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George H.W. Bush, 88, admitted to intensive care

HOUSTON - Former President George H.W. Bush has been admitted to the intensive care unit at a Houston hospital "following a series of setbacks including a persistent fever," but he is alert and talking to medical staff, his spokesman said Wednesday.

FILE - In a Tuesday, June 12, 2012 file photo, former President George H.W. Bush, and his wife, former first lady Barbara Bush, arrive for the premiere of HBO's new documentary on his life near the family compound in Kennebunkport, Maine. Bush spokesman Jim McGrath said Wednesday, Dec. 26. 2012 that doctors at the Houston hospital where Bush has been treated for a month remain “cautiously optimistic” that he will recover. Still, no discharge date has been set, and McGrath says that doctors are being cautious because at Bush’s age “sometimes issues crop up that are beyond anybody’s ability to discern or foretell.”(AP Photo/Charles Krupa, File)
FILE - In a Tuesday, June 12, 2012 file photo, former President George H.W. Bush, and his wife, former first lady Barbara Bush, arrive for the premiere of HBO's new documentary on his life near the family compound in Kennebunkport, Maine. Bush spokesman Jim McGrath said Wednesday, Dec. 26. 2012 that doctors at the Houston hospital where Bush has been treated for a month remain “cautiously optimistic” that he will recover. Still, no discharge date has been set, and McGrath says that doctors are being cautious because at Bush’s age “sometimes issues crop up that are beyond anybody’s ability to discern or foretell.”(AP Photo/Charles Krupa, File)Read moreAP
    by By Ramit Plushnick-Masti, Associated Press, Inquirer
    Published 

HOUSTON - Former President George H.W. Bush has been admitted to the intensive care unit at a Houston hospital "following a series of setbacks including a persistent fever," but he is alert and talking to medical staff, his spokesman said Wednesday.

Jim McGrath, Bush's spokesman in Houston, said in a brief e-mail 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. Bush, 88, has been hospitalized since Nov. 23.

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 said earlier in the day. "It's a stubborn fever that won't go away."

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

Bush 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, Md. 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 in Kennebunkport, Maine.

Bush achieved notoriety in retirement for skydiving on at least three of his birthdays since leaving the White House in 1992.