Former President George H.W. Bush was admitted to a hospital intensive care unit after `` a series of setbacks including a persistent fever,‘’ but is alert and talking to medical staff, his spokesman said.

Jim McGrath, Bush‘s spokesman in Houston, said in a brief email Wednesday that Bush was admitted to the ICU at Methodist Hospital on Sunday. He said doctors are cautiously optimistic about his treatment and that the former president ``remains in guarded condition.’‘

No other details were released about his medical condition, but McGrath said Bush is surrounded by family.

The 88-year-old has been hospitalized since Nov. 23, when he was admitted for a lingering cough related to bronchitis after having been in and out of the hospital for complications related to the illness.

Earlier Wednesday, McGrath said a fever that kept Bush in the hospital over Christmas had gotten worse and that doctors had put him on a liquids-only diet.

``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.’‘

But he said the cough that initially brought Bush to the hospital has improved.

Bush, the oldest former U.S. president, was visited on Christmas by his wife, Barbara, his son, Neil, and Neil’s wife, Maria, and a grandson, McGrath said. Bush‘s daughter, Dorothy, was expected to arrive Wednesday in Houston from Bethesda, Maryland. The 41st president has also been visited twice by his sons, George W. Bush, the 43rd president, and Jeb Bush, the former governor of Florida.

Bush and his wife live in Houston during the winter and spend their summers at 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. (AP)



<관련 한글 기사>



미국 전 대통령 부시 중환자실에 입원


전 미국 대통령 조지 하버트 워커 부시는 고열로 중환자 시설에 입원했다고 부시의 대변인은 밝혔다.

부시는 현재 대변인 맥그레스와 그의 가족외과 함께 있을 뿐 다른 구체적인 사항은 발표된바 없다.

올해로 88세인 전 미국 대통령 부시는 지난 11월 23일 기관지염과 관련하여 기침이 심해져 입원했다.

지난주 수요일날 멕그레스는 크리스마스 이후로 증상이 심해져 의료진이 주입하는 액체 영양제로만 영위하고 있다고 밝혔다.

“열이 점차 높아져 지난 하루 이틀 간 계속해서 고열로 시달렸다,”며 “좀처럼 없어지지 않는 지독한 고열이다,” 고 맥그레스는 AP통신에 밝혔다. “

하지만 입원했을 당시 상황보다는 기침이 나아지고 있는 상황이라고 밝혔다. (코리아헤럴드)