Kerry's wife critical after mystery illness
Heinz ketchup heiress is stable after being rushed to hospital over the July 4 holiday
The wife of US Secretary of State John Kerry, ketchup heiress Teresa Heinz-Kerry, is reported to be in critical condition after she was rushed hospital with an unknown illness on Sunday.
On Sunday afternoon, Heinz-Kerry "was taken by ambulance to Nantucket Cottage Hospital accompanied by her husband," Kerry's personal spokesman Glen Johnson said, without specifying what she was suffering from.
Kerry is due to host a two-day strategic US-China dialogue in Washington tomorrow and Thursday with senior Chinese leaders, but it was not known whether he would still attend.
Heinz-Kerry, a multilingual philanthropist born to Portuguese parents in colonial-era Mozambique, arrived in a "critical but stable condition," the Boston Globe daily reported, quoting a hospital spokesman.
Johnson said Heinz-Kerry was later transferred to "Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, again accompanied by the secretary", suggesting she needed more in-depth treatment.
Kerry, the 2004 Democratic Party presidential candidate, had been celebrating the July 4 national holiday weekend with his family at their home on Nantucket Island, an upscale tourist location off Cape Cod, Massachusetts, on his first long break since he took over in February as the top US diplomat.
He and his wife, 74, have been married for 18 years. It is a second marriage for both of them. She has three sons and Kerry, 69, has two daughters.