Former US President Bill Clinton was "doing fine" in a California hospital today, President Joe Biden said after his fellow Democrat was admitted with a non-coronavirus infection earlier this week.
Former US President Bill Clinton in 2019. Photo: AFP or licensors
Clinton, 75, who left office in 2001, entered the University of California Irvine Medical Center on Tuesday evening for the infection, according to his spokesman, Angel Urena.
He went to the hospital after suffering from fatigue and has received both IV antibiotics and fluids, his doctors said. CNN reported that his doctors believe Clinton had a urinary tract infection that spread to his bloodstream.
Clinton will remain in hospital overnight, his spokesman said on Twitter, adding that Clinton's health indicators were "trending in the right direction."
Biden, who spoke with Clinton today, said the former president would likely go home soon.
"He is getting out shortly ... Whether that's tomorrow or the next day, I don't know," Biden told reporters in Connecticut. "He's doing fine. He really is."
Clinton has dealt with heart problems in the past, including a 2004 quadruple bypass surgery and a 2010 procedure to open a blocked artery.
His wife Hillary, a former secretary of state and presidential candidate, was at the hospital on Thursday night and was later seen leaving.
"He's up and about, joking and charming the hospital staff," Clinton spokesman Urena told Reuters on Thursday.
The Democrat served two terms in the White House from 1993 to 2001, overseeing strong economic growth while engaging in bruising political battles with his Republican opposition.
The Republican-controlled US House of Representatives impeached him in 1998 over his sexual relationship with White House intern Monica Lewinsky, but Clinton was acquitted by the Senate. He was only the second US president to be impeached; Donald Trump would later become the third when he was impeached twice during his term.
The former Arkansas governor was known as an exceptionally talented politician, combining a folksy charm with a deep knowledge of policy issues.
He defeated an incumbent president, Republican George H.W. Bush, in 1992 and then beat longtime Republican Senator Bob Dole in 1996.
CNN reported that Clinton, whose lives mostly in New York state, was in California for a private event for his foundation.
Since leaving office, he has become a cheerleader for his wife, who was elected to the US Senate from New York in 2000.
She unsuccessfully sought the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination and then won the party's nod in 2016, when she eventually lost to Trump despite winning the national popular vote.
- Reuters