Eunice Kennedy Shriver still in critical condition in Baltimore

Eunice Kennedy Shriver

BALTIMORE, Maryland (Reuters) -- Eunice Kennedy Shriver, founder of the Special Olympics for the mentally retarded and sister to slain President John F. Kennedy, remained hospitalized in critical condition 2-1/2 weeks after undergoing pancreatic surgery, her family said Monday.

Doctors at Johns Hopkins University Hospital on October 12 operated on the 79-year-old Shriver to remove a benign tumor from her pancreas. She underwent more surgery a day later to treat a post-operative infection.

"Eunice Kennedy Shriver remains at Johns Hopkins hospital in critical condition," said a statement issued by the office of her son, Maryland state legislator Mark Shriver. "Her family continues to be grateful for and to ask for the prayers and support of people everywhere."

Hospital officials declined to comment on her condition.

Shriver's career in public service spans more than 50 years, beginning with projects to improve the lot of female prisoners and abandoned children in the mid-1940s.

But the focus of her life's work has been helping people with mental disabilities.

In 1961, early in her brother John's administration, she helped establish the Presidential Committee on Mental Retardation. Her best known project has been the Special Olympics, which she helped institute in 1968. It was the first systematic program to provide athletic training and competition for mentally retarded children and adults.

Her family includes brother Edward, the Democratic senator from Massachusetts, and three sisters: former U.S. Ambassador to Ireland Jean Kennedy Smith, Patricia Kennedy Lawford and Rosemary Kennedy, who is mentally retarded.

Her husband is Sargent Shriver, 84, a statesman who directed and co-founded the Peace Corps and served as U.S. ambassador to France.

Copyright 2000 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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