Kennedy recovers after brain surgery

Veteran politician Edward Kennedy was making a good recovery from surgery on a brain tumour, doctors said today.

The 76-year-old Democratic senator, brother of late President John F. Kennedy, was expected to stay at the North Carolina hospital for about a week before returning home to Massachusetts for further treatment.

In the coming days Kennedy will probably be given drugs to prevent brain swelling and seizures, which are possible complications of the surgery. The senator will also be closely watched for bleeding and blood clots, because strokes are also a risk, though they are uncommon.

“After a brief recuperation, he will begin targeted radiation at Massachusetts General Hospital and chemotherapy treatment,” his doctor, Dr Allan Friedman, said after the operation. “I hope that everyone will join us in praying for Senator Kennedy to have an uneventful and robust recovery.”

Doctors gave few details about the surgery, and did not say how much was removed.

“I feel like a million bucks. I think I’ll do that again tomorrow,” Mr Kennedy was quoted by a family spokeswoman as telling his wife, Vicki, immediately after the surgery.

The sole surviving son of America’s most glamorous and tragic political family was diagnosed last month with a malignant glioma, an often lethal type of brain tumour.

Cutting a tumour’s size is extremely delicate because of the risk of harming healthy brain tissue that governs movement and speech. But Dr Friedman, who is the top neurosurgeon at Duke and an internationally known tumour surgeon, said Mr Kennedy should not experience any permanent neurological effects.