Sen. Kennedy heading home for fight of his life
BOSTON (AP) - May 21, 2008 A square bandage at the back of his head marked the spot where
doctors performed a biopsy Monday that led them to diagnose the
Massachusetts Democrat with malignant glioma. Experts say such
tumors are almost always fatal.
Kennedy's dogs, Sunny and Splash, met him at the hospital door.
Hospital workers and well-wishers greeted Kennedy with applause.
Before he and his wife, Vicki, got into a dark Chevrolet Suburban,
he kissed his daughter, Kara, and his niece Caroline Kennedy, and
embraced his son, Rep. Patrick Kennedy, D-R.I.
The senator departed with a wave as television news helicopters
followed his 75-mile trip south to his Cape Cod home. Along the
way, he could be seen waving to nearby motorists from the front
passenger seat of his SUV. He took a walk on the beach with his two
Portuguese Water Dogs as soon as he arrived.
"Good to be back home," he told waiting reporters.
Doctors announced Kennedy "has recovered remarkably quickly"
from the brain biopsy. They said he will recuperate at his home
over the Memorial Day weekend while awaiting further test results
that will help determine his treatment plan.
"He's feeling well and eager to get started," said Dr. Lee
Schwamm, a top neurologist at Massachusetts General, and Dr. Larry
Ronan, Kennedy's primary care physician.
The 76-year-old senator, the last son in a famed political
family, was diagnosed with a malignant glioma in his left parietal
lobe - which helps govern sensation, movement and language - after
suffering a seizure in his home Saturday morning. Malignant gliomas
are diagnosed in about 9,000 Americans a year.
"It's treatable but not curable. You can put it into remission
for a while but it's not a curable tumor," said Dr. Suriya
Jeyapalan, a neuroncologist at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
in Boston.
In an e-mail Tuesday, Vicki Kennedy told friends the grim
diagnosis was "a real curveball" that left the family stunned
even as Kennedy joked and laughed with them. She expressed pride in
how her husband was handling the news.
"Teddy is leading us all, as usual, with his calm approach to
getting the best information possible," she wrote in an e-mail
Tuesday to friends.
"He's also making me crazy (and making me laugh) by pushing to
race in the Figawi this weekend," she wrote, referring to the
annual sailing race from Cape Cod to Nantucket.
The diagnosis cast a pall over Capitol Hill, where the
Massachusetts Democrat has served since 1962.
Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., the longest-serving member of the
Senate, wept as he prayed for "my dear, dear friend, dear friend,
Ted Kennedy" during a speech on the Senate floor.
"Keep Ted here for us and for America," said the 90-year-old
Byrd, who is in a wheelchair. He added: "Ted, Ted, my dear friend,
I love you and I miss you."
In a statement, President Bush saluted Kennedy as "a man of
tremendous courage, remarkable strength and powerful spirit." He
added: "We join our fellow Americans in praying for his full
recovery."
Kennedy has been active for his age, maintaining an aggressive
schedule on Capitol Hill and across Massachusetts. He has made
several campaign appearances for Sen. Barack Obama.
"He fights for what he thinks is right. And we want to make
sure that he's fighting this illness," Obama said Tuesday. "And
it's our job now to support him in the way that he has supported us
for so many years."
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton said: "Ted Kennedy's courage and
resolve are unmatched, and they have made him one of the greatest
legislators in Senate history. Our thoughts are with him and Vicki
and we are praying for a quick and full recovery."
Kennedy has left his stamp on a raft of health care, pension and
immigration legislation during four decades in the Senate. In 1980,
Kennedy unsuccessfully challenged Jimmy Carter for the Democratic
presidential nomination.
The Kennedy family has been struck by tragedy over and over.
Kennedy's eldest brother, Joseph, died in a World War II plane
crash; President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1963; and Sen.
Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1968.
Ted Kennedy shocked the nation in 1969 when he drove his car off
a bridge to Massachusetts' Chappaquiddick Island and a young female
campaign worker drowned. Kennedy, who did not call authorities
until the next day, pleaded guilty to leaving the scene of an
accident and received a suspended two-month jail sentence.
Kennedy, the Senate's second-longest serving member, was
re-elected in 2006 and is not up for election again until 2012.
Were he to resign or die in office, state law requires a special
election for the seat 145 to 160 days afterward.
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Associated Press writer Lauran Neergaard contributed to this
report from Washington.
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On the Net:
http://kennedy.senate.gov