Beau Biden heads home after visit to cancer center

DOVER, Del. Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden was on his way back home Thursday with his father, Vice President Joe Biden, after undergoing a medical procedure at a Houston cancer center.

"On our way home! Can't wait to get back. Thank you, Houston," the younger Biden said Thursday in a Twitter post that included a photo of him with his wife and parents.

The Bidens were to fly to Delaware aboard Air Force Two.

Beau Biden, 44, was admitted earlier this week to the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center after becoming weak and disoriented during a vacation in Indiana last week. His hospitalization came two weeks after emergency dispatchers received a call from the vice president's Delaware home, where Beau Biden is staying, regarding a report of a possible stroke.

Beau Biden suffered a minor stroke in 2010.

In a statement released Wednesday by the White House, the vice president and his wife, Jill, said their son was returning to Delaware after undergoing "a successful procedure," but they did not provide any details.

"He will follow up with his local physicians in the coming weeks," the statement read.

The White House declined to answer any questions about what procedure was performed, including whether it was diagnostic or therapeutic in nature.

Biden was initially admitted to Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago last week. He traveled the next day to the Philadelphia hospital where he had been treated after his stroke in 2010 to consult with his doctor. He spent last weekend at home in Wilmington before going to Houston.

The Delaware Department of Justice said the younger Biden had spoken Wednesday afternoon with his chief deputy and Delaware's state prosecutor, and that he planned to speak with them again Thursday after returning to Wilmington.

It was not immediately clear when Beau Biden would return to work.

Authorities in Delaware confirmed Wednesday that an emergency call was received from the vice president's house two weeks ago.

A county dispatch center log indicates that on Aug. 1, someone at the vice president's home was reported to be possibly having a stroke and apparently not alert. Beau Biden has been staying at his father's Greenville home while his own house is renovated.

Rickie Clark, a staff supervisor with the Cranston Heights Fire Co., confirmed that county dispatchers received a call for help from Joe Biden's home, but he refused to provide further details.

The dispatch log on the fire department's website shows two references to the vice president's home on Aug. 1, one at 9:25 p.m. and another about a minute and a half later. Both cite "Cva-Not Alert," indicating that a person was in distress and apparently not alert or responsive to his or her surroundings. Clark said "Cva" is shorthand for cerebrovascular accident, or stroke.