What Happened to Ted Kennedy at Senate Luncheon?

[LowlyPion]

MSNBC is reporting Ted Kennedy has been removed from the Senate Luncheon with Obama on a stretcher.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Now it is reported that Sen Robert Byrd needed medical assistance. After medics entered the room for Byrd, Kennedy went into severe convulsions.

 

[LowlyPion]

Kennedy Collapsed

January 20, 2009 2:46 PM

Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., who is battling a brain tumor, was taken away from the congressional luncheon in convulsions.

Kennedy was at a table with Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., Vice President Mondale and Mrs. Mondale, and others. While at the table, Kennedy began having seizures that lasted for several minutes. As they were carrying Kennedy out of the room, he was still seizing. President Barack Obama went out of the room with him, but he is back in the luncheon room now.

We are also told that Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., the oldest member of the Senate, was so upset and distraught from what he had witnessed, that he needed to be taken out. Byrd was conscious when he was taken from the room. The two have been friends for a very, very long time.

Obama just spoke to the luncheon about Kennedy, appearing extremely sober:

"First of all, I know that while I was out of the room, concern was expressed about Teddy," Obama said. "He was there when the Voting Rights Act passed. And, along with John Lewis, was a warrior for justice. And so I would be lying to you if I did not say that right now a part of me is with him. And I think that is true for all of us. This is a joyous time, but it's also a sobering time. And my prayers are with him and his family and Vicki."

An ambulance could be seen driving from the U.S. Capitol.

--George Stephanopoulos

http://blogs.abcnews.com/george/2009/01/kennedy-collaps.html

 

[LowlyPion]

Now it is reported that Sen Robert Byrd needed medical assistance. After medics entered the room for Byrd, Kennedy went into severe convulsions.

I think Stephanopoulis got the sequence wrong.

 

[LowlyPion]

I see the news footage and Kennedy appears conscious as he was loaded in the ambulance to a hospital.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

CNN is retracting the report about Byrd. There may have been some initial confusion about who was down.

 

[LowlyPion]

CNN is retracting the report about Byrd. There may have been some initial confusion about who was down.

It seems now that Stephanopoulis was correct. That Byrd left after seeing Kennedy stricken. Byrd is apparently not suffering from a medical condition.