Former President Bill Clinton is headed home from the hospital Tuesday with the flu, according to a spokesperson.
He was was admitted Monday to MedStar Georgetown University Hospital in Washington after developing a fever.
“President Clinton was discharged earlier today after being treated for the flu. He and his family are deeply grateful for the exceptional care provided by the team at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital and are touched by the kind messages and well wishes he received,” Angel Ureña, Clinton’s deputy chief of staff, said in a statement.
“He sends his warmest wishes for a happy and healthy holiday season to all.”
The 78-year-old was hospitalized Monday afternoon for “testing and observation,” Ureña said at the time, noting “He remains in good spirits and deeply appreciates the excellent care he is receiving.”
Clinton, a Democrat who served two terms as president from January 1993 until January 2001, addressed the Democratic National Convention in Chicago this summer, and campaigned ahead of November’s election for the unsuccessful White House bid of Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris.
In the years since Clinton left the White House, he’s faced some health scares.
In 2004, he underwent quadruple bypass surgery after experiencing prolonged chest pains and shortness of breath. Clinton 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.
Clinton responded by embracing a largely vegan diet that saw him lose weight and report improved health.
In 2021, the former president was hospitalized for six days in California while being treated for an infection that was unrelated to COVID-19, when the pandemic was still near its height.
An aide to the former president said then that Clinton had a urological infection that spread to his bloodstream, but was on the mend and never went into septic shock, a potentially life-threatening condition. The aide said Clinton was in an intensive care section of the hospital that time, but wasn’t receiving ICU care.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Former President Bill Clinton recently stepped into a McDonald’s and was briefly mistaken for another president.
