When the reports said that birdshot broke the skin, I guess I took it at face value; I figured he was hospitalized in an overkill of caution to be sure this didn't get even messier for Cheney than was inevitable. So it turns out the guy was damned lucky to not be stone dead at the scene; just one little pellet that happened to get to his heart. (It had already occured to me how easily he could have been blinded.) I seriously suspect that, had he fallen dead on the spot, Cheney would have made every effort to see that it was reported as a chance death by heart attack while hunting.