Projo Politics Blog

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.

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