Former US president Bill Clinton out of hospital after developing fever

LAST UPDATE | 20 hrs ago

FORMER US PRESIDENT Bill Clinton has been discharged from a Washington hospital, and will be home for Christmas after he was admitted the day before with a fever.

Clinton is being treated for the flu, Angel Urena, his deputy chief of staff, said in a statement about his release.

“He and his family are deeply grateful for the exceptional care provided by the team at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital and are touched by the kind messages and well wishes he received,” Mr Urena said.

“He sends his warmest wishes for a happy and healthy holiday season to all,” Urena said.

The 78-year-old was admitted to Georgetown University Medical Centre in the “afternoon for testing and observation”, Angel Urena, Clinton’s deputy chief of staff, said in a statement.

Clinton, a Democrat who served two terms as president from January 1993 until January 2001, addressed the Democratic National Convention in Chicago this summer and campaigned ahead of November’s election for the unsuccessful White House bid of Democratic vice president Kamala Harris.

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In the years since Clinton left the White House, he has faced some health scares.

In 2004, he underwent quadruple bypass surgery after experiencing prolonged chest pains and shortness of breath.

Clinton 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.

Clinton responded by embracing a largely vegan diet that saw him lose weight and report improved health.

In 2021, the former president was admitted to hospital for six days in California while being treated for an infection that was unrelated to Covid-19, when the pandemic was still near its height.

An aide to the former president said then that Clinton had a urological infection that spread to his bloodstream, but was on the mend and never went into septic shock, a potentially life-threatening condition.

The aide said Clinton was in an intensive care section of the hospital that time, but was not receiving ICU care.