Cumberland Times-News

Local News

Related Photos

  • 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. Former President Bush has been hospitalized for about a week in Houston for treatment of a lingering cough. Bush�s chief of staff, Jean Becker, says the 88-year-old former president is being treated for bronchitis at Houston�s Methodist Hospital and is expected to be released by the weekend. He was admitted Friday, Nov. 23, 2012. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa, File)

    Former President George H.W. Bush, and his wife former first lady Barbara Bush.
December 27, 2012

Ex-President George H.W. Bush in intensive care

RAMIT PLUSHNICK-MASTI Associated Press

HOUSTON (AP) — Former President George H.W. Bush is being treated in the intensive care unit at a Houston hospital after suffering "a series of setbacks," including a stubborn fever, his spokesman said.

In a brief email Wednesday, Jim McGrath, Bush's spokesman in Houston, said the 88-year-old former leader had been admitted Sunday to the ICU at Methodist Hospital. McGrath said Bush, the oldest living former U.S. president, was alert and talking to medical staff.

He said doctors are cautiously optimistic about Bush's treatment and that the former president "remains in guarded condition." He said Bush was surrounded by family.

Early Thursday, McGrath told The Associated Press he had no new information on Bush's condition and that he would release another statement "when events warrant it."

Bush 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.

A fever that kept Bush in the hospital over Christmas had gotten worse and doctors had put him on a liquids-only diet Wednesday following "a series of setbacks."

"It's an elevated fever, so it's actually gone up in the last day or two," McGrath said. "It's a stubborn fever that won't go away."

But he said the cough that initially brought Bush to the hospital had 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, arrived Wednesday in Houston from Bethesda, Md. The 41st president has also been visited by his sons, George W. Bush, the 43rd president, and Jeb Bush, the former governor of Florida.

He has also been visited by former Secretary of State James A. Baker III, a longtime confidant.

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's skydived on at least three of his birthdays since leaving the White House in 1992.

He suffers from a form of Parkinson's disease and in recent years has used a wheelchair to get around.

Text Only
Local News
  • Taking the fifth Taking the fifth

    The Internal Revenue Service official at the center of the storm over the agency’s targeting of conservative groups told Congress on Wednesday that she had done nothing wrong in the episode, and then invoked her constitutional right to refuse to answer lawmakers’ questions.

    May 22, 2013 1 Photo

  • Rocky Gap casino opens

    The newly christened Rocky Gap Casino Resort has opened its doors to the public.

    May 22, 2013

  • Frostburg officials OK 2014 budget

    The Frostburg mayor and city council have voted to adopt a $9.7 million budget for fiscal year 2014 and to keep open an alley that many citizens feared would be closed.

    May 22, 2013

  • Driveway artist Driveway artist

    May 22, 2013 1 Photo

  • Okla. tornado may have caused more than $2B in damage

    The tornado that struck an Oklahoma City suburb this week may have created $2 billion or more in damage as it tore through as many as 13,000 homes, multiple schools and a hospital, officials said Wednesday as they gave the first detailed account of the devastation.

    May 22, 2013

  • Somerset-to-Meyersdale U.S. Route 219 sends its last permit

    The final permit is on the way for a Somerset-to-Meyersdale U.S. Route 219 improvement project to begin.

    May 22, 2013

  • JOHN DELANEY Delaney introduces an initiative for a national infrastructure bank

    Freshman U.S. Rep. John Delaney on Wednesday rolled out his signature legislative initiative for his first term — a plan for a national infrastructure bank that requires no federal appropriations.

    May 22, 2013 1 Photo

  • Fireball spotted over Maryland

    A bright light seen traveling across the sky over the weekend by dozens of witnesses across Maryland and the region is what astronomers are calling a fragmenting meteoric fireball.

    May 22, 2013

  • 6th annual DelFest has arrived, bigger than ever 6th annual DelFest has arrived, bigger than ever

    Thirty national recording artists are preparing to step into the Cumberland spotlight this weekend at the Allegany County Fairgrounds as DelFest rolls into town for its sixth annual musical festival.

    May 22, 2013 2 Photos

  • Keyser woman organizing opposition to proposed housing complex

    Barbara Hartman, who lives near Pine Swamp Road, said she doesn’t want Bayridge Green built near her and is trying to do something about it.

    May 22, 2013