George Bush hospitalised day after wife’s funeral

Former US president George H.W. Bush was admitted to hospital the day after his wife’s funeral.

Bush, front centre, at his wife Barbara’s funeral on Saturday. Picture: AP

Former US president George H.W. Bush has been hospitalised just days after his wife of 73 years Barbara passed away.

A spokesman for the family Jim Mcgrath said George Bush Sr. was taken to a hospital in Houston the day after attending the funeral of his wife after an infection spread to his blood.

Mr McGrath said Bush is “responding to treatments and appears to be recovering.”

Statement by the Office of @GeorgeHWBush on President Bush's health. pic.twitter.com/8UkB53JHqD

— Jim McGrath (@jgm41) April 23, 2018

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 spouses, along with current first lady Melania Trump.

Mr Bush Sr was admitted to Houston Methodist Hospital on Sunday morning.

The elder 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.

A year ago this month, Bush spent two weeks in the hospital for treatment of pneumonia and chronic bronchitis, a constant irritation of the lining of tubes that carry air to one’s lungs. Bush’s doctors said chronic bronchitis is a condition more prevalent with age and can aggravate the symptoms of pneumonia. Bush was hospitalized 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.

He also was hospitalized in 2015 in Maine after falling at home and breaking a bone in his neck, and in December 2014 for about a week for shortness of breath. He spent Christmas 2012 in intensive care for a bronchitis-related cough and other issues.

George Herbert Walker Bush served as president from 1989 to 1993. Born June 12, 1924, in Milton, Massachusetts, Bush also served as a congressman, CIA director and Ronald Reagan’s vice president. He is the oldest of the five living former US presidents.

Mrs Bush passed away last Wednesday at the age of 92. The Bushes married in 1945 and had the longest marriage of any presidential couple in American history. Their son former president George W. Bush said he and his family were saddened by the death of the matriarch. “I’m a lucky man that Barbara Bush was my mother.” he said. “Our family will miss her dearly.”

George Bush Jr. and Sr at the funeral of the late Barbara Bush. Picture: Twitter

With AFP/AP

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