Bill Clinton in California hospital with nonCovid infection
Bill Clinton was admitted two days ago to a hospital in Los Angeles for treatment of a “non-Covid infection”, a spokesman said.
The former US president is suffering from a urinary tract infection that spread to his bloodstream, CNN has reported, adding on Friday that doctors and his staff said Clinton was now up and walking about.
“On Tuesday evening former President Bill Clinton was admitted to University of California, Irvine, medical center for treatment of a non-Covid infection,” said Angel Ureña, a Clinton spokesman, on Twitter.
“He is on the mend, in good spirits, and incredibly thankful to the doctors, nurses and staff providing him with excellent care,” Ureña said.
CNN had further reported that Clinton, 75, was in the intensive care unit, primarily to give him privacy, and he was not on a breathing machine, according to doctors treating the former president at UCIMC.
His condition is not related to his previous heart problems or Covid-19, CNN said.
A second statement from Clinton’s spokesman quoted physicians Dr Alpesh Amin and Dr Lisa Bardack, who said the former president has been “administered IV antibiotics and fluids”.
“After two days of treatment, his white blood cell count is trending down and he is responding to antibiotics well,” the doctors said. “The Californiabased medical team has been in constant communication with the president’s New York-based medical team, including his cardiologist. We hope to have him go home soon.”
It was expected he would probably be switched from receiving intravenous antibiotics to oral antibiotics on Friday.
Speaking at an event in Connecticut on Friday afternoon, Joe Biden said to an assembled group of politicians and others at a childcare center: “I know you are asking about President Clinton. I’ve been exchanging calls, he seems to be, God willing [knocks on the wooden podium], doing well, and so when I talk to him, I will let you all know.”
In the years since Clinton left the White House in 2001, the former president has faced health scares. In 2004, he underwent quadruple bypass surgery after experiencing prolonged chest pains and shortness of breath. He returned to the hospital for surgery for a partially collapsed lung in 2005, and in 2010 had a pair of stents implanted in a coronary artery.
He responded by embracing a largely vegan diet that helped him lose weight and report improved health.
He repeatedly returned to the stump, campaigning for Democratic candidates, mostly notably his wife, Hillary, during her failed 2008 run for the presidential nomination.
And in 2016, as Hillary Clinton sought the White House as the Democratic nominee, Bill Clinton – by then a grandfather and nearing 70 – returned to the campaign trail.
A spokesman for the Clinton Foundation said the former president was in the Los Angeles area for private events related to his charitable organisation. The UCI Medical Center is in Orange county, about 40 miles (64 km) southeast of Los Angeles.