World News: Former US President Bush snr. in intensive care

– World news selected by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community

PHUKET: Former President George H.W. Bush is in the intensive care unit of a Houston hospital and is in “guarded condition,” family spokesman Jim McGrath said yesterday.

“The president is alert and conversing with medical staff, and is surrounded by family,” McGrath said in a statement.

“Following a series of setbacks including a persistent fever, President Bush was admitted to the intensive care unit at Methodist Hospital on Sunday where he remains in guarded condition,” McGrath said.

Doctors at the Methodist Hospital “continue to be cautiously optimistic about the current course of treatment,” McGrath said.

The 88-year-old was admitted to the hospital on November 23 for bronchitis.

Bush, the 41st US president and a republican, took office in 1989 and served one term in the White House. The father of former President George W Bush, he also served as a congressman, ambassador to the United Nations, envoy to China, CIA director and vice president for two terms under Ronald Reagan.

— Phuket Gazette Editors