http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,356497,00.html
Sen. Ted Kennedy 'Conscious' and Responsive After Suffering Seizures
Saturday, May 17, 2008
Sen. Ted Kennedy's condition appeared to be improving as his friends,
family and colleagues prepared for the night watch Saturday evening
after two apparent seizures sent him to a Boston hospital.
The Massachusetts senator is "conscious, talking, joking with family,"
according to a spokeswoman.
Kennedy, 76, did not suffer a stroke and "is not in any immediate
danger," said Dr. Larry Ronan, the senator's primary care physician.
"He's resting comfortably, and watching the Red Sox game with his
family," Ronan said. "Over the next couple of days, Senator Kennedy
will undergo further evaluation to determine the cause of the seizure,
and a course of treatment will be determined at that time."
Kennedy, the liberal anchor of the U.S. Senate and remaining patriarch
of the storied Kennedy family, was still undergoing tests at
Massachusetts General Hospital, and a medical update was not expected
for at least another day. He does not appear to have had a stroke as
was initially suspected.
"He is undergoing a battery of tests at Massachusetts General Hospital
to determine the cause of the seizure," Kennedy's Senate office said
in a statement. "Senator Kennedy is resting comfortably, and it is
unlikely we will know anything more for the next 48 hours."
One Democratic source told FOX News that Kennedy, 76, suffered one
seizure in the morning, and then another en route to Massachusetts
General Hospital.
Kennedy was flown to the Boston hospital an hour after first being
admitted to the emergency room at Cape Cod Hospital at about 9 a.m.,
hospital spokesman David Reilly told FOXNews.com.
As word of his condition spread, well-wishers poured out to express
their concern and hopes for a swift recovery.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, speaking at the Nevada Democratic
Convention in Reno, said he spoke to Kennedy's wife Victoria Saturday
afternoon and was told "his condition is not life-threatening, but
serious."
Kennedy is at the hospital with his wife and children and was also
visited there by Senate colleague John Kerry, D-Mass. The hospital is
highly regarded and Kennedy has received treatment there before for
other medical problems.
"Ted Kennedy is beloved and respected on both sides of the aisle in
the Senate in which he's been a giant for close to half a century, a
legend in Massachusetts," Kerry said in a statement. "We know that
everyone in Massachusetts and people throughout the nation pray for a
full and speedy recovery for a man whose life's work has touched
millions upon millions of lives."
According to an article in the Cape Cod Times, Kennedy had first
fallen ill at the Kennedy compound in Hyannis****t. Hyannis Fire Lt.
Bill Rex told The Associated Press that a 911 call came in from the
compound at 8:19 a.m.
Kennedy is the second most-senior member of the Senate. The Democratic
senator was first elected in 1962, to fill out his brother John F.
Kennedy's term.
Kennedy also is one of Democratic presidential candidate Barack
Obama's biggest sup****ters, and has kept a hectic schedule campaigning
for him — a factor one source said may have created some extra stress
for Kennedy.
"Obviously my thoughts and prayers are with Teddy," Obama said
Saturday in Oregon, where he was campaigning. "He is one of my
favorite people and so hopefully he is going to be okay."
The other presidential candidates also expressed their concern.
In October, Kennedy had surgery to repair a nearly complete blockage
in a major neck artery. The discovery was made during a routine
examination of a decades-old back injury.
The hour-long procedure on his left carotid artery — a main supplier
of blood to the face and brain — was performed at Massachusetts
General. This type of operation is performed on more than 180,000
people a year to prevent a stroke.
The doctor who operated on Kennedy said at the time that surgery is
reserved for those with more than 70 percent blockage, and Kennedy had
"a very high-grade blockage."
Kennedy is the lone surviving son in a famed political family. His
eldest brother, Joseph Kennedy, was killed in a World War II airplane
crash. President Kennedy was assassinated in 1963, and their brother
Robert Kennedy, attorney general in the Kennedy administration, was
assassinated in 1968.
Considered a liberal lion in the Senate, Edward Kennedy was re-elected
in 2006. His current term ends in 2013. The senator made a failed run
for the presidency in 1980.
Despite his health problems, Kennedy maintains an aggressive schedule
on Capitol Hill.
Colleagues and former aides described him as an institution, one known
as the scourge of conservatives but also willing to get behind
bipartisan legislation.
“He has a charm and I don't know anybody that equals it," said former
colleague and Sen. Dennis DeConcini.
“No one works harder, cares more, is willing to fight to the last
second for the causes he believes in — even when there’s no chance of
winning,” strategist and former Kennedy campaign staffer Susan Estrich
told FOX News.
|
