Nov 27 2008
Barbara Bush dealing with intensive care
Barbara Bush, 83 years old, was the former first lady who married George H. W. Bush in 1945 and is also a distant cousin of Franklin Pierce.
She was in the emergency room on Tuesday night complaining about a severe abdominal pain. According to Bush, the pain was worse than childbirth, and that was enough for her to know that she needed to see a doctor. After a diagnostic test, the doctors discovered that she had a perforated ulcer on her duodenum; it was approximately 1 centimeter. The cause of this perforation in Bush was the usage of the anti-inflammatory medication which is rare but not unheard of.
The doctors cleaned out all the contaminants that had leaked out of the intestine and sew the hole with a piece of the omentum. Bush was in intensive care until Wednesday and has to be hospitalized for at least one week. She was not allow to consume food orally and required the use of intravenous antibiotics.
Bush was very attentive and alert throughout the hospitalization, and the first thing she did as soon as she was able to talk was told a joke.
