Chief Justice Roberts Suffers Seizure, Is Hospitalized In Maine

Monday, July 30th 2007, 8:04 pm

By: News On 6

WASHINGTON (AP) _ Chief Justice John Roberts suffered a seizure at his summer home in Maine on Monday, causing a fall that resulted in minor scrapes, Supreme Court spokeswoman Kathy Arberg said.

He will remain in a hospital in Maine overnight.

``It's my understanding he's fully recovered, said Christopher Burke, a spokesman for Penobscot Bay Medical Center, where Roberts was taken.

Roberts, 52, was taken by ambulance to the medical center, where he underwent a ``thorough neurological evaluation, which revealed no cause for concern,'' Arberg said in a statement.

Roberts had a similar episode in 1993, she said.

Doctors called Monday's incident ``a benign idiopathic seizure,'' Arberg said. The White House described the January 1993 episode as an ``isolated, idiosyncratic seizure.''

A benign seizure means that doctors performed an MRI and other tests to conclude there was no tumor, stroke or other explanation.

In addition, doctors would have quickly ruled out simple explanations such as dehydration or low blood sugar.

By definition, someone who has had more than one seizure without any other cause is determined to have epilepsy, said Dr. Marc Schlosberg, a neurologist at Washington Hospital Center, who is not involved in the Roberts' case.

Whether Roberts will need anti-seizure medications to prevent another is something he and his doctor will have to decide.

But after two seizures, the likelihood of another at some point is greater than 60 percent.

``When it's going to occur, obviously nobody knows,'' Schlosberg said.