Bush Sr. leaves ICU, wife to be released from hospital

Austin (Texas), Jan 24 (IANS) Former US President George H.W. Bush was moved out of the intensive care unit at a Houston hospital on Monday and his wife Barbara, who had been admitted to the same hospital, will be released in the coming hours.

The former President, who governed from 1989-1993 after serving eight years as Vice President under Ronald Reagan, is responding "very well" to the treatment he has been receiving and hopes to be able to return home this weekend, EFE news quoted Dr. Clint Doerr, a pulmonary specialist at Houston's Methodist Hospital, as saying.

Bush, 92, had been admitted to the hospital on January 14 with breathing problems and was diagnosed with pneumonia. He was put on a ventilator in the ICU but doctors removed it on Friday and, although Doerr said he is still coughing "a fair amount" and pneumonia in the elderly is always a serious matter, he added that the ex-President is responding well to medication.

At the same press conference, Dr. Amy Mynderse said the former President was "sitting up, watching TV and is waiting anxiously for his favourite oyster stew for lunch".

"He's on minimal oxygen, joking and laughing with the nurses and doctors," EFE news quoted her as saying.

Mynderse said that Barbara Bush, 91, had been admitted for "viral bronchitis" but had recovered well and had been told she could leave the hospital on Sunday.

However, the former First Lady opted to remain in the hospital for another day to continue her recovery and be closer to her husband.

Mynderse said that she had been surprised how devoted the couple are to each other and -- although they have had separate rooms during their simultaneous hospital stays -- Barbara Bush has visited her husband frequently.

"They truly do have just such an amazing love for each other and that really came across here," Mynderse said.

Doerr said, "They're essentially therapy for each other. They help and are compliant in terms of when one of them doesn't want to take a breathing treatment, the other says, 'Get on that.' It helps our cause."

The Bushes have been married for 72 years, the longest of any presidential couple in US history.

Former President George W. Bush took to the social networks to thank the medical team for their work in caring for his parents.

Although he made a parachute jump to celebrate his 90th birthday to prove his vitality, Bush Sr. has been hospitalised on several occasions for different reasons over the past few years.

In 2012, he spent a month-and-a-half around the Christmas holidays at the Houston hospital suffering from bronchitis and a viral infection, and in July 2015, he broke a bone in his neck in a fall.