Projo Politics Blog

May 17, 2008 Archives

AP photo / Winslow Townson
U.S. Rep. Patrick Kennedy, D-R.I., left, is greeted by his cousin, Caroline Kennedy, as he arrives at and she departs from Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, today, where Patrick's father Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., is hospitalized.

A throng of reporters gathered for word outside the hospital soon after reports surfaced that the senior senator had been airlifted there. The media were collected in a roped off area on the sidewalk about 100 yards from the hospital’s main entrance, where there was no sign of extraordinary security precautions for the senator.

More than a dozen television cameras representing local and national media outlets were trained on the front door in the event that a hospital spokesperson or family member might speak publicly.

None did.

At 8 p.m., more than 10 hours after some reporters first gathered on the sidewalk, hospital spokesperson Peggy Slasman distributed a written statement from the senator's primary care physician, Dr. Larry Ronan (who also works as an internist for the Red Sox), noting that Kennedy was "resting comfortably, and watching the Red Sox game with his family."

Slasman also delivered 33 Papa Ginos pizzas and four cases of water to the reporters, cameramen and photographers –– who numbered about 30 at that time –– who had spent much of the day waiting for a live update that never came.

According to reports before 7 p.m., he was recovering in good spirits from a seizure suffered at his Cape Cod home.

-- Steve Peoples, of the Journal State House Bureau, with reports from the Associated Press

BOSTON (AP) -- A spokeswoman for Sen. Edward Kennedy says he is conscious and talking to family after he suffered a seizure in his Cape Cod home and was flown to a Boston hospital.

The 76-year-old Massachusetts Democrat fell ill at his home in the family compound in Hyannisport Saturday morning and was rushed to a local hospital. He later was flown to Massachusetts General Hospital to determine the cause of the seizure.

Spokeswoman Stephanie Cutter said he is "conscious, talking, joking with family."

His wife and children are among those with him at the hospital.

Kennedy's son, Rhode Island U.S. Rep. Patrick J. Kennedy, left Washington, D.C. this afternoon, on a flight to Boston to join his siblings, Edward Kennedy Jr., and Kara Kennedy, at his father's bedside, said Kennedy spokeswoman Robin Costello.

Patrick Kennedy received many messages from friends and political allies. ``He would like to thank everybody for their thoughts and prayers,'' said Costello.

Also at the hospital was Sen. Kennedy's niece, Caroline, daughter of Kennedy's late brother, President John F. Kennedy Jr.

Get the latest from the Associated Press ...

-- With reports from Journal staff writer Scott MacKay

Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, the Democratic party's liberal lion, was in Massachusetts Hospital this afternoon after suffering a seizure at his home on Cape Cod this morning. Kennedy, 76, was rushed by ambulance to Cape Cod Hospital from his familiy's compound in Hyannisport and was flown to Boston after two hours in the emergency room on the Cape.

Details on how seriously Kennedy had been stricken were scarce. The senator's spokeswoman, Melissa Wagoner, said only that Kennedy was undergoing a medical tests.

``He is undergoing a battery of tests at Massachusette General Hospital to determine the cause of the seizure,'' said Wagoner. ``Senator Kennedy is resting comfortably and, it is unlikely we will know anything more for the next 48 hours.''

Kennedy's son, Rhode Island U.S. Rep. Patrick J. Kennedy, left Washington, D.C. this afternoon, on a flight to Boston to join his siblings, Edward Kennedy Jr., and Kara Kennedy, at his father's bedside, said Kennedy spokeswoman Robin Costello.

Patrick Kennedy received many messages from friends and political allies. ``He would like to thank everybody for their thoughts and prayers,'' said Costello.

Reporters were kept about 100 yards from the hospital entrance near the Charles River in Boston. About 30 reporters and photojournalists were on hand, awaiting a statement from the Kennedy family.

First elected in 1962, Kennedy has never lost an election in Massaschusetts. Last October, he had surgery to repair a blockage in a major neck artery. The procedure on his left carotid artery, a main blood conduit to the brain, was performed at Mass. General by the hospital's chief of vascular surgery, Dr. Richard Cambria.