Kitty Dukakis

Kitty Dukakis, wife of leading Democratic presidential candidate Michael S. Dukakis, underwent successful major surgery today to remove two ruptured disks from her neck that had caused her severe pain, a hospital spokesman said. Massachusetts General Hospital spokesman Martin Bander said "preliminary indications are that she is OK." Kitty Dukakis, 51, underwent five hours of surgery, the spokesman said, to remove the damaged disks and replace them with bone taken from her hip.

Former Massachusetts Gov. and onetime Democratic presidential candidate Michael S. Dukakis and his wife were in a Boston hospital with whiplash after Kitty Dukakis lost control of their car. She was driving on a busy Boston street when she lost control of the car, sideswiping and knocking down part of a wall, a state police spokesman said. Part of the wall hit another car, damaging it. The couple was taken to Massachusetts General Hospital and X-rays showed no serious injuries.

Kitty Dukakis was reported feeling better today, recovering from an upper respiratory infection that forced her off the campaign trail and into a hospital bed. "She is feeling better. Her temperature has abated," spokesman Paul Costello told reporters at the University of Minnesota Hospital. "It's the first time she's seen soap operas in a long, long time." She is receiving intravenous antibiotics and will remain in the hospital a second night, doctors said.

Michael Dukakis lives in Florida, wears Hawaiian shirts but no socks, and doesn't fret about his place on the sidelines of the 1992 presidential campaign. He seems relieved he's not in it. If the 1992 campaign kindles any nostalgia in Dukakis, it doesn't show. Asked if he's watching the campaign with any personal yearning, the 1988 Democratic nominee says, "No."

The wife of Democratic presidential candidate Michael S. Dukakis left the University of Minnesota Hospital today and headed to Chicago to rejoin her husband on the campaign trail and help celebrate his 55th birthday by marching in a torchlight parade with him. Kitty Dukakis spent three nights at the hospital for a viral infection and a sinus problem. Doctors kept her in the hospital Wednesday night to check her progress after intravenous medication was discontinued.

Kitty Dukakis, wife of the presidential candidate, will be admitted to Massachusetts General Hospital today for several days of diagnostic tests of what appears to be two herniated cervical discs in her neck, according to the Dukakis campaign. James Dorsey, a Dukakis spokesman, said Kitty Dukakis has suffered "some pain and numbness" for about a month. Dorsey said Kitty Dukakis, 51, flew back to Boston Tuesday after doctors diagnosed the condition in Los Angeles, where she had been campaigning.

President Bush will nominate Kitty Dukakis, the wife of his former Democratic presidential rival, for a post on the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council, the White House announced Tuesday. Mrs. Dukakis, who is Jewish, has previously served on the President's Commission on the Holocaust. She will replace Milton Himmelfarb to complete a term that expires Jan. 15, 1991.

Kitty Dukakis, a recovering alcoholic, was discharged from Brigham and Women's Hospital today and transferred to New England Deaconess Hospital's affective disorders unit, the governor's office said. Affective disorder is a psychiatric term referring to such problems as depression. Mrs. Dukakis' doctor has said she suffers from depression. Mrs. Dukakis, who was admitted to Brigham and Women's on Nov.

Kitty Dukakis, the wife of Gov. Michael S. Dukakis, has entered an alcohol treatment program in Newport, R.I., according to a statement issued by the governor's press office today that blamed the letdown after his failed presidential campaign. Mrs. Dukakis, 52, has had a history of addictions and chemical dependency but was never known to be dependent on alcohol until the statement released today.

Kitty Dukakis was hospitalized because she drank a small amount of rubbing alcohol and experienced a "severe reaction," her doctor disclosed Wednesday. Gerald Plotkin said in a statement that the wife of Massachusetts Gov. Michael S. Dukakis said she swallowed the liquid "in a state of exhaustion, with flu symptoms and depression." He did not comment on whether or not she was knowingly trying to hurt herself. Plotkin said the family and Mrs. Dukakis were deciding what steps to take next.

The good news was that Kitty Dukakis was already tired of it all. Just a few hours before a Beverly Hills bash Monday celebrating her new tell-all autobiography, "Now You Know," Dukakis was musing about how glad she was that the book tour was nearly over. And--not counting a few interviews she did before the Dukakises' recent trip to Europe--she'd only been touring a week. "I think what this tour has taught me is I don't need a tour to feel good about myself," she said.

The 1988 presidential campaign offered one picture of Michael and Kitty Dukakis. They were a perfect American couple, with successful children, a lovely but modest suburban home and an almost unbelievably strong marriage. One reporter, sneaking through the bushes outside their house, discovered only the Dukakises dancing together in their living room.

Kitty Dukakis says that if her husband had become President, the pressure of life in the White House would have sent her over the edge. "I am certain the first crisis would have sent me out of control," the wife of Gov. Michael S. Dukakis writes in her book, "Now You Know," excerpted in the current issue of Good Housekeeping and reported in today's Boston Globe.

Kitty Dukakis says in her upcoming autobiography that the night she drank rubbing alcohol, she didn't realize it was poisonous and wasn't attempting suicide, a newspaper reported. Dukakis, the wife of former Democratic presidential nominee and Massachusetts Gov. Michael S. Dukakis, chronicles her bouts with alcohol and diet pill addiction in "Now You Know," to be released in August.

Kitty Dukakis' doctors have advised her not to discuss her addiction problems in her public appearances. "Her therapist and she agree that it is critical that she not be so upfront about her problems. It appears that her speaking might be over. Or very limited." The Massachusetts first lady recently returned home from an alcoholism treatment center and Tuesday night, in one of her first public appearances since returning home, she joined her husband, Gov. Michael S.

Kitty Dukakis, hospitalized two months ago after drinking rubbing alcohol, checked into a rehabilitation center last month, it was reported today. The 52-year-old wife of Massachusetts Gov. Michael S. Dukakis went to an out-of-state medical facility about two weeks before Christmas and may still be there, the Boston Globe said. The governor visited his wife at the facility at least twice but he is not commenting on her situation in an effort to preserve her privacy.

President Bush will nominate Kitty Dukakis, the wife of his former Democratic presidential rival, for a post on the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council, the White House announced Tuesday. Mrs. Dukakis, who is Jewish, has previously served on the President's Commission on the Holocaust. She will replace Milton Himmelfarb to complete a term that expires Jan. 15, 1991.