Former President Bill Clinton hospitalized, being treated for sepsis
(CNN/AP) — Former President Bill Clinton remains hospitalized after being in the University of California Irvine Medical Center’s intensive care unit for a non-COVID-related infection.
Clinton, 75, was admitted to the hospital Tuesday and received antibiotics for sepsis from a blood infection, his doctors told CNN’s Dr. Sanjay Gupta.
“He was admitted to the ICU for close monitoring and administered IV antibiotics and fluids. He remains at the hospital for continuous monitoring,” according to a joint statement Thursday evening from Dr. Alpesh Amin, chair of medicine at UC Irvine Medical Center, and Dr. Lisa Bardack, Clinton’s personal primary physician.
“After two days of treatment, his white blood cell count is trending down and he is responding to antibiotics well,” the doctors said, adding, “We hope to have him go home soon.”
Clinton spokesman Angel Urena said the former president is “on the mend” and “in good spirits.”
“On Tuesday evening, President Clinton was admitted to UCI Medical Center to receive treatment for a non-COVID-related infection. He is on the mend, in good spirits, and is incredibly thankful to the doctors, nurses, and staff providing him with excellent care,” Urena said.
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 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, mostly notably his wife, Hillary, during her failed 2008 bid for the presidential nomination. And in 2016, as his wife sought the White House as the Democratic nominee, Clinton — by then a grandfather and nearing 70 — returned to the campaign trail.
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, about 40 miles (64 km) southeast of Los Angeles.