WASHINGTON, Feb. 14 (Xinhuanet) -- Texas lawyer Harry Whittington, shot accidentally by U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney during a hunting trip last Saturday, suffered a minor heart attack Tuesday and was moved back to intensive care.

    Whittington, 78, had some birdshot lodged in his heart and was moved to intensive care after suffering a minor heart attack, said reports from Corpus Christi, Texas, where he was receiving treatment.

    "Some of the birdshot appears to have moved and lodged into part of his heart in what we would say is a minor heart attack," Peter Banko, administrator at Christus Spohn Hospital Corpus Christi-Memorial in Texas, said at a press conference outside the hospital.

    There was an irregularity in the heartbeat caused by a pellet, and doctors performed a cardiac catheterization, Banko said.

    Whittington, who had been placed in intensive care after the incident and was moved from intensive care on Monday, would have to stay in the hospital for several days to monitor his condition, he said.

    Banko said doctors had no plans at the moment to remove the birdshot in Whittington's heart.

    Meanwhile, the Kenedy County Sheriff's Office near the ranch where the accident took place has cleared Cheney of any wrongdoing in the shooting accident.

    The sheriff's office said it interviewed both men after the Secret Service called to notify them shortly after the shooting, and investigation revealed that there was no alcohol or misconduct involved in the incident, which "was no more than a hunting accident." Enditem