Senator Ted Kennedy will undergo surgery for a brain tumor at 9 am today (6/2/80). The surgery is expected to last 6 Hours. The operation will be performed at Duke University Medical Center.
Sen. Edward M. Kennedy will undergo surgery Monday at Duke University Medical Center for his cancerous brain tumor, his office said.
The 76-year-old senator was diagnosed last month with a malignant glioma, an especially lethal type of brain tumor. A statement from the Massachusetts Democrat’s office said he would be operated on Monday morning in Durham, N.C., by Dr. Allan Friedman, followed by chemotherapy and radiation. Anthony Coley, a Kennedy spokesman, said the surgery is expected to begin around 9 a.m.
“I am deeply grateful to the people of Massachusetts and to my friends, colleagues and so many others across the country and around the world who have expressed their support and good wishes as I tackle this new and unexpected health challenge,” Kennedy said in the statement. “I am humbled by the outpouring and am strengthened by your prayers and kindness.”
He expects to remain at the North Carolina facility for one week to recuperate and then will begin further treatments at Massachusetts General Hospital and start chemotherapy.
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Update:
“I am pleased to report that Senator Kennedy’s surgery was successful and accomplished our goals,” Dr. Allan Friedman said in a statement after a 3 1/2-hour operation at Duke University’s Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina.
After the surgery, Kennedy told his wife, Vicki, “I feel like a million bucks,” an aide to the senator said.
Friedman, Duke’s chief of neurosurgery, did not specify how much of the tumor he was able to remove. He called the operation “the first step” in a treatment plan for the 76-year-old senator from Massachusetts, head of America’s most fabled political family.
“After a brief recuperation, he will begin targeted radiation at Massachusetts General Hospital and chemotherapy treatment,” Friedman said.
Kennedy was diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor called a glioma, a type of tumor that usually kills within three years, after suffering a seizure on May 17.
