Bill Clinton to spend 1 more night in hospital for non-COVID-related infection
LOS ANGELES - Former President Bill Clinton will spend one more night in a California hospital after being admitted earlier this week with a non-COVID-19-related infection.
"President Clinton has continued to make excellent progress over the past 24 hours," spokesman Angel Ureña said in a statement. "He is in great spirits and has been spending time with family, catching up with friends, and watching college football."
Clinton will remain overnight at University of California Irvine Medical Center "to receive IV antibiotics before an expected discharge tomorrow," the statement said.
Clinton, 75, was admitted Tuesday evening. An aide to the former president said Clinton had a urological infection that spread to his bloodstream, but he is on the mend and never went into septic shock, a potentially life-threatening condition.
The aide, who spoke to reporters at the hospital on the condition his name wasn’t used, said Clinton was in an intensive care section of the hospital but wasn't receiving ICU care.
A second statement from Clinton's spokesman quoted physicians Dr. Alpesh Amin and Dr. Lisa Bardack, who said the former president has been "administered IV antibiotics and fluids."
"After two days of treatment, his white blood cell count is trending down and he is responding to antibiotics well," the doctors said. "The California-based medical team has been in constant communication with the President’s New York-based medical team, including his cardiologist. We hope to have him go home soon."
Hillary Clinton has been with her husband at the hospital southeast of Los Angeles. She returned Saturday with her daughter Chelsea Clinton around 8 a.m. in an SUV accompanied by secret service agents.
A spokesman for the Clinton Foundation said the former president was in the Los Angeles area for private events related to his charitable organization. The UCI Medical Center is in Orange County, located about 40 miles southeast of Los Angeles.
During a Friday night appearance at the University of Connecticut, President Joe Biden said Clinton is "doing just fine."
"He’s not in any serious condition," Biden said. "He is getting out shortly, as I understand it. Whether that’s tomorrow or the next day, I don’t know."
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In the years since Clinton left the White House in 2001, the former president has faced health scares. In 2004, he underwent quadruple bypass surgery after experiencing prolonged chest pains and shortness of breath. He returned to the hospital for surgery for a partially collapsed lung in 2005, and in 2010 he had a pair of stents implanted in a coronary artery.
He responded by embracing a largely vegan diet that saw him lose weight and report improved health.
He repeatedly returned to the stump, campaigning for Democratic candidates, most notably his wife, Hillary, during her failed 2008 bid for the presidential nomination. And in 2016, as Hillary Clinton sought the White House as the Democratic nominee, Bill Clinton — by then a grandfather and nearing 70 — returned to the campaign trail.
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The Associated Press and Kelly Hayes contributed to this report.