Thursday, December 27, 2012
HOUSTON (AP) — Former President George H.W. Bush is being treated in the intensive-care unit at a Houston hospital after suffering "a series of setbacks," including a stubborn fever, his spokesman said.
In a brief email Wednesday, Jim McGrath, Bush's spokesman in Houston, said the 88-year-old former leader had been admitted Sunday to the ICU at Methodist Hospital. McGrath said Bush, the oldest living former U.S. president, was alert and talking to medical staff.
He said doctors are cautiously optimistic about Bush's treatment and that the former president "remains in guarded condition." He said Bush was surrounded by family.
Early today, McGrath told The Associated Press he had no new information on Bush's condition and that he would release another statement "when events warrant it."
Bush has been hospitalized since Nov. 23, when he was admitted for a lingering cough related to bronchitis after having been in and out of the hospital for complications related to the illness.
A fever that kept Bush in the hospital over Christmas had gotten worse and doctors had put him on a liquids-only diet Wednesday after "a series of setbacks."