Kennedy awaits test results in hospital

Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) remained in the hospital Sunday, awaiting test results that could explain why the 76-year-old suffered a seizure a day earlier.

Doctors at Massachusetts General Hospital said today was the earliest the tests would be complete. The hospital and Kennedy’s office released no new information about his condition Sunday.

Kennedy was resting, eating and watching the Boston Red Sox and Boston Celtics games on television Sunday afternoon, said a top aide who requested anonymity because the family had asked that details of the senator’s hospital stay not be released.

Among his visitors were his wife, Vicki, sister Jean Kennedy Smith, stepchildren Caroline and Curran Raclin, daughter Kara Kennedy, and nephew Joseph Kennedy and his wife.

Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), who is running for president, also called.

“People are still concerned with figuring out exactly what happened. I’m just thrilled that he is back on the mend and I suspect will be on the floor of the Senate immediately,” Obama told reporters outside a fast-food and ice cream place in Milwaukie, Ore. “There’s not a better senator or better friend or better supporter than Ted Kennedy and I’m just relieved that he’s feeling better.”

Kennedy was flown Saturday morning to Massachusetts General from the emergency room of Cape Cod Hospital, near his home in Hyannis Port. Doctors originally suspected he had suffered a stroke, but his physician, Dr. Larry Ronan, later said that it had been a seizure and that the senator was “not in any immediate danger.”

In October, Kennedy had surgery to remove a blockage in his left carotid artery, which supplies blood to the brain and face.

After the surgery, Kennedy resumed his busy schedule on Capitol Hill and in Massachusetts.

Kennedy is the second-longest-serving member of the Senate and a dominant figure in national party politics. He was elected in 1962, finishing the term won by his brother, John F. Kennedy, who was elected president in 1960.