Former United States President Bill Clinton has been released from a California hospital after being treated for an infection that spread to his bloodstream.
Clinton walked out arm in arm with his wife and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton before greeting hospital staff and giving a thumbs up when asked how he was feeling.
Clinton had been referred last week to the intensive care unit at the University of California Irvine Medical Center for a urinary tract infection that spread to his bloodstream. The former president, who was in a good mood throughout his treatment, had been treated in the ICU for privacy and security, not because he needed intensive care, according to his doctors.
Clinton, 75, had felt fatigued Tuesday and was admitted to the hospital after the tests, according to his office. The former president was in California for a private foundation event, and Hillary Clinton went to the event Thursday night to “represent them both” and then went to the hospital to be with him, a Clinton spokesperson told GLM.
As of Saturday, Clinton “continued to make excellent progress,” according to her spokesperson Angel Ureña, staying in the hospital overnight to receive more intravenous antibiotics.
According to a source familiar with the situation, the type of antibiotic needed to treat Clinton’s type of infection had to be administered intravenously and not orally, so he remained in the hospital.
The former president’s doctors said urological infections are very common in older people and are easily treated, although they can quickly spread to the bloodstream.
The 42nd president of the United States has faced other health challenges in the past. He underwent quadruple bypass heart surgery in 2004 and had two stents inserted to open an artery in 2010.