Fumo rushed to hospital for internal bleeding

Former state Sen. Vince Fumo was rushed to Hahnemann University Hospital this afternoon, suffering from internal bleeding, apparently related to a biopsy he had a few days ago for prostate cancer, according to his biographer.

Author Ralph Cipriano, a former Philadelphia Inquirer reporter who blogs at BigTrial.net and is writing a biography with Fumo, said the former senator called him this afternoon while on his way to the hospital.  Cipriano said Fumo told him he was bleeding from several places, felt dizzy and might need a blood transfusion.

Fumo returned to Philadelphia in August after serving four years in federal prison on 137 public corruption charges.  He is completing his sentence, which ends in February, at his mansion on Green Street in the city's Spring Garden neighborhood and working at the office of his defense attorney, Dennis Cogan.

This is not the first serious health trouble for Fumo, 70, who has had three heart attacks.  The most recent heart attack happened while he was still in federal prison in Ashland, Ky. in January.