| Bruna Nessif 23. Dezember 2014 – 19:51
George H.W. Bush is currently hospitalized after experiencing a shortness of breath earlier this evening.
The former president was taken by ambulance to the Houston Methodist Hospital as a precaution, his spokesman Jim McGrath said tonight, adding that the 90-year-old will be held for observation. No other details are available at this time.
Bush began experiencing health problems back in 1991 when, as president, he entered the hospital with an irregular heartbeat. Doctors diagnosed him as having Graves Disease, a thyroid condition that his wife, Barbara Bush, also had.
However, H.W. seemed to be in good spirits recently, and even celebrated his 90th birthday by skydiving from a helicopter over Kennebunkport, Maine, back in June. Bush made the jump at 6,000 feet, accompanied by former members of the U.S. Army Parachute Team, the Golden Knights.
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Bush’s hospitalization comes nearly a year after his wife was admitted to Methodist Hospital in Houston’s Texas Medical Center to be treated for a respiratory-related issue.
The former first lady has had issues with her health in recent years, undergoing surgery to repair a hole in her intestine caused by an ulcer in 2008 and then having an aortic valve replaced in 2009.
In 2012, H.W. Bush was hospitalized at a Houston hospital for bronchitis and a chronic cough for two months. He was expected to return home well before Christmas, but remained hospitalized after the holiday, with officials saying he had a high fever and had been placed on a liquids-only diet.
Bush, who can no longer use his legs, most recently appeared seated in a wheelchair at an event in November at Texas A&M University with his son, former President George W. Bush.
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