Houston (AP) — A "stubborn" fever that kept former President George H.W. Bush in a hospital over Christmas has gotten worse, and doctors have put him on a liquids-only diet, his spokesman said Wednesday.
Jim McGrath, Bush's spokesman in Houston, said earlier in the day that the fever had gone away, but he later corrected himself.
McGrath told The Associated Press, “It’s a stubborn fever that won't go away."
Doctors at Methodist Hospital in Houston have run tests and are treating the fever with Tylenol, but they still haven't nailed down a cause, McGrath said. Doctors also have put Bush on a liquid diet, though McGrath could not say why.
The bronchitis-like cough that initially brought Bush to the hospital on Nov. 23 has improved, McGrath said. The 88-year-old is now coughing about once a day, he said.
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 achieved notoriety in retirement for skydiving on at least three of his birthdays since leaving the White House in 1992.
