Former President Bill Clinton hospitalized

IRVINE, Calif. — Former President Bill Clinton was hospitalized in California with a non-heart, non-COVID-19 issue, his spokesperson confirmed Thursday.

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Photos: Bill Clinton through the years Here are some memorable photos of former President Bill Clinton through the years. (Ira Wyman/Sygma via Getty Images)

Clinton, 75, who served as the nation’s 42nd president from 1993 to 2001, was admitted to the University of California Irvine Medical Center, CNN reported.

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He is “on the mend” and “in good spirits,” according to a statement from Clinton spokesperson Angel Urena, who said Clinton was admitted to the hospital on Tuesday.

Clinton was in Southern California to attend a private event for the nonprofit Clinton Foundation, the Los Angeles Times reported. When Clinton reported he was not feeling well, he was admitted to UC Irvine Medical Center on Tuesday. The former president had a urinary tract infection that turned into sepsis, the newspaper reported.

According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, sepsis is the body’s “extreme response” to an infection and is a life-threatening medical emergency. According to the CDC, sepsis occurs when an infection that is already present in the body. triggers a chain reaction throughout the body. Infections that lead to sepsis most often originate in the lung, urinary tract, skin, or gastrointestinal tract.

Clinton’s doctors, Alpesh Amin and Lisa Bardick, issued a joint statement Thursday that said Clinton was admitted to the hospital on Tuesday.

“President Clinton was taken to UC Irvine Medical Center and diagnosed with an infection,” the doctors wrote. “He was admitted to the hospital for close monitoring and administered IV antibiotics and fluids. He remains at the hospital for continuous monitoring.

“After two days of treatment, his white blood cell count is trending down and he is responding to antibiotics well. The California-based medical team has been in constant communication with the President’s New York-based medical team, including his cardiologist. We hope to have him go home soon.”

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was not in California when her husband was hospitalized, according to the Times. She flew to the state and attended the foundation event Thursday and then joined Bill Clinton at the hospital late Thursday, a person familiar with the former first lady’s schedule told the newspaper.

Bill Clinton has a history of health troubles, including high cholesterol and being overweight, the Times reported. He had a benign cyst removed from his chest in 1995 and a precancerous lesion removed from his nose the following year.

The former president also had successful quadruple coronary bypass surgery in 2004, the newspaper reported.

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