Skip to content
Link copied to clipboard
Link copied to clipboard

Kennedy still in Boston hospital

The senator was said to be resting and awaiting test results after a seizure on Saturday.

BOSTON - Sen. Edward M. Kennedy remained hospitalized yesterday, awaiting test results that could explain why the Massachusetts Democrat had suffered a seizure a day earlier.

Doctors at Massachusetts General Hospital said it would be today at the earliest before the tests were complete, and the hospital and Kennedy's office released no new information about his condition yesterday.

A top aide said Kennedy, 76, was resting, eating and watching Boston Red Sox and Boston Celtics games on television.

"We expect today to be a very quiet day," said the aide, who requested anonymity because of hospital practices concerning the privacy of patient information.

Kennedy's wife, Vicki, was seen walking into the hospital early yesterday morning. The aide said his daughter, stepdaughters and sister Jean Kennedy Smith also visited.

It was a smaller crowd than on Saturday, when members of his family, including Kennedy's sons and niece Caroline Kennedy, and Sen. John Kerry stopped by the hospital.

Kennedy was flown Saturday morning to Massachusetts General from the emergency room of Cape Cod Hospital, near his home in Hyannisport. Doctors originally suspected he had suffered a stroke, but his physician, Larry Ronan, later said that it had been a seizure and that Kennedy was "not in any immediate danger."

In October, Kennedy had surgery to remove a blockage in his left carotid artery, which supplies blood to the face and brain. After the surgery, he resumed his busy schedule on Capitol Hill and across Massachusetts.

Kennedy is the second-longest-serving member of the Senate and a dominant figure in national Democratic Party politics. He was elected in 1962, filling out the term won by his brother, John F. Kennedy, who was elected president in 1960.