Posted on 02/16/2006 8:47:51 AM PST by jhouston
In the minutes following Vice President Dick Cheney's accidental shooting of Austin lawyer Harry Whittington, Cheney's medical crew scrambled to treat the injured man while the Secret Service called for medical backup.
Whittington, 78, was struck on the face, neck and chest between 5:30 and 5:50 p.m. Saturday while quail hunting at the 50,000-acre Armstrong Ranch in Kenedy County.
"That's approximate from the information we have got," Secret Service spokesman Eric Zahren said of the accident's time. "That's coming from our people that were down there and the local agents from McAllen."
Whittington had stepped away from Cheney and fellow hunter Pam Willeford, U.S. ambassador to Switzerland and Liechtenstein, to retrieve downed quail, and Cheney accidentally sprayed him with birdshot while firing on a second covey of quail.
The Secret Service notified HALO-Flight dispatch about 6 p.m., putting the air ambulance service on standby in case Whittington needed to be flown to Christus Spohn Hospital Memorial, the area's trauma center, said HALO-Flight executive director Randy Rowe. Minutes later, Christus Spohn Hospital Kleberg in Kingsville was notified that Whittington was en route.
Both Cheney's office and the Secret Service have said the decision to take Whittington to Kingsville first was made by medical personnel who travel with Cheney, who has a history of heart problems.
"I can't comment to why he wasn't flown," Zahren said. "The medical folks that were there would have weighed more into that than our people on the scene. Decisions were made on their advice at that point."
Whittington was taken by ambulance to the Kingsville hospital about 6:20 p.m., Zahren said.
"It was an ambulance on standby for the vice president's visit," Zahren said. "It had been dedicated and it was given up to treat the victim."
The ambulance arrived at the Kingsville hospital between 6:45 and 6:50 p.m., Christus Spohn spokeswoman Yvonne Wheeler said.
HALO-Flight was called again at 7:07 p.m. after Spohn Kleberg medical personnel decided Whittington needed more advanced treatment.
"Typically, why we get calls for transfers is for a higher level of care or a doctor preference," Rowe said.
The air ambulance arrived at the Kingsville hospital at 7:29 p.m. and landed at the Corpus Christi trauma center at 8:19 p.m., Rowe said. Whittington was awake and talking during the flight, he said.
Big Media crybabies scooped again it seems.
A story like this requires a reporter to actual hit the phones and pound the pavement to gather information. The WH press corps sits around and waits for someone to hand them a press release...or they just make stuff up.
Sadly, there are liberals all around us pretend to care for the wounded man, but from the depths of their hearts hopes he dies (for their own political gain).
We all know this is true.
I could care less that it took 24 hrs to notify the Washington press corp. That's their problem not Cheney's or mine or anyone else's.
Local law enforcement isn't all that concerned, they deal with hunting accidents all of the time. Seems to me that this is just the liberal news slant to make guns more of a demon than they are, and the bonus of dragging Cheney down too.
But in reality, I doubt that anyone that's not a liberal could really give a hoot about it at all.
In my area, we had 6 middle eastern men with false passports trying to cross into the U.S. from Mexico. Seems to me the press ought to write more about this than go on and on about the hunting accident. Sheesh! This stuff is going way beyond typical politcis and stirring up my adrenalin.
Here's a pretty good timeline.
LIB MOONBATS: "He wasn't flown because Cheney was trying desperately to cover the whole thing up. He would have hunted on Sunday had not the White House press corps did their usual bang up job of hard nose reporting and followed their exemplary journalistic sixth sense of knowing which phone was going to bring their hard fought story..."
5:50 p.m While aiming for a quail, Cheney accidentally shoots fellow hunter Harry Whittington, striking him in the face, neck and chest with numerous pellets of birdshot. Medical staff, Secret Service agents and members of the hunting party administer first aid.
6:20 p.m. An ambulance transports the 78-year-old Texas lawyer to a nearby hospital in Kleberg, according to The Associated Press. (Mr. Love and Mrs. Whittington, Dr. Willeford and Mr. Hixon then made their own way about an hour and 20 minutes north to the Christus Spohn hospital in Kingsville.)
The ambulance arrived at the Kingsville hospital between 6:45 and 6:50 p.m., Christus Spohn spokeswoman Yvonne Wheeler said.
**Sheriff Salinas said he was barbecuing with his family at 5:30 p.m. Saturday when he received a call from sheriff's Capt. Charles Kirk. "He told me he heard of a possible hunting accident on Armstrong Ranch," Salinas said. Minutes later, Salinas got a call from a U.S. Secret Service agent. "He said the reason he was calling was to officially notify the sheriff's department that the vice president was involved in that shooting accident."
6:30 p.m. The remainder of the hunting party returns to the ranch house. White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card tells President Bush that there has been a hunting accident, unaware at the time that the vice president was involved.
7 p.m. After talking with Katharine Armstrong, whose family owns the ranch and who accompanied the hunting party, White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove tells Bush that Cheney has shot Whittington.
Evening Cheney and members of the hunting party dine at the ranch, and sheriff's deputies who heard reports of an accident arrive to offer help but are turned away, the AP reported, adding that the Secret Service retracted an earlier statement that the deputies sought to interview Cheney.
8:15 p.m. Whittington is flown to a hospital in Corpus Christi and is treated in the intensive care unit, the AP reported.
The air ambulance arrived at the Kingsville hospital at 7:29 p.m. and landed at the Corpus Christi trauma center at 8:19 p.m., Rowe said. Whittington was awake and talking during the flight, he said.
Between 8 and 9 p.m., Ms. Armstrong recalled, Karl Rove, the president's deputy chief of staff, called her "to check on Harry," who she said was "an old friend of Karl's." She said there was no discussion of what President Bush had been told of the shooting and whether he knew that Mr. Cheney had fired the shots.
Still developing...
Well, it may not be Captain James T. Kirk, but still it's kinda neat to call the authorities for help and have Captain Kirk come to the rescue...
One thing overlooked on all of this, as far as I can tell, is that it is beginning to get dark by 5:30pm in Texas. Dusk is setting in. Not to say that VP Cheney wasn't at fault, but it is another factor to figure in. Of course, the media loonies won't do that. To hear them talk, I thought Cheney shot him about 3:00-3:30ish because he got in the way of Cheney's view, cursed at him for bleeding, had a beer (at least one that we know of), yelled at him to get up, and then decided to allow one of his many many personal physicians and surgeons to put a band-aid on Mr. Whiddington befor making him walk back to the ranch house early while Cheney rode in the stretch-Hummer limo because Cheney wanted to get back to watch the Olympics.
Whittington wasn't flown because he was stabilized at the scene and there was already ground transport available. It takes time to get medevac aircraft flying. Probably would have taken longer to get to the hospital by air than by ground.
Of course, this is a practical, logical explanation, tow concepts that lieberals are completely unfamiliar with.
Thanks for that timeline.
Rush just said, in regard to those trying to allude that Cheney was having an affair with one of the women hunting on Saturday -- her husband was hunting there too, a mile away. LOL
If a Clinton had been involved in this, 24 hours later they would have found a suicide note from Whittington...
Spokesperson (w/doc) at the hospital press conference said that much of what has been written by the press is inaccurate (quel surprise!) AND that the hospital was looking into the possibility that reporters had breached the patient privacy act!!!
No kidding! Wouldn't I just LOVE to see a reporter charges with invading the privacy act.
The same leftists who made sure abortion became the law of the land based on PRIVACY.
I've been surprised that we haven't heard more officials advocate for Mr. Whittington and his right to privacy related to his medical information. Care providers are not to reveal any patient information just because someone asks for it.
If you register with the paper there's a whole slew of stories. Taken as a whole the chain events and Cheney's actions make fine sense.
Why report to the media until the Sheriff has done his investigation which the SHERIFF, not Cheney, chose to do the next day.
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