Between FIVE and 200 pellets lodged in Mr. Whittington?

[liberalpragmatist]

Dr. David Blanchard, the emergency room chief, estimated that Mr. Whittington had more than 5 but "probably less than 150 to 200" pellets lodged in his body.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/15/politics/15cheney.html?hp&ex=1140066000&en=4115ca90864b33ca&ei=5094&partner=homepage

I'm not a doctor (possibly in the future; not yet though), but does "somewhere between 5 and 200" count as an estimate? Maybe I'm just ignorant, but there seems to be an awfully large difference between FIVE and TWO-HUNDRED.

P.S. What does "less than 150 to 200" mean? Less than 150 or less than 200?

[benburch]

1. though the holes were very small...

...they had to count them all.

[goclark]

2. New Spin Doctor, Alert, Alert!

These people are from Bazarro World.

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

3. That certainly...

Narrows things down a bit...:wtf: :crazy:

[Raster]

4. well, as someone that has approximately 40-50 pellets in their body,

it's hard to get an accurate count. You can X-ray the entire body and then count.

[liberalpragmatist]

6. Okay...

... but I could understand if they said something like "between 50 and 150". Between FIVE and 200?

You said that you have 40-50 pellets in your body. As an aside, how did you get pellets in your body? You weren't out hunting with Cheney were you :)? I'm only asking about the pellets stuff because you would know more than anybody else on this board.

[Raster]

11. Nope, not hunting with Darth Crashcart. I was mugged. One kid had a

handgun up to my face, the other kid, which I did not know was behind me, had a shotgun which went off. Most of the lead (steel, actually) hit the sidewalk and peppered the assailant in front of me (heh heh heh). Unfortunately enough of the discharge caught me. Broke my right hand in three places, scattered buckshot all over the right side of my body. One nasty little pellet entered behind my kneecap and nicked the main artery and vein. I was taken to Parkland Hospital where I spent 8 wonderful hours in the emergency room. They didn't think I was too injured and started to release me when they took me down to radiology to flood me full of ink and have one final look. The next thing I know they're rushing me to an operating theater. I spent three weeks in Parkland on the Trauma floor. I have a scar that runs on the inside of my right leg from my ankle to my groin, and on the outside of the leg from the ankle to just below my knee. Incidentally, it happened just at the end of October 1988. My friends checked me out of the hospital so I could go vote for Dukakis, wheelchair and all.

[liberalpragmatist]

15. Wow - that's some story

Did the pellets have any long-term effects on you? And what happened to the assailant that got "peppered"?

[Raster]

17. I still have the pellets. They don't remove them unless their pose

additional damage. It actually damages more tissue to try and dig them out. And they are steel, after all. I can feel a few just underneath the skin on my pellet leg. Sometimes I give the pellet tour to friends.

I have one pellet that entered in my back and I thought had embedded itself in the muscle tissue. A chest Xray later in life showed that the pellet is embedded in my lung and missed my heart by about an inch. True story: I was getting the chest xray when the xray tech literally came running out of the development area loudly inquiring "do you know you've been shot??" Nope, missed it. Thanks.

I also had one pellet that just missed my huevos rancheros by about an inch.

And no, the punks were never caught. I think I recognized the kid about 8 months later attending one of the coumaden clinics at Parkland. He was coming in, I was going. I couldn't be sure, and didn't really want to see him again anyway.

[Zookeeper]

16. Yikes! Ouch! (An understatement I'm sure....)

So, let's say you'd absorbed 200 pellets?!?

[Raster]

18. 200 pellets would put ANYONE in bad shape.

[jbnow]

22. Not a great day

or month, except you recovered. A gun to your face...a shotgun behind. We know it happens, but we never really think it will. Things can sure change in an instant.

Glad they took that last look and caught the problem.Hope they caught the assailants. Sounds like at least one couldn't run too fast.

[Rabrrrrrr]

5. "The earth is somewhere between 18 thousand and 972 bajillion miles

from the sun"

What a fucking dumb statement.

Between 5 and 200? Fuck that bullshit.

[warsager]

7. I noticed that too

first it was about 50, then 50 to 80, now between 5 and TWO-HUNDRED!!! WHA??

'Oh, well he was hit with between ZERO to INFINITY number of pellets. Yes, and actually it kind of tickled.'

Oh oKAY.

I really hope this man lives and is ok. Just the idea of experiencing that, . It's so horrible.

Now let's get back to the issues that the American people are concerned about....hmmm what might those be...?

[kurth]

8. What's 100 pellets between friends?

Let Republicans shoot each other into extinction.

[catnhatnh]

9. Well 5 would make a pretty poor...

...case of the measles....and since 1 in the chest nearly killed him and we know he was struck in the chest ,neck,and face leaving 3 (max) for the face....Gee Doc-I'm guessin that low end of the scale is off.....

[Historic NY]

10. 28 ga. bird shot contains...........

350-585 steel pellets depending on the the size used which ranges from
7 1/2 - 9. Each shotgun shell is 3 1/2 inches long. As reported Cheney was using the 7 1/2 shot which would contain 350 pellets per shell.

[liberalpragmatist]

12. So the upper number is probably more likely?

That the case?

[jody]

13. The std. 28 ga 3/4 oz load of size #7 1/2 shot have about 262 pellets.

[Historic NY]

23. I figured he went with the very best ammo considering his.....

shotgun was extremely expensive.

[jody]

24. Best ammo is still a 3/4 oz load for the 28 ga. n/t

[cliss]

14. > which means,

that Cheney was standing pretty damn close to Mr. Whittington, for that many to have lodged themselves in his body.

[warsager]

19. is it so that

the 'pellets' are the size of a sewing pin head?

[jody]

25. #7 1/2 lead shot are .095" in diameter and weight about 1.25 grs. n/t

[Vidar]

20. Is it a WMD or a squirrel. Let's consult the machine that goes ping.

[kestrel91316]

21. When I was first out of vet school I worked in a small town in the

Pacific Northwest. Bird hunting with dogs was popular. So was a particular form of canine discipline meted out when the dog failed to perform adequately. Guys would just haul off and shoot the dog in the rear to get his attention, and teach him a lesson (from some distance). Then they would bring him in to the vet(me)and the dumb jerks would expect me to dig out all the hundreds of pellets. I would decline and say I don't want to puree him into mush. All they needed usually was a good clip and clean, and some antibiotics. And IMHO a different owner.

Nowadays I bet you could actually report them for animal abuse and maybe live to tell about it.