Barbara Bush hospitalized; Bush in ICU
HOUSTON — Former President George H.W. Bush was admitted Wednesday to the intensive care unit of a Houston hospital with pneumonia, and his wife, Barbara, was hospitalized as a precaution after suffffering fatigue and coughing, a spokesman said.
The 92-year-old former president, who had been hospitalized since Saturday, underwent a procedure “to protect and clear his airway that required sedation,” family spokesman Jim McGrath said in a statement.
Bush was stable and resting comfortably at Houston Methodist Hospital, where he was to stay for observation, the statement said.
The 41 s t pre s i dent was placed in the ICU to address “an acute respiratory problem stemming from pneumonia,” McGrath said. He later said doctors were happy with how the procedure went. Bush was fifirst admitted to the hospital for shortness of breath.
“I don’t t hi nk t here’s a whole lot of money to be gained betting against George Bush,” McGrath said.
McGrath said Barbara Bush, who is 91, had not been feeling well for a couple of weeks, “and it fifinally just got to the point this morning where she said she wanted to take it out of committee and have the experts check it out.”
Physicians initially believed the former president would be released later this week following several days of treatment, but his stay has been extended, McGrath said. There is no timetable for his release.
Doctors want to see how the former fifirst lady responds to treatment before allowing her to return home, he said.
The Bushes have had the longest marriage of any presidential couple in American history. At the time of their Jan. 6, 1945, wedding, he was a young naval aviator, and she was a student at Smith College.
After World War II, they moved to the Texas oil patch to seek their fortune and raise a family. It was there that George Bush began his political career, representing Houston for two terms in Congress in the late 1960s and early 1970s.