U.S. senator
Edward M. Kennedy gave a thumbs-up to well-wishers and
kisses to relatives as he walked out of the hospital
Wednesday, a day after learning he has a cancerous
brain tumor.
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, U.S.
representative 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.
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 Lee Schwamm, a top
neurologist at Massachusetts General, and 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 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's 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 reelected 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. (AP)
