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Sen. Kennedy Hospitalized After Suffering Seizure, Not A Stroke

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The Washington Post

Published: May 18, 2008

Edward Kennedy, a liberal Democratic icon of the Senate and the surviving patriarch of American political royalty, suffered a seizure Saturday at his home in Hyannis Port, Mass., and was rushed by helicopter to Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, hospital officials said.

The 76-year-old Massachusetts Democrat has endured the deaths of his older brothers - one a president and another trying to become one - as well as an airplane crash and a Chappaquiddick car accident that killed an aide.

All the while, Kennedy established a four-decade political career that included a White House campaign of his own and pivotal roles in formulating the nation's health, pension and educational laws.

The senior senator from Massachusetts was awake and joking with his family by late afternoon, said a source close to the Kennedy family who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

By early evening, he was watching the Boston Red Sox-Milwaukee Brewers game on television.

Kennedy underwent a battery of tests. Information on his prognosis is not likely until Monday, said a spokeswoman, Stephanie Cutter.

Ominous early reports that Kennedy had suffered strokelike symptoms Saturday morning gave way to more optimistic notes by afternoon.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said he had spoken with Kennedy's wife, Victoria Reggie Kennedy, about 3:15 p.m., and confirmed he had not suffered a stroke.

Kennedy's condition was not life-threatening but is serious, Reid told reporters at the Nevada Democratic Convention in Reno.

"The one thing I can say, if there ever was a fighter, anyone who stood for what we as Americans, we as Democrats, stand for, it's Ted Kennedy," Reid said.

Kennedy's primary care physician, Larry Ronan, said in a statement Saturday evening that preliminary tests showed the senator did not suffer a stroke, and "is not in any immediate danger."

"Over the next couple of days, Sen. Kennedy will undergo further evaluation to determine the cause of the seizure, and a course of treatment will be determined at that time," Ronan said.

Rep. Patrick Kennedy, D-R.I., Sen. Kennedy's son, was by his bedside, as was Caroline Kennedy, his niece. Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., the state's junior senator, visited the hospital.

First-time seizures in someone Kennedy's age can have many causes, including stroke, bleeding in the brain, tumors, alcohol withdrawal and severe derangements of bloodstream chemicals. Such seizures are not rare.

"Beyond childhood, the elderly years are actually the most common time to develop seizures," said Gregory Krauss, a neurologist and epilepsy specialist at Johns Hopkins Hospital.

"About half the time, it's linked to cerebrovascular disease, often without the person having a full stroke. Sometimes there is just a history of hypertension," Krauss said.

Kennedy has had cerebrovascular disease. Last year, he underwent a procedure to widen a partially blocked left carotid artery, which supplies blood to much of the brain.

The procedure is sometimes done preventively if the narrowing is severe enough. Kennedy's was described as "very high-grade" by his physician.

Kennedy has served in the Senate since 1962, when he won the seat that had been held by his older brother, President John F. Kennedy, with the help of the family political machine and the fortune of his father, Joseph P. Kennedy Sr.

Kennedy evolved into a giant of the Senate, putting his stamp on legislation on civil rights, health care, education, labor and environmental protection.

In the areas of foreign policy and defense, he opposed the war in Vietnam, though he came by his opposition slowly.

More recently, he worked with Sen. Robert C. Byrd, D-W.Va., in leading the unsuccessful Democratic opposition to the resolution authorizing the invasion of Iraq.

Kennedy has been a consistent opponent of Bush administration policy in Iraq, as well as the surveillance programs run by the National Security Agency.

A leading spokesman for liberal issues and worker rights, Kennedy has often worked across the aisle to advance legislation, including the now-controversial No Child Left Behind education law pushed by President Bush early in his presidency.

THE KENNEDY LEGACY

Sen. Edward Kennedy, the second-longest serving member of the Senate, was elected in 1962, filling out the term won by his brother, John F. Kennedy.

He is the lone surviving son in the famed family. His eldest brother, Joseph, was killed in a World War II airplane crash. President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1963 and another brother, Robert, was assassinated in 1968.

Source: The Associated Press

Information from The New York Times and The Associated Press was used in this report.

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