.

It seems clear at this point that Mr. Whittington's injuries were much more serious than initially reported.

[Thad]

EDIT: Hmm. Looks like they have updated the story to read 90 feet, not 30 feet.

[Dicky Neely(Corpus Christi, Tx.)]

This happened about 50 miles from where I live and Whittington, a wealthy Austin lawyer and GOP campaign contributor, is in a hospital where I go for treatment.
The local paper, which broke the story, is reporting the shot was from 30 yards. It was a 28 gauge shotgun,according to the newspaper report, a not uncommon gun at all.
The White House spin machine is all over the local media and controlling the story. They have placed the blame squarely on Whittington for walking up on Cheney as he was shooting at a quail and "not announcing his prescence."
Frankly this is B.S. Maybe Whittington screwed up but you are never supposed to fire until you have acquired your target and are sure of your shot. It was careless of both men.
Whittington is not seriously injured and is expected to be released later this week. He has had surgery to remove buckshot.
I wonder if anyone else was ever shot by a U.S. Vice President?

[R. Mildred]

So is a member of the Bushchev admin going to just shoot someone everytime they need to draw the media's attention away from something?

this could make hte next few years at least bareable I guess, for every new scandal, a new "accidental" case of grievous bodily harm.

[jenofiniquity]

Then the US government stepped in with their toxic shot legislation. Lead, of course, is not toxic unless somehow introduced into the system, but facts are not important to the anti-gun do-gooders in government

Lead shot has been responsible for the deaths of hundreds, if not thousands, of tundra and trumpeter swans, who ingest pellets that have settled into the bottom of lakes. And predators or scavengers who eat the dying swans can also sicken and die. It's probably an issue below the gun nut's radar.

[rob helpychalk]

I wonder if anyone else was ever shot by a U.S. Vice President?

There is one famous case

[Lindsay Beyerstein]

Random question for the Austin readers. Does Harry Whittington own the building poking out of the trees on the upper left? When I was in Austin for DeLay's perp walk, one of the local TV reporters told me that DeLay and his entourage were holed up in an office suite in a building owned by a prominent local lawyer and GOP donor and that they would probably walk to the courthouse from there. It turned out she was right. Dick DeGuerin and his entourage did approach on foot from the right general direction.

Apparently the Whittington's building is called The Vaughn Building on 9th and Brazos.

Ring any bells?

Not that it matters. I just like collating random bits of information.

[Squashed Lemon]

I got the feeling Whittington is dead. Anybody want to open an office pool?

If whittington is not dead, a spokeperson would have already show up chatty in front of TV saying. everything is ok. nothing to see here. move along. But why is this festering for 2-3 days?

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also (holy batman, an update!)

Cheney Apparently Breaks Key Hunting Rule

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=514&u=/ap/20060214/ap_on_go_pr_wh/cheney_hunting_accident_38

The Parks and Wildlife Department said Cheney and Whittington will be given warning citations for violating game law by not having an upland game bird stamp, a requirement that went into effect in September. Cheney had a $125 nonresident hunting license, the vice president's office said Monday night in a statement, and has sent a $7 check to cover the cost of the stamp.

Cheney, an experienced hunter, has not commented publicly about the accident. He avoided reporters by leaving an Oval Office meeting with
United Nations Secretary-General
Kofi Annan before the press was escorted in.