Ted Kennedy Hospitalized: Possible Stroke

(CNN) -- Sen. Edward Kennedy was rushed to Cape Cod Hospital in Massachusetts Saturday morning, a well-informed, prominent Democratic source in that state told CNN.

The source said the 76-year-old senator had "symptoms of a stroke."

Kennedy was taken to the hospital around 8 or 9 a.m. from the Kennedy family compound in Hyannis, according to the source. The source said the senator would be transferred to Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.

That hospital said it had no information on Kennedy.

wildswan said:
It looks like Senator Kennedy may have had a seizure.

edit: And crispy was right on it.

OhSoOrdinary said:
I hope he doesn't have some crazy brain thing...

OhSoOrdinary said:
I hope he doesn't have some crazy brain thing...

MrStitches said:

I dunno, seizures in people that don't normally have them aren't really a sign of anything good I don't think. But I am not a doctor, so for all I know it could just be really bad gas or something.

Bill_the_Cat said:

Like Republicanism? That would be pretty terrible.

bean said:

They're still looking into what caused the seizure, but he's upbeat and alert.

http://tinyurl.com/3p8ljs

Damage to the left parietal lobe can result in what is called "Gerstmann's Syndrome." It includes right-left confusion, difficulty with writing (agraphia) and difficulty with mathematics (acalculia). It can also produce disorders of language (aphasia) and the inability to perceive objects normally (agnosia).

Dr. John Golfinos, an associate professor of neurosurgery at the New York University Cancer Institute, said malignant glioma could be difficult to beat.

"Typically, the outlook is not that great for this disease," said Dr. Golfinos.

Dr. Golfinos said he could not speak about Senator Kennedy's case specifically, but in general, a patient's prognosis depends on a number of factors, including age and a general description known as performance status. He said there is no common screening test to discover the presence of such a tumor, and that for most people who develop one, no cause is ever identified.

Although a large number of promising treatments have been developed in recent years, Dr. Golfinos said the long-term survival rates have not improved greatly so far.

"It is still a difficult one, so the prognosis has not improved that much," he said.