Bush Sr stable, Barbara ‘1,000 percent better’
WASHINGTON: Former US president George H W Bush remained in intensive care Thursday for treatment of pneumonia but doctors expressed hope he will be moved out of an intensive care unit in “a few days,” his spokesman said. “President Bush had a good night’s rest and remains in stable condition in the ICU at Houston Methodist Hospital,” spokesman Jim McGrath said in a statement. Doctors are evaluating whether tubes inserted to help the 92-year-old former president breathe can now be removed.
And Bush’s 91-year-old wife Barbara, hospitalized Wednesday, is feeling “1,000 percent better” after being treated with antibiotics and getting some rest. The former first lady was admitted after experiencing fatigue and coughing, and ultimately diagnosed with bronchitis, the statement said. The Bushes received a visit Wednesday from old friend James Baker, who served as secretary of state under Bush, and his wife Susan, the statement said.
Bush was initially hospitalized Saturday for shortness of breath, then moved to intensive care Wednesday suffering from pneumonia, highlighting concerns about his health as Donald Trump prepared to take office yesterday. Word of the Bush couple’s ill health drew wishes for their speedy recovery from President Barack Obama, former president Bill Clinton and Trump.
Bush, who served as the nation’s 41st commander-in-chief from 1989 to 1993, is the oldest of the four living former US presidents and uses a wheelchair. He has seemed frail in recent public appearances. He did not attend yesterday’s presidential inauguration. In July 2015, Bush was treated in a Maine hospital after falling and breaking a bone in his neck. The previous December he was admitted to Houston Methodist Hospital for breathing problems.
He was treated at the same facility in Nov 2012 for bronchitis, spending nearly two months in the hospital. George Herbert Walker Bush was born June 12, 1924 in Milton, Massachusetts to a wealthy New England political dynasty, the son of Prescott Bush, a successful banker and US senator for Connecticut. — AFP