Blackhawk Gone: Why wasn't Whittington airlifted?

[RamboLiberal]

http://www.pnionline.com/dnblog/attytood/archives/002793.html

Here's just one more unanswered question about Dick Cheney's shooting of his 78-year-old friend last Saturday.

Numerous news accounts in recent years suggest that the vice president, with his history of four heart attacks, is almost always accompanied by a medical team and by Blackhawk helicopters, even when he is hunting in remote rural locations, as he all too frequently does.

<snip>

We've been meaning to look into this all week. In August of 2004, we took our annual family vacation in the Jackson Hole area, coincidentally while the vice president was also there. And during our stay, all the locals were buzzing about this incident, which actually involved buzzing...buzzing helicopters. Cheney's helicopters:

Still, nothing quite prepared people for the brazen invasion earlier this month atop the normally bucolic Snake River in Grand Teton National Park. In full view of rafters, tourists and residents, two Black Hawk helicopters skimmed the river.

Angry river users shook their fists. Wildlife tumbled over from the choppers' downdraft, witnesses said. Plants were rippling in the high winds, they said.

"They were at tree-top levels," said Martin Hagen, a captain who navigates the river for a rafting company. "Here you go out for a quiet day along the river and suddenly comes this great noise. It was a big, big disturbance."

[European Socialist]

1. I heard he was airlifted.

[RamboLiberal]

3. I believe it was after he was ground transported to the first hospital

From the linked article:

Instead, the splayed and profusely bleeding Whittington was driven to a small rural hospital -- even though when he got there, doctors then realized his condition was critical enough to airlift him, by a private helicopter, to the bigger medical center in Corpus Christi.

[sandnsea]

9. It's a hospital chain

Chorpus something or other. A penetrating wound to the neck or body is automatically flown to the larger hospital in Corpus. The reason you wouldn't use the Black Hawks is if the guy was bad enough to need the ER equipment in the ambulance.

They also didn't tell his wife right away, which means they knew instantly this wasn't a "peppering".

[shain from kane]

2. Cheney's comment, " Quit complaining, Go f*ck yourself." n/t

[DURHAM D]

4. They probably did not take him immediately to the

hospital because they were trying to figure out if they could treat him at the ranch, thus keeping it from the public. Eventually they figured out his condition was too bad and then they took him by helicopter to the hospital.

I don't believe any of the rambling across country stories that supposedly explain the 3-4 hour delay is the victim's arrival at the hospital.

[shain from kane]

13. Ran out of mercurochrome.

Tried calamine lotion, ben-gay, ipecac, and prid salve. None of it worked. Tobacco and raw eggs next. Gave up and went to the hospital.

[napi21]

5. Well, with all the people who HATE this guy, the SS has to get

a good look in your eyes to make sure you're a good person!

[TomInTib]

6. The initial reports had him airlifted. Then the Sheriff report had him

in an ambulance.

I believe he WAS airlifted in one of the Blackhawks but, for some reason (taxpayer outrage) they won't admit it.

The Armstrong Ranch has choppers, but I doubt they could accomodate an airlift.

[havocmom]

8. Airlifted from first hospital to second hospital

prior to that - three hour delay getting to first hospital.

I live in one of the most remote places in the lower 48 states, and it NEVER takes that long to get a critical cast to the hospital!

[TomInTib]

16. I have hunted that area and there are small hospitals in every ..

town. Did they take him to Sarita or Raymondville?

[havocmom]

7. Dunno. Even in the way out rural county where I live, 3 hours to hospital

is absolutely unheard of! And nobody here has the kind of pull as a Mr. Whittington or a Mr. Cheney!

Anybody in serious shape goes via chopper... ANYBODY!

[sandnsea]

11. Sometimes ambulance to a chopper pad

We had cases where they drove people into the school where a chopper could land, then flew them into a hospital. My husband was driven, even had an ambulance switch in the middle to a better ambulance, no time to even wait for choppers. I think they did probably drive Whittington into town because the ambulance had the equipment, then flew him to Corpus.

[havocmom]

12. Three Hours? Not buying it. Like I said, I live in one of the most

remote places in the lower 48 and even by car, even over our dirt roads and across country much more difficult than around Mrs Armstrong's ranch, it does not take 3 hours to get to the hospital.

And we have hospitals with choppers that have equipment that get here fast. If a woman in labor is having a bad time, they can get her to a good hospital by helicopter or ambulance in less than 3 hours. And we are more likely to have sever weather to slow things down than in Mrs. Armstrong's area too.

Three hours? Shit, they were probably hoping the man would bleed out so they could bury him on the ranch and not have anybody know! Somebody finally beat some sense into the 'hunting party' and got him headed to town.

[sandnsea]

14. This was a shooting

Little bit different than a pregnant woman calling ER. The timeline makes perfect sense to me. Alot of things in this shooting don't add up, but the timeline isn't one of them. Especially because I lived in Montana for years too, and I know the transferring of people, and going to small hospitals, then big hospitals. This is how emergencies are handled, more often than not. You know it too.


The shooting was between 5:30 and 5:45
The ambulance goes out to the shooting location, takes a half hour.
6:20, the ambulance left the ranch and got to Kingsville around 6:45
The ranch is a good hour drive from Kingsville, under normal driving conditions.
It’s a 55,000 acre ranch.
The Halo-flight left Corpus at 7:07, arrived in Kingsville at 7:29, arrived back in Corpus at 8:19
Sheriff was notified at 7, the ambulance was gone by the time they got to the ranch
Karl Rove was called between 8 & 9

[havocmom]

15. We have those too. Still doesn't take 3 hours

used pregnant woman to make a point about delicate transprots that have to be be fast.

We also have big ranches and dirt roads. Does not take that damned long. I understand time, distance and dirt roads. Like I said, one of the most remote counties in the lower 48 states. And if we can do it faster here... they got no excuse for the time they took getting the man in for care.

[sandnsea]

17. Yes it does, I lived there too

If they hadn't called the ambulance that was ON the ranch, you'd be picking apart that decision. The only way this could have happened any faster is if they had called straight into the hospital in Corpus and had the chopper go straight to the ranch. That would have made a shorter ranch to hospital trip, but it would have made a longer time for him to get medical attention since they had a physicians assistance on the grounds. They did the right thing, every step of the way. This isn't anything to get in a twist over.

Drinking and hunting, flinging his gun around, not keeping track of everybody in the hunting party, that's another story.

[havocmom]

18. You don't get to tell me what I'd be picking apart

And they could have made it a lot faster. We do it here all the time. So again, why did it take them so long to get the man in to medical care. They had much more resources to work with than probably anybody in the country! The Vice President of the US was there.

Oh, and you prolly look nothing like my mother, so you don't get to tell me when to get in a twist and when not to.

Lotta gall there.

[sandnsea]

19. The timeline is right there

Particularly for people who have lived in that kind of country, and know that people are often transported long distances and transferred between ambulances and hospitals and helicopters, it's obvious they didn't do anything wrong.

It's also obvious when people are looking for something to pick at. And obvious that there is plenty of real meat in the shooting story that shouldn't get distracted with non-issues.

But just like your mother would say, if you want to go off on a tangent, there's nothing I can do to stop you. Have a party!!

:party:

[laruemtt]

10. is there any way we can get proof

that whittington's alive? there really isn't, is there.................