CQ TODAY ONLINE NEWS
Updated May 21, 2008 – 2:58 p.m.
Sen. Kennedy Released From Hospital
By Kathleen Hunter, CQ Staff
Sen. Edward M. Kennedy was released from a Boston hospital Wednesday morning, one day after doctors announced that he has a malignant brain tumor.
The 76 year-old Massachusetts Democrat appeared upbeat as he left Massachusetts General Hospital, where he was taken after he suffered a seizure at his Cape Cod home May 17.
Surrounded by family members, including his wife, Vicki; son, Rep. Patrick J. Kennedy , D-R.I.; daughter, Kara; niece, Caroline Kennedy, and others, he walked out the door, waved and flashed a thumbs up to the crowds that had gathered, and patted his two dogs before entering a waiting SUV to return to his Cape Cod home.
On Tuesday, Kennedy’s doctors announced that they had discovered a malignant glioma, or tumor, in the left parietal lobe of the senator’s brain.
In a Wednesday statement, Kennedy’s doctors said he had recovered “remarkably quickly” from a Monday procedure and was being discharged from the hospital ahead of schedule.
“ He will return to his home on Cape Cod while we await further test results and determine treatment plans,” Dr. Lee Schwamm, vice chairman of the neurology department at Mass General, and Dr. Larry Ronan, Kennedy’s primary care physician there, said in a statement.
“He’s feeling well and eager to get started.”
First elected in 1962, Kennedy is the second longest-serving sitting senator, behind Robert C. Byrd , D-W.Va.
News of his diagnosis rocked Capitol Hill Tuesday, prompting tears and prayers for his recovery from all corners of the Capitol.
A Big Void
The tributes continued Wednesday, as his colleagues took note of Kennedy’s absence and sent their good wishes.
Senate Chaplain Barry Black opened the session with a prayer for Kennedy, and his colleagues invoked his name often throughout the day.
Soon after the Senate convened, Debbie Stabenow , D-Mich., took to the floor to discuss provisions in the war supplemental spending bill (
Sen. Kennedy Released From Hospital
“I find it difficult today to speak about” the issue “without turning and looking behind me to see the great champion of the Senate, Sen. Ted Kennedy, leading this debate and discussion,” she said.
“No one has been a greater champion —no one— in this body or anywhere in the country, for working men and women, for folks that are working hard every day to meet the American dream, than our own Sen. Ted Kennedy,” she said.
“I want to send my wishes, as my colleagues have, all of my colleagues from both sides of the aisle and every part of this building and this city, to say to Ted that we miss you and we need you back, and we are sending our love and our prayers to you and Vicki and the entire family,” Stabenow added.
As the Senate prepared to take up the conference report on the fiscal 2009 budget resolution (
“If there’s anybody who can beat this, it’s Ted Kennedy,” Conrad said, adding “All of us here are pulling for him.”
At the White House later in the day, President Bush paid tribute to Kennedy, as he had a day earlier when news of the senator’s grave diganosis reached Washington.
Bush signed into law a bill (
Kennedy chairs the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee and drafted the version of the genetics discrimination bill (
After months of negotiations in which Kennedy often played a pivotal role, the Senate passed the final version of the bill by 95-0 on April 24; the House cleared it for Bush’s signature on May 1 by 414-1.
First posted May 21, 2008 10:22 a.m.
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