Heinz Kerry Moves to Rehab Hospital

Teresa Heinz Kerry has been moved to a rehabilitation hospital in Boston as the condition of the wife of U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry continues to improve.

State Department spokesman Glen Johnson said Thursday that doctors have determined the 74-year-old Heinz Kerry suffered a seizure at the couple's home in Nantucket last weekend, but the precise cause has not been determined. Doctors previously ruled out brain tumor, heart attack or stroke as possible triggers.

Johnson said Heinz Kerry has been transferred from Massachusetts General Hospital to Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital, where she will continue her recovery. Her condition has been upgraded from “fair” to “good.”

Kerry said his family was touched by the outpouring of support for his wife.

“We are blessed to have so many people care about Teresa, and by the continued grace of God and the prayer of everybody, she will soon share herself just how much she appreciates every last expression of kindness directed toward her and our family,” Kerry said in a written statement.

Kerry said he and his wife want to pay special tribute to the Nantucket Fire Department for its ambulance services, to Nantucket Cottage Hospital for its initial treatment, and to Massachusetts General Hospital, which assumed responsibility for her care.

Johnson said Kerry will split his time between Boston and Washington, and resume his official travel schedule soon.

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.

Copyright AP - Associated Press
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