Secretary of state’s wife hospitalized in critical condition

BOSTON – Teresa Heinz Kerry, the wife of U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and heir to a ketchup company fortune, was hospitalized in critical condition Sunday while on Massachusetts’ Nantucket Island.

Heinz Kerry, 74, was flown to Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston on Sunday night after doctors at Nantucket Cottage Hospital stabilized her, a spokesman for Kerry said. The secretary of state was with his wife as an ambulance first transported her to the island hospital, and also during her transfer to the Boston facility.

A spokesman for the Nantucket hospital said Heinz Kerry arrived in critical condition, although doctors were able to stabilize her. But neither the family nor hospital officials had released any more details about her medical emergency or her condition Sunday night.

“The family is grateful for the outpouring of support it has received and aware of the interest in her condition, but they ask for privacy at this time,” the Kerry spokesman said.

Heinz Kerry is the widow of former U.S. Sen. John Heinz, and heir to the Heinz ketchup fortune.

Heinz Kerry and John Kerry married in 1995.

In December 2009, doctors treated her for breast cancer.

Heinz Kerry previously has said she found in September 2009 that she had cancer in her left breast after having her annual mammogram.

A month later, she underwent lumpectomies on both breasts after doctors also discovered what they thought was a benign growth on her right breast.

That diagnosis was initially confirmed in postoperative pathology, but two other doctors later found it to be malignant.

In November 2009, Heinz Kerry had another pair of lumpectomies performed at Massachusetts General Hospital.

Before Sunday’s emergency, John Kerry had been at the Nantucket home since returning from a nearly two-week, around-the-world diplomatic trip to the Mideast and Southeast Asia.