Senator Edward Kennedy taken to hospital, signs of stroke

May 17, 2008, 21:14 GMT

Washington - Veteran Democratic Senator Edward 'Ted' Kennedy was taken to hospital Saturday amid symptoms of a possible stroke, according to the television news network CNN and US media reports.

CNN quoted sources as saying that the Massachusetts senator, 76, had shown 'stroke-like symptoms.'

The New York Times in a news flash spoke of Kennedy having been taken to hospital for a 'serious - but unknown - illness.'

According to a report by the Cape Cod Times, Kennedy was rushed by ambulance from the family compound in Hyannisport, Massachusetts, to Cape Cod Hospital after falling ill.

That report also said that after two hours in the emergency room there, a decision was made to transfer Kennedy to Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.

Kennedy is the last surviving brother of President John F Kennedy, who was assassinated in November 1963. Another older brother, Robert Kennedy, was assassinated in June 1968 while seeking the Democratic Party presidential nomination.

The Massachusetts Senator, long an icon of the liberal wing of the Democratic Party, most recently made the headlines in late January when he publicly endorsed Barack Obama's bid for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination.

Kennedy has served as senator from Massachusetts since 1962 when he was elected to the post vacated after his brother John became president.

His official Senate website describes Edward Kennedy as the youngest of nine children of Joseph P Kennedy and Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy. He is a graduate of Harvard University and the University of Virginia Law School.

He makes his home in Hyannisport, with his wife Victoria Reggie Kennedy. Together, they have five children ­ Kara, Edward Jr., and Patrick Kennedy, and Curran and Caroline Raclin. They also have four grandchildren.

Kennedy is now the senior Democrat on the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee in the Senate and also belongs to the Judiciary Committee, where he is the senior Democrat on the Immigration Subcommittee, and on the Armed Services Committee, where he is the senior Democrat on the Seapower Subcommittee.

He is also a member of the Congressional Joint Economic Committee and the Congressional Friends of Ireland, and a trustee of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, DC.