Once again, Dr. Lawrence C. Horowitz is providing counsel to the Kennedy family as it confronts a medical crisis.
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Sen. Edward M. Kennedy announced that he is having surgery today at Duke University Medical Center for his brain tumor. He will then undergo chemotherapy and radiation treatment.
Edward M. Kennedy
The decision followed a massive research effort led by Horowitz, a former Kennedy aide who has advised the family for more than 20 years.
As the Boston Globe reports today, Horowitz helped the family find innovative treatments for Edward M. Kennedy Jr. when he was diagnosed with a dangerous bone cancer in his right leg. He treated Patrick Kennedy when the 12-year-old suffered an asthma attack on a airline flight. And he devised diets for Ted Kennedy when he considered a presidential run in 1984.
Kennedy’s decision to have surgery followed an analysis by Horowitz and other former staffers, which included discussions with experts at the National Institutes of Health, the Food and Drug Administration, hospitals and pharmaceutical companies.
“My role is to reach out to everybody everywhere – Mass. General, Brigham, anywhere across the country,” Horowitz told the Globe.
Horowitz, a graduate of Yale Medical School, was staff director of the Senate Subcommittee on Health, chaired by Kennedy, from 1977 to 1981. He later served as Kennedy’s chief of staff.
He is the author of Taking Charge of Your Medical Fate, about researching and assessing health care options.
In issuing his statement this morning, Kennedy didn’t miss the opportunity to campaign for his favorite presidential candidate: “After completing treatment, I look forward to returning to the United States Senate and to doing everything I can to help elect Barack Obama as our next president,” he said.