Houston Doctors Give Updates on George H.W. Bush, Wife; Call Them ‘the Most Humble People’

HOUSTON (AP) — Former President George H.W. Bush and his wife Barbara have touched the medical staff at a Houston hospital with their humility.

One of their physicians, Dr. Amy Mynderse, told reporters that when she informed the 92-year-old former president she would be speaking at a news conference Monday, he replied: "About what?"

Bush has been in the hospital for more than a week being treated for pneumonia, and former first lady Barbara Bush was treated at the same facility for bronchitis.

Mynderse says Bush appeared incredulous that people would want to know about him.

She says: "They're so humble. They truly are the most humble people."

Bush was struggling to breathe when he was admitted to the hospital Jan. 14. Doctors diagnosed him with pneumonia and put him on a ventilator in the ICU to assist his breathing. The breathing tube was removed Friday.

Doctors say Bush is sitting up, laughing, joking and asking when he can go home from the Houston hospital that has been treating him for pneumonia for the past 10 days.

Dr. Mynderse says Bush will be moved Monday from the intensive care unit at the Houston Methodist Hospital where he was hooked up to a ventilator for several days last week. She called him "not your average 92-year-old."

91-year-old Barbara Bush was admitted to the Houston Methodist Hospital last Wednesday, just a matter of days after her husband.

The former first lady was discharged from the hospital Monday after undergoing treatment for bronchitis. A Bush family spokesman said Mrs. Bush was given the option of leaving the hospital Sunday, but that she opted to stay overnight to continue her recovery and be close to her husband.