Barack Obama's post-inaugural lunch had hardly begun when Massachusetts Senator Edward Kennedy collapsed with a seizure, according to a House spokesperson. Reporters in a room outside the luncheon heard a shriek, then witnessed several people running through the rotunda toward Statuary Hall. Kennedy was taken out of the room on a wheelchair into an adjacent room.

The seizure lasted about a minute. Kennedy started shaking in his chair, then convulsing. After Teresa Heinz Kerry briefly tried to administer first aid, Utah Senator Orrin Hatch and Massachusetts Senator John Kerry left with Kennedy, who was in a wheelchair. According to Hatch, Kennedy was conscious the whole time. After he was taken out, a prayer was offered. Georgia Representative John Lewis says Kennedy is now doing better, responding to medication.

In the room, everyone reports hearing people yell "Move!", almost before most people noticed that Kennedy was convulsing. President Obama, along with Hatch, helped get Kennedy out of the room. Connecticut Senator Christopher Dodd says that he escorted Kennedy to an ambulance: "He was joking as he got into the ambulance, saying 'well, I guess ill see you later' -- he's doing much better now and will be just fine." Several dozen senators left the luncheon in a clearly emotional state, especially Senator Kerry, who walked by yelling reporters but declined to talk.

Early reports said that it was Senator Robert Byrd, not Kennedy, who collapsed. In fact, and to the confusion of several people in the room, Byrd had left moments earlier for a different health reason that's still unclear, though the Los Angeles Times reports that the senator's staff says he is in good condition.

Later in the afternoon, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid took the senate floor to lead a brief session following the inaugural luncheon. "Our minds are not really on the events of today, but for the fact that senator Kennedy took ill during the lunch and is now in a Washington hospital. He and I sat together at the inauguration. We had such a wonderful time visiting and talking about where we were and where we are."

He then asked the assembled senate to bow  and pray during a silent moment.