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Tearful Kerry Says Wife's Condition Is Improving

Secretary of State John Kerry will return to Boston to be at his hospitalized wife's side as she continues to recover from a seizure-like episode she suffered over the weekend, the State Department said Wednesday.

Spokeswoman Jen Psaki said that Kerry, who traveled from Boston to Washington on Tuesday to participate in the opening of high-level talks with China, would return to his home state to be with Teresa Heinz Kerry on Wednesday. Deputy Secretary of State William Burns will take Kerry's place in co-hosting with Treasury Secretary Jack Lew the Strategic and Economic Dialogue with the Chinese that run through Thursday, she said.

Opening the meeting with senior officials from China, a weary-looking Kerry paid tearful thanks for the outpouring of good wishes for his wife and said her condition is improving.

"Teresa is doing better, under evaluation and we hope improving," he said. He added that he wanted to thank people for "the remarkable outpouring of good wishes. It's really been very special." He added that when his wife is able, she will "tell everyone herself."

The 74-year-old Heinz Kerry was hospitalized on Sunday after exhibiting symptoms that family members described as consistent with some type of seizure.

Her doctors have ruled out several serious conditions such as a brain tumor, stroke or heart attack as possible causes.

Heinz Kerry, an heir to the Heinz ketchup fortune, is the widow of former U.S. Sen. John Heinz, who was killed along with six others in 1991 when a helicopter collided with a plane over a schoolyard in Merion, Pennsylvania. She married Kerry, a longtime senator from Massachusetts, in 1995.

In 2009, Heinz Kerry was diagnosed with breast cancer and underwent lumpectomies on both breasts.

Kerry, the 2004 Democratic presidential nominee, resigned from the U.S. Senate on Feb. 1 after being confirmed to succeed Hillary Rodham Clinton as Secretary of State.

This program aired on July 10, 2013. The audio for this program is not available.

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