Senator Ted Kennedy is scheduled to have brain surgery today:
WASHINGTON (AP) — Sen. Edward M. Kennedy will undergo surgery Monday at Duke University Medical Center for his cancerous brain tumor and then faces chemotherapy and radiation treatment, 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 neurosurgeon Allan Friedman, followed by chemotherapy and radiation.
Anthony Coley, a Kennedy spokesman, said the surgery is scheduled to begin around 9 a.m. and expected to last about six hours. 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.
Please send your hopes, prayers and/or good thoughts to the Kennedy family. Any surgery is dangerous and potentially life threatening, especially for individuals over the age of 70, as is Senator Kennedy. Brain surgery has other risks besides just the death of the patient. Let us hope for a good outcome in all respects and a quick recovery.
I hope they have a successful surgery and that he recovers fully.
Fingers crossed for Teddy!
It doesn’t surprise me that he’s opting for the most aggressive treatment option; this way, he and his family will never have to wonder, “Would surgery have helped?”
He has the family support and financial resources to fight back hard against cancer — here’s hoping he wins!
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From your link …
Kennedy said he selected a team of neuro-oncologists from Boston’s Massachusetts General Hospital and Duke University Medical Center. Henry S. Friedman , considered one of the nation’s top neurosurgeons, is chief of the division of neurosurgery in the surgical department at Duke and also co-director of the neuro-oncology department there. His clinical interests are brain tumors, skull-based tumors, peripheral nerve surgery, pituitary tumors and cerebrovascular disaster, according to his resume on the Web site of Duke Medical Center.
Need to assure universal health care for all persons living in the United States, as it is available in Canada and Europe.
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."Special prayers to Senator Kennedy today. Six hours of surgery, that’s a long time to be under anesthesia for one so old. My mother was in her mid eighties when she had a gall bladder operation. The operation was a success but she never fully recovered from the anesthesia and experienced major personality changes.
There are some very powerful shamanic techniques, quite non invasive, which might apply here but western medicine is not open to them. How unfortunate.
Too bad we can’t combine the best therapies of various medical approaches. I guess that is a task for a more open and tolerant future.
Charity equals God’s love in action.
You’re right, Ignod. Complementary medicine opens up a lot more possibilities in effective treatments that are less injurious to the patient. This approach is SLOWLY gaining some acceptance, but it’s gonna be a long struggle.
The patient being open to it is where you start, and people are better informed than ever about the state of both medicine and their own options. When they begin to approach their own doctors about including different options, conventional medicine is more likely to explore them.
It helps also, if the physician is open. I have worked on several and the last thing they wanted to talk about was their non conventional healing. Maybe, it’s their professional image that they are protecting. Maybe, they were just spooked by the fact that there are many paths to recovery. Western medicine has no monopoly on healing, that’s for sure.
I’m especially encouraged by the fact that his tumor is considered operable. It probably wouldn’t be if they thought there was a high likelihood of destroying his linguistic capacity, etc., I’d guess. When the story of his tumor broke, I assumed maybe they didn’t consider it operable. So this is actually good news. And he’s a legendary fighter, of course. Go, Teddy!
I don’t envy him the chemo and radiation, though. There are some cutting edge implementations in both those areas that offer to be less systemically toxic than has historically been the case, as I understand it.
There is certainly a danger here of serious word finding problems as well as loss of reading and writing ability. Let’s all hope that this will not happen. If Ted has one great speech left in him it must be heard at the Democratic convention in August.
Dr Sanjay reported that Duke is at cutting edge of experimental and that they might try taking out a portion of the tumor, what they can take safely, and then using those cells to make a vacine which they would inject back in after a couple of weeks to go after the remaining tumor.
That sounds like the clinical trial that played a big role in the final three episodes of Grey’s Anatomy.
I’d like to think Ted’s fate is the same as the last test subject: successful.
My hopes and prayers are with the Kennedy family today.
Kennedy is in my thoughts and prayers for a successful surgery and full recovery.
StevenD,
I was also saddened to read about your wife’s bout with cancer. My thoughts and prayers go out to you, your wife and your family as well.
Thank you. That is always appreciated.
Kennedy out of ‘successful’ brain surgery
our good wishes, prayers, spiritual intercessions for his well-being.