WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy, a leading Democrat and patriarch of a prominent American political dynasty, was hospitalised in Cape Cod, Massachusetts, with symptoms of a stroke, CNN reported on Saturday.
Kennedy, 76, was taken to the hospital early in themorning, CNN said, citing an unidentified prominent state partymember
The source said Kennedy was to be transferred toMassachusetts General Hospital in Boston.
The long-serving Massachusetts senator is a leading liberalvoice in the United States who has actively campaigned forBarack Obama in his bid for the Democratic presidentialnomination.
Kennedy had preventive surgery in Boston in October tounclog a partially blocked carotid artery in his neck.
The blockage was discovered during a routine check ofKennedy's back and spine, doctors said. A blocked carotidartery can lead to a stroke and death, they said.
Kennedy has suffered from back problems since a plane crashin 1964 in which the pilot and one of Kennedy's aides werekilled and the senator was pulled from the wreckage with a backinjury, punctured lung, broken ribs and internal bleeding.
The youngest brother of assassinated U.S. President John F.Kennedy, Kennedy was elected to the Senate in 1962 andcurrently serves as chairman of the Senate Committee on Health,Education, Labour and Pensions.
He helped win an increase in the national minimum wage thisyear and worked with Republicans to produce broad immigrationreform, which failed in the Senate after stiff opposition fromconservative Republicans.
(Writing by Doina Chiacu; Editing by Jackie Frank)
