For more than a month now, former President George H.W. Bush has been in a Houston hospital as doctor’s try to deal with what appear to be persistent respiratory problems:
A “stubborn” fever that kept former President George H.W. Bush in a hospital over Christmas has gotten worse, and doctors have put him on a liquids-only diet, his spokesman said Wednesday, describing Bush’s condition as guarded to CBS News.
Jim McGrath, Bush’s spokesman in Houston, had said earlier in the day that the fever had gone away, but he later corrected himself.
“It’s an elevated fever, so it’s actually gone up in the last day or two,” McGrath told The Associated Press. “It’s a stubborn fever that won’t go away.”
Doctors at Methodist Hospital in Houston have run tests and are treating the fever with Tylenol, but they still haven’t nailed down a cause, McGrath said. Doctors also have put Bush on a liquid diet, though McGrath could not say why.
The bronchitis-like cough that initially brought Bush to the hospital on Nov. 23 has improved, McGrath said. The 88-year-old is now coughing about once a day, he said.
The fever would seem to indicate that there’s an infection of some kind that has not been completely eradicated, a frequent problem in people of Bush’s advanced years and the fact that he is now confined to a wheelchair due to Parkinson’s Disease makes such problems more likely. Hopefully, he’ll be able to kick this and get back home to his family.
Update: CNN reports that Bush has been in the ICU unit since Sunday:
(CNN) – Former President George H.W. Bush remains in an intensive care unit at a Houston hospital with a “stubborn fever that is slightly elevated,” his spokesman told CNN on Wednesday.
He has been in the intensive care unit at Methodist Hospital since Sunday, spokesman Jim McGrath said, and has been hospitalized there for over a month.
Best wishes to the former President for a speedy recovery.
