Bill Clinton was admitted two days ago to a Los Angeles hospital for treatment for a “non-Covid infection,” a spokesman said.
“On Tuesday night, former President Bill Clinton was admitted to the University of California, Irvine, a medical center for the treatment of a non-Covid infection,” Angel Ureña, a Clinton spokesman, said on Twitter.
“He is improving, in a good mood, and incredibly grateful to the doctors, nurses, and staff who gave him excellent care,” Ureña said.
CNN reported that Clinton, 75, was in the intensive care unit, mainly to give him privacy, and was not on a ventilator, according to doctors treating the former president at UCMI.
His condition is not related to his previous heart problems or Covid-19, CNN said.
A second statement by Clinton’s spokesman cited doctors Dr. Alpesh Amin and Dr. Lisa Bardack, who said the former president has been “given intravenous antibiotics and fluids.”
“After two days of treatment, her white blood cell count is dropping and she is responding well to antibiotics,” the doctors said. “The California-based medical team has been in constant communication with the President’s New York-based medical team, including his cardiologist. We hope he goes home soon. “
In the years since Clinton left the White House in 2001, the former president has faced health problems. 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 he had a pair of stents implanted in a coronary artery.
He responded by adopting a largely vegan diet that saw him lose weight and report better health.
He repeatedly returned to the stump, campaigning for Democratic candidates, most notably his wife, Hillary, during their failed 2008 bid for the presidential nomination.
And in 2016, when Hillary Clinton was running for the White House as a Democratic nominee, Bill Clinton, by then a grandfather and in his late 70s, returned to the election campaign.
A spokesperson for the Clinton Foundation said the former president was in the Los Angeles area for private events related to his charity. The UCI Medical Center is located in Orange County, about 40 miles southeast of Los Angeles.
Reuters and the Associated Press contributed to this report.