Heinz Kerry Released From Hospital After Seizure Treatment
BOSTON (CBS) -- Teresa Heinz Kerry walked out of Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital in Boston on Saturday after successful treatment for a seizure she experienced July 7, according to Glen Johnson, spokesman for her husband, Secretary of State John Kerry.
Doctors said they expect Heinz Kerry to complete a full recovery at home after some limited out-patient treatment, Johnson said in a prepared statement.
Heinz Kerry was stricken July 7 while she and the secretary of state were at the couple's home on Nantucket. The Nantucket Fire Department and Nantucket Cottage Hospital provided initial treatment for her seizure. She was listed in critical condition on the island, where she was stabilized then flown to Massachusetts General Hospital.
After receiving treatment at Mass. General for several days, she was transferred to Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital, which provided acute and rehabilitative care.
The treatment at Spaulding was overseen by Dr. Ross Zafonte, Dr. Timothy Young and Dr. Chloe Slocum. Dr. Celeste Robb-Nicholson, Heinz Kerry's primary-care doctor, monitored her treatment at Mass. General and Spaulding, Johnson said.
"It was amazing, a miracle," Heinz Kerry said of her care and caregivers in a prepared statement. "They are the kindest people, who love what they do and do it superbly well."
The secretary of state thanked everyone who had treated his wife. "I'm extremely grateful for the quality of care Teresa received, from the calm and confidence of the EMTs who intervened at the house, to the amazing proficiency of the team at the ICU at Mass. General, to the focused, caring attention of the group at Spaulding," Kerry said in a prepared statement. "I've always known Massachusetts is blessed to have some of the greatest health care in the world, but we've just lived it, and are grateful to all."
Kerry also thanked members of the State Department Diplomatic Security Service, who provide his protective services. They were the first-responders when Heinz Kerry fell ill.
Johnson previously said the cause of the seizure had not been determined but doctors had ruled out a brain tumor, heart attack or stroke. The family does not plan to comment further on Heinz Kerry's health, he said.
Heinz Kerry, an heir to the Heinz ketchup fortune, is the widow of former U.S. Sen. John Heinz, who was killed along with six others in 1991 when a helicopter collided with a plane over a schoolyard in Merion, Pa. She married Kerry, a longtime senator from Massachusetts, in 1995.
Kerry, the 2004 Democratic presidential nominee, resigned from the U.S. Senate on Feb. 1 after being confirmed to succeed Hillary Rodham Clinton as secretary of state.
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