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Richard Carson / Reuters file
Former U.S. President George H. W. Bush stands during the national anthem at an NFL game in Houston on Nov. 4.
Former President George H.W. Bush has been hospitalized in Houston with bronchitis.
Bush, 88, has been suffering from a severe cough, and he’s been in and out of the hospital for the last couple of weeks. He was admitted out of "an abundance of caution" due to his age, a source close to the family told NBC News.
"President Bush has been in and out of The Methodist Hospital in the Texas Medical Center being treated for complications related to his bronchitis. He is in stable condition, and is expected to be released within the next 72 hours," Methodist Hospital said in a statement Thursday.
Bronchitis is a common condition in which the bronchial tubes in the lungs become inflamed and produce mucus, which creates the need to cough, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It can turn serious in people with weak immune systems, including children and the elderly. Symptoms such as chest pain, weakness and coughing typically last two weeks, but can linger for as much as two months.
The former president’s illness, though concerning, shouldn’t be life-threatening, said Dr. Zab Mosenifar, medical director of the Women’s Guild Lung Institute at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles.
Bronchitis in the elderly is “very, very common,” he said, but also very treatable.
It’s possible the illness could progress to pneumonia, a frequent complication of bronchitis, which would require antibiotics and further treatment.
“As far as I know, he doesn’t have history of smoking,” Mosenifar said. “He is a healthy person and he should do fine.”
Bush served as the 41st president of the United States from 1989-1993, the capstone of a long career of public service. He lost his first bid for the Republican nomination for presidency in 1980, at which time Ronald Reagan chose him to be his running mate. He went on to serve two terms as Reagan’s vice president.
Bush had been a Texas Republican member of the House of Representatives in the 1960s and 1970s and head of the CIA from 1976-1977. The organization’s headquarters in Langley, Va., was later renamed the “George Bush Center for Intelligence.”
Before moving to Texas, where Bush made money in oil and petroleum, Bush served as a combat pilot during World War II and attended Yale University. He got married in 1945.
Bush and his wife, Barbara, had six children; one, Robin, died as a child, according to his official WhiteHouse.gov biography. His son George W. Bush became the 43rd president of the United States; another son, Jeb Bush, was governor of Florida for nearly a decade, and is considered a top contender for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination.
Bush has had an active post-presidential life. He teamed up with Bill Clinton to raise money for the victims of the Asian tsunami in late 2004. That effort was so successful, the two former presidents did the same for Katrina victims in 2005.
NBC News' JoNel Aleccia contributed to this report.
Robert Sullivan / AFP - Getty Images
Leader of an American political dynasty, George Bush's influence was felt beyond his terms as president and vice president. Take a look back at his life and career.
Leave a Comment:
I like him as a person and family man. To bad his son didn't take any of his good quality's he was no more then a punk. happy neither one is president. Get well soon. It is what it is !!!
I'm no Republican, but he was a better President than
his son was.
Get well Mr. President.
Somehow, when I saw this headline, I knew the left would make it political. This is a human being. Can you not just wish him a speedy recovery? AND I live in Houston. Methodist hospital takes all patients, for now. But with "free" healthcare my Drs have told me they will be at Methodist while the "free" "government" insurance will be handled at Memorial Herman Hospitals here. So who is really deviding the country?
Just how has the left made this a political issue? Who is really dividing the country? Individuals like you who make comments about "FREE" government insurance.
George HW Bush was a neo-con terrorist who forced out the last respectable CIA director (Bill Casey) in Kissinger's "Halloween Massacre." His "service" to the public was really a terroristic service to multi-national corporations, and the list of coups and terrorist strikes is too long to post in one comment.
He will not be missed by decent men.
Now how did he get bronchitis without smoking? Gee, you anti-smokers must be going crazy since you can't blame it on cigarettes.
I am 19, have never smoked, yet still have had bronchitis 3 times. You get bronchitis from more than just smoking. For example, if you have asthma, you can easily contract bronchitis during season changes (that is what happened to me).
Get well soon, Mr. President! BTW, your library on the A & M campus is inspiring...understated elegant building and its displays and factual content brought back memories of your time in office. I'm looking forward to a parachute jump on your 90th! May you and Mrs. Bush have a great Christmas season. Your fellow Texans still love and respect you and Barbara.
What happens when all of you hate speech people get sick and someone walks up and says "let the ass die, they aren't worth the cost of treatment under Obamacare".
Despicable family... the Bush name is anathema to this country. No family has ever contributed less or damaged more than these people.
Yep, proves my comment. Not worth the cost of treatment.
I didn't vote for any of the Bushes, but this is a human being. I may not agree with their politics, but for better or worse, this is someone's father, grandfather, husband, etc.
Watch "Dark Legacy" or do your research on this family and then decide if you want to wish him a speedy recovery.
Read My Lipps..... This is a GOOD guy.
Have you seen the picture of him being fished out of the water, dragged up to the deck of a sub after being shot down in his fighter plane in WW2 ???
Lets see... One started out in service to his country. One started out working for the unions.
Who would you trust??
Thousands of Americans were shut down in the service of their nation, only a handful of them milked it ad nauseum into a dirty political career .
naro111
You mean like the Kennedy Family. Guess you only like politicians that buy your votes.
I was thinking of Bush, Kennedy, and Dole. They sure milked their youthful bravery which was not different from the bravery of millions of other veterans.
It's not how you started out, it's how you wound up. He wound up being one of the most corrupt politicians in the history of the U.S. And by his own admission, america would chase him down the street and hang him if they knew what he had done. Now, when he's willing to admit it, why can't you ?
He's a self rightous, bigoted, greedy, corrupt bastard in my opinion. Good thing it's not my job to judge him .. huh ?
We all make our own eternal future and I don't think he's going to be happy with the one he's created.
I REALLY try not to be judgemental, and for the most part, try to be a forgiving person. BUT, this entire BUSH legacy has left me with a hatred that I know I will pay for unless I can let it go one day. Maybe after they're gone, I'll feel better. But, knowing the things I've learned about them, I don't think the Devil himself could be more evil.
Instead of giving a back handed comment about Mr Bush getting well, than the remark about not ever liking him or his son, how about I do the unthinkable and say, Get Well Soon, and thank you for all your service to the country.
Skull and Bones might loose one of their shot callers. Bilderburg group is in trouble. 42 trillion dollar lawsuit.
And the avg person has no idea of the connection of Bush Senior, skull and bones, zapata oil, CIA, Avril Harriman, Herbert Hoover and the FBI, Cuba, the Nazi banker who was Bush Senior's father, and the murder of John F. Kennedy! You people wish him a speedy recovery? Try praying for his soul after what he has done
Wishing you a speedy recovery Mr. Bush!! Hope you make it home in perfect health.
So great that Bush has access to the healthcare that the rest of us do not. We are paying for the healthcare of these politicians, while they don't think the rest of us even deserve access to healthcare unless it's totally 100% out of our own pockets.
What is wrong with this picture and this country? Last time I checked, these politicians put their shoes and sox on the same way the rest of us do. Why are they so privileged? Hmm, these same takers (politicians) call it socialism if the rank and file people have healthcare, but they seem to feel they're entitled to it. Ugh.
Hello folks, let me preface my comments by saying that I'm a political atheist, I could care less what political religion one wants to attach themselves to. While the majority of the Americans are too lazy to do the research on the Bush family to find out what they really represent let me provide a quote from H.W. that sums up their family and one even the sheeple can look up without too much effort.
George Bush Sr. was once quoted as saying: "If the American people knew the Damage we have done to their Country, they would hang us from the nearest lamp post."
I can hardly wait to say "Ding Dong"!
Prayers for his quick recovery........
Lar-4249951....you are evil...maybe you deserve the bronchitis!!
Get well soon Mr. President.
Far be it for me to wish ill upon an ignorant @!$%#, but what goes around comes around. Mr Bush and the rest of his ilk have had their fingers in our government far too long. He's just another arrogant rich boy from Connecticut and a member of the Chaos Club at Yale. aka : Skull and Bones. Do some research on this guy before you sing his praises. I still can't get the picture out of my mind of him and his wittle Georgie having a father son fishing trip in the streets of New Orleans after Katrina dumped enough water in there to float a fishing boat down Bourbon Street. A real American president wouldn't collect the @180,000.00 per year presidential pension. I could see it if he was destitute.
Well I would like to do research on the current president.. but all of his records are sealed. Why?
Why did they take him to a hospital, don't they believe in "SCIENCE" at hospitals? Should have gone to a priest!
You mean Chris Matthews.. the one that keeps telling us obama is gawd? Funny, the liberals keep trying to push on us there is no God but in 2008 they claim obama is the "anointed one", "prophecy fulfilled", the "promised messiah", etc.
Have fun at your Obamcare Scientology center. You are obviously choking on your own hypocrisy.
and the president we have now isn't living off of our taxpayer monies....whoa!!
I wish Mr. Bush the best. God bless him!
I wonder if those bashing Bush Sr and Bush Jr realize just how much damage Obama has done to this country. Look at the debt numbers before Obama came into office and after his first term. It makes me wonder why we voted him back in.
(sigh) heave cough -gasp
Well wishes for the President. Even though I did not share his political viewpoints, unlike his son, he was emminently qualified to be President. He was a Senator, a Vice President, and the C.I.A. Director before becoming the Commander in Chief. Unlike his son, he surrounded himself with knowledgeable people, developed a coalition of nations before attacking Saddam, and had the good sense to not put troops in to act as cops. His friendship with the very guy that beat him out of offense says much about his character.
Hope Mr. Bush has a speedy recovery. I had the opportunity to hear both George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton speak while at college a decade ago-- while I lean more towards the Democrats it was the speech by Bush that really left me impressed. He is a highly intelligent man that dealt with the Iraqi threat like a master surgeon employing a scalpel to remove a brain tumor... it is a shame the generation of Republicans that followed couldn't appreciate what he had done and thought they had to go back into Iraq with a sledgehammer.
You mean the (fabricated) Iraqi threat that he himself created ? Yes that was masterful.