Ex-President Bush to Spend Christmas in Hospital

(HOUSTON) — Former President
George H.W. Bush will spend
Christmas with his wife and other
family members in a Houston hospital
after developing a fever and
weakness following a monthlong,
bronchitis-like cough, his spokesman
said Monday.
A hospital spokesman had said the 88-
year-old ex-president would be
released in time to spend the holiday
at home, but that changed after Bush
developed a fever.
“He’s had a few setbacks. Late last
week, he had a few low-energy days
followed by a low-grade fever,” Jim
McGrath, Bush’s spokesman in
Houston, told The Associated Press.
“Doctors still say they are cautiously
optimistic, but every time they get
over one thing, another thing pops
up.”
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He said the cough that initially
brought Bush to the hospital on Nov.
23 is now evident only about once a
day, and the fever appears to be
under control, although doctors are
still working to get the right balance
in Bush’s medications. No discharge
date has been set.
“Given his current condition, doctors
just want to hang on to him,” McGrath
said, adding that he didn’t know what
had caused the fever.
Bush’s wife, Barbara; his son, Neil,
and Neil’s wife, Maria, are expected
to visit on Christmas, McGrath said.
Since he was hospitalized, Bush has
been visited by many of his children
and grandchildren, including former
President George W. Bush, who came
twice, and former Florida Gov. Jeb
Bush, McGrath said. With 37
members in the immediate family,
Bush has received many emails and
phone calls, McGrath said.
Bush, the nation’s 41st president, and
his wife, Barbara, live in Houston
during the winter and spend their
summers in a home in
Kennebunkport, Maine.
The former president was a naval
aviator in World War II — at one
point the youngest in the Navy — and
was shot down over the Pacific. He
achieved notoriety in retirement for
skydiving on at least three of his
birthdays since leaving the White
House in 1992.
Being in the hospital for such a long
time has not been easy for Bush, who
is accustomed to being active,
McGrath said. But the president has
said he’s determined “not to get
grumpy about it.”
“He’s just the most relentlessly
positive person,” McGrath said, and
“he does enjoy joking with the
nurses.”