July 9, 1964 - Senator Edward Kennedy, strapped to a special stretcher, made a successful 100-mile trip today from Northampton, Mass., to the New England Baptist Hospital in Boston to complete his convalescence. The Senator was moved to Boston so that he would be close to his family.
The Senator, 32 years old, suffered fractures of three vertebrae and other injuries June 19 in a plane crash near Southampton, Mass., in which two persons were killed and two others injured. He had been at the Cooley Dickinson Hospital in Northampton since then.
About 100 persons were near the ambulance entrance to the hospital in Boston to watch Senator Kennedy’s arrival in an Air Force ambulance of the Westover Air Force Base, at Chicopee, Mass.
The Senator was taken to a two-room suite on the fifth floor from which he can be wheeled onto a porch in good weather. The Senator was moved to Boston so that he would be close to his family. New England Baptist was chosen because of the availability of the porch.
Dr. Herbert Adams, chief of surgery at the hospital in Boston, said that the Senator had made the trip “very well.”
“We are pleased that he has made such excellent progress,” Dr. Adams said. He termed Mr. Kennedy’s condition “really excellent.”
While it has been estimated that the Senator would be in the hospital up to 10 months, Dr. Adams said that in such cases, “you make decisions as you go along.”
The trip from Northampton, under state police escort, was made at moderate speeds over the Massachusetts Turnpike. The Senator’s wife, Joan, rode in the front seat. Dr. Thomas Corriden, the Cooley Dickinson surgeon in charge of Senator Kennedy’s care there, rode next to Mr. Kennedy.
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