Secretary of State John Kerry, who broke his leg in a bicycling accident near Geneva on Sunday, left for home Monday aboard a specially outfitted U.S. military aircraft.
The C-17 transport plane, dispatched from the U.S. base in Ramstein, Germany, was “staffed by additional military medical personnel in keeping with standard practice,” Kerry spokesman John Kirby said.
Kerry, 71, was en route to Boston, where he will be admitted to Massachusetts General Hospital under the care of Dennis Burke, the surgeon who operated on him for a previous hip replacement on the same leg.
He broke his right femur, near the site of the replaced hip joint, when he hit a curb with his bicycle wheel and fell at the beginning of a ride near the French town of Scionzier, about 30 miles from Geneva. He was flown by medical helicopter to a Geneva hospital, where he stayed until his medical evacuation.
Initial plans to fly Kerry aboard a commercial medical evacuation aircraft late Sunday were canceled after physicians decided that he should remain in Geneva for further evaluation.
There was no indication of whether further surgery will be required.
Kerry’s injury will most certainly interfere with his usually hectic travel schedule, and is likely to affect what is supposed to be the final month of nearly two years of negotiations between Iran and six world powers on Tehran’s nuclear program. The self-declared deadline for a deal is June 30.
Kerry was in Geneva for an all-day meeting Saturday with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif. The United States and its negotiating partners – France, Britain, Russia, China and Germany – are currently at an impasse with Iran over long-term verification of Iranian compliance with limits on its nuclear facilities, and the pace at which Western sanctions on Iran would be lifted under an agreement.
Kerry had cleared his calendar for the month to allow him to participate in the talks – currently being held by negotiating teams in Vienna – when high-level intervention was needed.
He was also scheduled to attend a Paris conference Tuesday with top members of the U.S.-led coalition against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. That fight has reached a crucial stage, with last month’s Islamic State takeover of the Iraqi city of Ramadi and militant gains in Syria. Kerry will be replaced at the meeting by Deputy Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
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