Former President George H.W. Bush leaves ICU, and Barbara Bush is discharged from hospital

Reporting from Houston — Former President George H.W. Bush was being transferred out of intensive care Monday, and his wife, Barbara, was being discharged from the same hospital, according to their doctors.

The former president was transferred to the ICU at Houston Methodist Hospital.on Wednesday to “address an acute respirator problem stemming from pneumonia,” family spokesman Jim McGrath said in a statement. Bush, 92, had been admitted to the hospital Jan. 14 after suffering shortness of breath.

McGrath said the former first lady, who is 91, was hospitalized as a precaution after experiencing fatigue and coughing. She was treated for viral bronchitis.

At a Monday briefing at the hospital, Dr. Clint Doerr said the former president could be discharged as soon as Friday — in time to help host the Super Bowl.

“He is sitting up watching TV… joking and laughing with the doctors,” said Dr. Amy Mynderse.

Bush, who served as president from 1989 to 1993, has a form of Parkinson’s disease and uses a motorized scooter or a wheelchair for mobility. He was hospitalized in Maine in 2015 after falling at his summer home and breaking a bone in his neck, and was hospitalized in Houston the previous December for about a week for shortness of breath. He spent Christmas 2012 in intensive care for a bronchitis-related cough and other issues.

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, left, speaks to former President George W. Bush and his wife, Laura Bush, before the presidential inauguration in Washington on Friday.

(Paul J. Richards / AFP/Getty Images )

Bush’s office announced earlier this month that he and his wife would not attend Donald Trump’s inauguration because of the former president’s age and health.

But Bush watched it on television, making occasional comments, Doerr said. Former President George W. Bush and his wife, Laura, were on the dais.

“He commented on seeing his son there,” Doerr said of the senior Bush, but made “no political comments.”

Barbara Bush had been a constant presence at her husband’s bedside and planned to return to visit him after being discharged Monday, Doerr said.

ALSO

What to expect in Trump’s first 100 days

I reported on Obama longer than anyone else. Here’s what I learned

The latest battlefront in the abortion wars: Some states want to require burial or cremation for fetuses