George McGovern hospitalized after fall in SD

[December 03, 2011]  SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) -- Former Democratic presidential candidate George McGovern was being treated at a hospital in South Dakota after falling and hitting his head on the pavement outside a library bearing his name.

McGovern's daughter Ann McGovern said her father was to be treated at a Sioux Falls hospital after being flown by helicopter from Mitchell, S.D., where a live C-SPAN interview was to take place at the Dakota Wesleyan University's McGovern Library on Friday.

"He had just walked from home to the center. He lives literally just across the street," Ann McGovern told The Associated Press.

McGovern has lived in St. Augustine, Fla., since 2008 but also has a home in Mitchell.

Friends and faculty who had gathered at the library for the C-SPAN taping said McGovern fell at about 5:15 p.m. -- less than two hours before the program began. A former South Dakota senator, McGovern, 89, was "bleeding profusely" but was conscious and talking as he was taken from the university by ambulance, said Donald Simmons, dean of the College of Public Service.

Ann McGovern was with her father before he was taken to Avera McKennan Hospital in Sioux Falls, but she wasn't sure how serious the injury was. Hospital officials said no new information was available late Friday night.

University President Robert Duffett said McGovern had been excited to take part in the live C-SPAN program called "The Contenders," which focuses on failed presidential candidates who changed the landscape of American politics." McGovern lost his 1972 challenge against President Richard Nixon, who eventually resigned amid the Watergate scandal.

Duffett said he had coffee with McGovern just hours before the fall and that McGovern was returning to the campus to grab dinner with faculty before the interview.

McGovern was entering a side door when he "tripped and fell and hit his head hard," said Duffett, audibly frazzled. "It's just one of those things. He's made that walk many times before."

McGovern has an office inside the library named for both him and his late wife, Eleanor.

Ann McGovern said the injury was unrelated to her father's hospitalization in late October for exhaustion. She was with her father was he was being readied to be taken to Avera McKennan Hospital, but she wasn't sure how serious the injury was.

C-SPAN went ahead and aired the segment on McGovern, with program host Amity Shlaes interviewing political experts and journalists to analyze McGovern's ill-fated campaign. Shlaes said on air that McGovern had taken "a spill" and wasn't able to be on the program as planned, but she said he was fine.

McGovern was elected to his first of three terms in the Senate in 1962. Though he later lost the presidential race to Nixon, he continued to distinguish himself during his political career and was a lifelong advocate for U.S. and world food programs.

[Associated Press; By AMBER HUNT]

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