George H.W. Bush in ICU with pneumonia; wife Barbara also hospitalized

Former President George H.W. Bush was admitted to an intensive care unit on Wednesday, and his wife, Barbara, was also hospitalized as a precaution, according to his spokesman.

The 92-year-old former chief executive was admitted to the ICU at Houston Methodist Hospital to “address an acute respiratory problem stemming from pneumonia,” family spokesman Jim McGrath said in a statement. McGrath said the former first lady was hospitalized as a precautionary measure after she experienced fatigue and coughing.

“Doctors performed a procedure to protect and clear his airway that required sedation. President Bush is stable and resting comfortably in the ICU, where he will remain for observation,” McGrath said in the statement.

Doctors were monitoring him to see how he responds. But McGrath said he doesn’t think “there’s a whole lot of money to be gained betting against George Bush.”

He has been in the hospital since Saturday.

Barbara Bush is 91. The couple marked their 72nd wedding anniversary on Jan. 6.

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.

Despite his loss of mobility, Bush celebrated his 90th birthday by making a tandem parachute jump in Kennebunkport, Maine. Last summer, Bush led a group of 40 wounded warriors on a fishing trip at the helm of his speedboat, three days after his 92nd birthday.

Bush’s office announced earlier this month that he and the former first lady would not attend Donald Trump’s inauguration this week due to his age and health.

George Herbert Walker Bush, born June 12, 1924, in Milton, Mass., also served as a congressman, CIA director and Ronald Reagan’s vice president.

His son, George W. Bush, was elected president in 2000 and served two terms. Another son, Jeb — a former Florida governor — made an unsuccessful bid for the GOP nomination in 2016. Only one other U.S. president, John Adams, had a son who also became president.

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UPDATES:

12:40 p.m.: This article was updated with a statement by a family spokesman that a procedure was performed to clear George H.W. Bush’s airway.

10:35 a.m.: This article was updated with a statement that George H.W. Bush is in intensive care and that Barbara Bush was also hospitalized.

This article was originally published at 4:25 a.m.