National

Former President George H.W. Bush hospitalized again, but spokesman says he is OK

By Brian Murphy

bmurphy@mcclatchy.com

April 18, 2017 06:16 PM

Former President George H.W. Bush arrives on the field for a coin toss before the NFL Super Bowl 51 football game between the Atlanta Falcons and the New England Patriots Sunday, Feb. 5, 2017, in Houston. Eric Gay AP

Former President George H.W. Bush is back in a Houston hospital, but is doing well, his spokesman told several media outlets Tuesday.

Bush, 92, is “already well on the path to recovery and going home” from Methodist Hospital, his spokesman Jim McGrath told KHOU.

Bush, served as president from 1989 to 1993, has been hospitalized since Friday for observation because of a persistent cough, the Associated Press reported. McGrath told the AP that Bush had a “mild case of pneumonia.”

Bush “is in very good spirits and is being held for further observation while he regains his strength,” the AP reported.

NBC News reported that McGrath said, “He is OK. He’s going to be great.”

April 18, 2017
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Bush was hospitalized for two weeks in January for pneumonia. He missed Donald Trump’s inauguration, but wrote a letter to the incoming president apologizing for not being there.

“My doctor says if I sit outside in January, it likely will put me six feet under. Same for (wife) Barbara. So I guess we’re stuck in Texas,” Bush wrote in a letter dated Jan. 10. “But we will be with you and the country in spirit.”

George and Barbara Bush were honored at the Super Bowl in Houston in February.

On April 9, President Bill Clinton posted a picture on Twitter after visiting with Bush.

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Bush was hospitalized in 2015 in Maine after falling at his summer home and breaking a bone in his neck. He was also hospitalized in Houston the previous December for about a week for shortness of breath. He spent Christmas 2012 in intensive care for a bronchitis-related cough and other issues.

Bush has a form of Parkinson’s disease and uses a motorized scooter or a wheelchair for mobility. Despite his loss of mobility, Bush celebrated his 90th birthday by making a tandem parachute jump in Kennebunkport, Maine. Last summer, Bush led a group of 40 wounded warriors on a fishing trip at the helm of his speedboat, three days after his 92nd birthday celebration.

George Herbert Walker Bush, born June 12, 1924, in Milton, Massachusetts, also served as a congressman, CIA director and Ronald Reagan’s vice president.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.