Barbara Bush Hospitalized For Respiratory Illness, Reportedly In Good Spirits

Barbara Bush has been hospitalized in Houston, Texas, with the 88-year-old former First Lady receiving treatment for an unspecified respiratory issue.

On Tuesday a spokesman for the Bush family noted that Barbara Bush was alert and doing well.

“She is in great spirits, has already received visits from her husband and family, and is receiving fantastic care,” a statement from spokesman Jim McGrath noted. “Updates will be issued when warranted.”

Barbara Bush was in the White House for four years while her husband, George H.W. Bush, served as the 41st president. He also served two terms as vice president under President Ronald Reagan.

In 1988, the same year her husband was elected president, Barbara Bush acknowledged that she had Graves’ disease, an autoimmune disease that affects the thyroid. She was hospitalized in 2010 for a recurrence of the disease.

Barbara was admitted to the very same hospital where exactly one year after her husband was moved out of the intensive care unit. George H.W. Bush was taken to Methodist Hospital in Houston on November 22, 2012, suffering a bronchitis-like cough. After more than a month he was taken out of intensive care on New Year’s Eve.

“The Bushes thank everyone for their prayers and good wishes,” McGrath said at the time.

While in the hospital, George H.W. Bush received visits from many family and friends. To lift his spirits, Babara Bush arranged for The Oak Ridge Boys to call the former president to sing Elvira and Amazing Grace.

Barbara Bush has had other hospital stays in the past few years. In 2008 she was admitted for abdominal pains and ended up undergoing surgery for a perforated ulcer. The following year doctors discovered a hardening in part of her aorta, and ordered Barbara to undergo heart surgery.