HOUSTON – Former President George H.W. Bush was hospitalized Sunday and is being treated for sepsis, the life-threatening complication of an infection, according to a family spokesman.
Hours after smiling for a historic photo with former presidents George W. Bush, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, and Laura Bush, Hillary Clinton, Michelle Obama and First Lady Melania Trump, he was rushed to the Houston Methodist Hospital.
Jim McGrath, the post-White House spokesman for the Bush family, reported he is "responding to treatments and appears to be recovering" at the hospital's intensive care unit.
During his wife Barbara Bush's funeral Saturday, the widower was confined to a wheelchair, which he began to use after developing a form of Parkinson's disease. In 2015, he fell at home in Maine and broke a bone in his neck. He has also struggled with chronic bronchitis.
He wore socks that were embroidered with books to honor the former First Lady's passion for literacy. And after the service, he waited to greet hundreds of people at St. Martin's Episcopal Church in Houston.
"The stress of a losing a loved one can weaken the immune system," Dr. David Reuben, of UCLA medical school, told The Associated Press.
Bush -- who is set to turn 94 in June -- lost the love of his life. About three years after falling in love at a Christmas party in Greenwich, Conn., George and Barbara Bush wed Jan. 6, 1945. They were married for 73 years -- the longest presidential marriage in U.S. history.
CNN, ABC News and The Associated contributed to this developing story.
