Cardiac Surgery for Whittington?

[Tanuki]

If this pellet has penetrated Mr. Whittington's heart, or is pressing against it so intrusively as to cause a heart attack, won't it have to be surgically removed? Surely they won't just leave it there to migrate wherever it will. I wonder what is really going on, and if this "family requests that no more information be disclosed" business is covering up a developing medical catastrophe. Maybe one of our medically savvy posters could fill in the blanks here.

[medeak]

1. if it's lodged in the muscle it won't be moving.

Surgery is a risk just with anesthesia alone

[MadisonProgressive]

2. According to Dr. David Blanchard

"..it might be necessary to do open heart surgery"

[Warpy]

3. I have no idea where it is or if it's pressing on a large vessel

but it sounds like he didn't have any symptoms of a heart attack, just a spill of telltale enzymes that told the docs that some coronary tissue had its blood supply cut off and had died. The area may be very small (and likely is) and it would be more traumatic to go in and try to extract the pellet than to leave it where it is and allow scar tissue to build in around it so it won't continue to roll around in there. Its always a major risk to bring a scalpel anywhere near the heart, and a doubly major risk in any one 78 years old.

I'm sure they're watching him closely and if he does show signs of deteriorating, they may end up rushing him into surgery. For now, it sounds fairly stable, although with this bunch of liars and PR happy talkers one never knows.

What seems pretty clear is that those pellets went in pretty deeply, and that the official story of how far away he was from that trigger happy old fart Cheney is pure baloney. It sounds like he was a lot closer.

[Gabi Hayes]

4. righto....where'd that pellet come from? was it straight through the

clothing/skin?

if so, he must have been REALLY close

could it have migrated via artery to cause that kind of damage?

the part about the lying is so very obvious, and so nauseating, WRT the way the talking heads are taking everything the liars say at face value, when it's obvious to most here that they lie about everything

[Botany]

5. @ 78 cardic surgery is very risky.

So much of this story does not pass the smell test.



Earlier in the day the story was that the shot was rubbing against the heart muscle,
but where? Has it penetrated into the heart it's self? Is the cardiac sac punctured?
Did the shot wind up there as result of the blast or migration? Highly doubtful that it
lodged in a vein and went through the vinous blood back to the heart. What is Mr. W's
health history?

BTW ..... just so you know my physiology back ground is much stronger w/ oak trees? :rofl:

[tanyev]

6. Interesting wording on the CBS news report tonight.

Schieffer was giving a time line of the Whittington's condition worsening, and he said the the doctors doing morning rounds noticed there was some kind of problem. Then, after consultation with the White House doctors, they went ahead and did further tests.

:wtf:

No transcript up yet--I'll keep looking.

[tanyev]

9. No transcript, but the video is up and I watched it w/a notepad in hand.

"After conferring with the White House doctors this morning, Whittington's physicians conducted a cardiac catheterization..."
http://www.cbsnews.com/


I can't think of any legitimate reasons that Whittington's physicians would need to confer with the WH doctors.

[Nay]

7. This poor fellow is in MUCH worse shape than the repubs want you

to know -- personally, I think he could very well die of this. Then the shit will hit the fan for sure.

[Gregorian]

8. We can only guess. I'd have to see the angiogram to know more.

But I've been guessing all day what is going on. But they mentioned "decreased blood flow". Coronary blood flow, would be my guess. And that could mean pretty much only one thing. And I can't even imagine it. There is no way this pellet is in the aorta, plugging up a coronary artery. Or I don't think so. And for it to have lodged up against an artery so that it squeezes it closed is also very weird. But this is a weird situation. Only those in the cath lab know. We can only guess. Damn, I wish I were there.

[MadisonProgressive]

10. Are you a doctor, or do you just play one on DU?