Former US president Bill Clinton in hospital with non-coronavirus infection
- The 75-year-old was admitted to a hospital in California after feeling fatigued and was diagnosed with sepsis
- A spokesman said Clinton ‘is on the mend and in good spirits’
US former President Bill Clinton was in a California hospital on Thursday with an infection and responding well to two days of treatment, his doctors said.
Clinton, 75, was admitted on Tuesday evening to the UCI Medical Center in Irvine “for a non-Covid-19 infection,” Clinton spokesperson Angel Urena.
“He is on the mend, in good spirits, and incredibly thankful to the doctors, nurses and staff providing him with excellent care.”
The former president went to the hospital after feeling fatigued and was diagnosed with sepsis, an infection of the bloodstream, which doctors believe started as a urinary tract infection, CNN reported, citing his doctors.
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Clinton’s doctors, Alpesh Amin and Lisa Bardack, said in a statement that he was “admitted to the hospital for close monitoring and administered IV antibiotics and fluids.”
“He remains at the hospital for continuous monitoring,” they said. “After two days of treatment, his white blood cell count is trending down and he is responding to antibiotics well.”
They added: “We hope to have him go home soon.”
Clinton, a Democrat who was president from 1993-2001, has had past health issues, including a 2004 quadruple bypass surgery and a 2010 procedure to open a blocked artery in his heart with two stents. CNN reported that Clinton’s current hospital stay is not related to his heart issues.
CNN also reported that the former president was in the intensive care unit, primarily to give him privacy, and he was not on a breathing machine, according to doctors treating him at University of California Irvine Medical Center, California.
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The former Arkansas governor came to the White House by defeating an incumbent president, Republican George H.W. Bush, and served during a period of acute partisanship in Washington, a harbinger of the current bitter political state.
Clinton won re-election in 1996 against long-time Republican Senator Bob Dole.
He is known for a remarkable talent for connecting with people and an exceptional understanding of policy issues.
Clinton morphed into a political husband after leaving office, when his wife Hillary Clinton was elected US senator from New York in 2000. She unsuccessfully sought the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination and won the party’s 2016 nomination before losing the election to Donald Trump.
