George HW Bush ‘eager to get well’

HOUSTON: Former President George HW Bush has been hospitalised in Houston with an infection, just after attending the funeral of his wife, Barbara, a spokesman said.

Jim McGrath said Monday on Twitter that the 93-year-old Bush is “responding to treatments and appears to be recovering’’. He was admitted on Sunday morning to Houston Methodist Hospital after an infection spread to his blood, Mr McGrath said.

Barbara Bush was laid to rest Saturday in a ceremony attended by her husband and former presidents Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, George W Bush and their wives, along with current first lady Melania Trump. Mrs Bush was 92, and she and her husband had been married 73 years — the longest presidential marriage in US history.

George HW Bush uses a wheelchair and an electric scooter for mobility after developing a form of Parkinson’s disease, and he has needed hospital treatment several times in recent years for respiratory problems.

He attended the funeral wearing a pair of knitted socks decorated in blue, red and yellow books — a tribute to his late wife’s work promoting literacy.

Mr McGrath wouldn’t elaborate Monday night on the specifics of Mr Bush’s condition, saying additional updates would be issued “as events warrant”. But he said the 41st president was eager to get well so he can get to his summer home in Kennebunkport, Maine.

“He’s the most goal-oriented person on this planet,’’ Mr McGrath said.

Former Florida Gov Jeb Bush indicated during his eulogy on Saturday that his father had been hospitalised recently at the same time Barbara Bush was in the hospital for the last time. Those hospitalisations were not publicly disclosed at the time.

First Lady Melania Trump tweeted on Monday evening that she was sending “healing thoughts of strength, along with prayers, for President George HW Bush tonight”.

The elder Bush was hospitalised for 16 days in January 2017 for pneumonia. During that hospital stay, which included time in intensive care, doctors inserted a breathing tube and connected him to a ventilator.

George Herbert Walker Bush served as president from 1989 to 1993. Born on June 12, 1924, in Milton, Massachusetts, Mr Bush also served as a congressman, CIA director and Ronald Reagan’s vice president.