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BOSTON, Massachusetts: Veteran US Senator Edward Kennedy left hospital on Wednesday giving a thumbs up to waiting supporters a day after doctors announced he had a malignant brain tumour.
The 76-year-old Democratic liberal lion was released ahead of schedule from the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston where he was admitted on Saturday after suffering a seizure at the Kennedy family compound in Hyannis.
The diagnosis for the Democratic patriarch, the last surviving brother of assassinated president John F. Kennedy, had sent shockwaves through Congress, where he has been a dominant figure for nearly half a century.
"Preliminary results from a biopsy of the brain identified the cause of the seizure as a malignant glioma in the left parietal lobe," physicians Lee Schwamm and Larry Ronan said in a statement on Tuesday.
But on Wednesday the hospital said the scion of the country's foremost political dynasty had "recovered remarkably quickly from his Monday procedure and therefore will be released from the hospital today ahead of schedule.
"He will return to his home on Cape Cod while we await further test results and determine treatment plans. He's feeling well and eager to get started," the hospital statement added.
In an email to the Kennedy clan reported in local media, Kennedy's wife Vicki said the family has been thrown "a real curve ball."
Doctors told the Cape Cod Times that Kennedy was in a comatose state when he first arrived at the local Cape Cod Hospital after suffering two seizures.
The hospital's chief of neurosurgery, Patrick Murray, told the paper the emergency department staff and Dr Robert Zarum had resuscitated Kennedy "and possibly saved his life" before the senator was airlifted to Boston.
Kennedy, who exerts heavy influence within his party and in Congress, is a fierce critic of President George W. Bush and a supporter of Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama.
An unapologetic liberal and an orator who recalls a bygone era of stem-winding political rhetoric, he is a champion of causes such as health care, education, workers rights and immigration reform.
He has however reached out to work with Republicans.
Kennedy, whose eighth term in the Senate expires in 2012, was once the heir apparent of his political dynasty, and apparently destined for the White House.
But his career was rocked by the death of a young woman, Mary Joe Kopechne, in his car late one night in 1969 after he drove it off a bridge near Chappaquiddick island off the US east coast.
He did run for president in 1980 against incumbent Jimmy Carter. Kennedy lost the Democratic nomination but managed to harm the sitting US president's re-election hopes. Carter lost the general election to Ronald Reagan.
Kennedy's latest health scare came six months after he had surgery to clear a blockage in a major neck artery, a common procedure to prevent a stroke.
John F. Kennedy was shot and killed in 1963, and brother Robert Kennedy was shot dead while campaigning for the presidency in 1968.
His eldest brother Joseph died in a plane crash during World War II. - AFP/de
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