Jan. 20 (Bloomberg) -- Senator Edward Kennedy, who has been ill with brain cancer, was rushed to a hospital after suffering a seizure during a lawmakers’ lunch with President Barack Obama in the Capitol following the new president’s inauguration.

“After testing, we believe the incident was brought on by simple fatigue,” Edward Aulisi, chairman of neurosurgery at Washington Hospital Center, said in an e-mailed statement. “Senator Kennedy is awake, talking with his family and friends and feeling well.”

Aulisi said the Massachusetts senator will be released from the hospital in the morning, after observation. Kennedy’s wife, Victoria, and son Patrick, a Democratic congressman from Rhode Island, were with him, Marge Kumaki, a spokeswoman for the hospital, the largest medical facility in the nation’s capital, said in a telephone interview.

Utah Senator Orrin Hatch, a Republican, said he accompanied Kennedy to an ambulance after he was taken from the luncheon. Kennedy was speaking and “he looked to me that he will be OK,” Hatch said. “As he left in the ambulance, he kind of winked at me.”

Democratic Senator Robert Byrd of West Virginia, 91, was taken out of the room about the same time Kennedy was removed. Spokesman Jesse Jacobs said Byrd wasn’t ill.

“There is nothing wrong with Senator Byrd,” Jacobs said. Byrd became “visibly upset” as he witnessed Kennedy become ill seated next to him at the lunch, Jacobs said. He said Byrd was taken to his office.

Stricken at Lunch

Kennedy, 76, was stricken while at the lunch with other lawmakers, Obama and Vice President Joe Biden at Statuary Hall in the Capitol following today’s inaugural ceremonies. Kennedy was diagnosed in May with a malignant brain tumor after suffering a seizure.

“A part of me is with him,” Obama said in addressing the luncheon. “I think that’s true for all of us. It’s a joyous time, but it’s also sobering.” Obama had gone to Kennedy’s aid after he became aware the senator was ill, senators said.

Former Vice President Walter Mondale, a one-time senator, said Kennedy’s seizure “shook us all.” Mondale said “Ted was telling old war stories” before the seizure. “We were all having a good time,” the 1984 Democratic presidential nominee said, adding that Kennedy “was obviously under stress” when he was taken out of the room.

Moment of Silence

House Chaplain Daniel Coughlin asked those at the luncheon for a moment of silence “as we pray for Senator Kennedy.” Coughlin told the 200-plus attendees, including House and Senate members, Cabinet secretaries and Supreme Court justices, that Kennedy had “responded well” to medical treatment.

Kennedy has had several minor seizures when a medicine or some other circumstance was changed, Senator John Kerry, the junior senator from Kennedy’s home state, told reporters outside the hospital later in the afternoon.

“In this case, who knows whether he was just doing too much,” Kerry said. “He’s laughing and joking right now and wants to get back to work.”

Kennedy will likely be “back to his old form” within a day or so, Kerry said. “He’s got all his Irish dander up, and he’s anxious to get back to work.”

Hours of Surgery

On June 2, Kennedy underwent 3 1/2 hours of surgery for his incurable brain tumor at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina. That was followed with chemotherapy and radiation at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.

The senator, saying he wanted to concentrate on health care, gave up a post in December on the Judiciary Committee, where he had championed civil rights, a cause long identified with the Kennedy family. He also was given a special office close to the Senate floor.

The American Cancer Society estimates that 21,810 people in the U.S. will be diagnosed this year with malignant brain and spinal cord tumors, and more than half, or 13,070, will die from them. About 77 percent of malignant brain tumors are gliomas.

Kennedy was given a filmed tribute at the Democratic National Convention in August when Obama was nominated. Kennedy took the stage at the convention and echoed a speech he made 28 years earlier when he declared, “the work begins anew, the hope rises again, and the dream lives on.”

He endorsed Obama a year ago in the early stages of the race for the Democratic presidential nomination.

To contact the reporter on this story: James Rowley in Washington at jrowley@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: January 20, 2009 17:44 EST