Former president George H.W. Bush’s hospital stay has been extended for more than a month because he had a cough or needed to “build energy.” What’s the real story?
It isn’t always better to be famous. Doctors would almost never put an average patient in the hospital for a cough. Hospitals are not only ridiculously expensive and uncomfortable places; they are also exceedingly dangerous places. But if you are famous, the doctors can’t do enough for you, and in a world where medical treatment is the number one cause of death, that can lead to an earlier—not a later—death.
This isn’t anything new. George Washington died because one doctor after another wanted to have a hand in treating what seems to have been a common viral infection. Each of them decided to “bleed” him, which was established practice in the day. After so many bleedings, he seems to have died of blood loss. Doctors aren’t quite this crude today, but they have many more dangerous tools at their disposal and many more ways in which to be over-aggressive in their treatment.
President Bush has been in a hospital in Houston since November 23 for what was described as mild bronchitis. Since then he has had a “series of setbacks” according to a Bush spokesperson, Jim McGrath, with “a stubborn fever that won’t go away.” Currently he is in a “guarded condition” on a liquids-only diet.
The “stubborn fever” is a very likely indication that he developed an infection in the hospital—a not-uncommon occurrence. The CDC estimates that 1.7 million people contract hospital infections each year—with 100,000 of them dying—at a cost of $45 billion a year. The CDC’s estimate is a huge underrepresentation, because (as we reported in 2009) fully eighteen percent of Americans say they or a loved one have acquired a dangerous infection following a medical procedure. That’s more than 56 million people.
Outside of the CDC’s estimate, there are very few statistics (and very little transparency) regarding hospital care. There is no nationally mandated reporting; in fact, the reporting is often left to the discretion of the hospitals themselves.
Poisoning, primarily from FDA-approved drugs, kills more people than car accidents—and this is data does come from the hospitals!
How can Mr. Bush possibly “build up energy” in a mainstream hospital setting? Hospital food, overseen by Registered Dietitians, often consists of poor quality, highly processed foods that are high in sodium. Perhaps that’s why his doctors have him on a liquids-only diet, but the truth is that a synthetic liquid diet is sure to leave out key nutrients. We just don’t know enough to make a really nourishing artificial food.
And what about rest? How can anyone get any rest in a hospital with all the noise and bright lights and constant comings and goings? Melatonin is one of our immune system’s key components, but who can circulate any melatonin with the lights on all the time?
Want to get rid of a stubborn infection? Try some natural approaches instead: colloidal silver, the world’s oldest antibiotic; garlic, intravenous vitamin C, the herbs Cat’s Claw and Artemisia, and hyperbaric oxygen therapy all fight bacterial infections. Vitamin D has strong antiviral properties, and is critical to all our immune functions.
We wish President Bush the best but cannot be optimistic so long as he receives the “best” care a hospital can offer—which is actually some of the “worst” care on the planet.
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Amen! Please get this treatment information to Mr. Bush at all costs, if you can. I used heavy oil of oregano on a serious MRSA infection a few years ago and my body destroyed the infection within a week; meanwhile a few months before my infection, a neighbor with MRSA died receiving the “best” medical care at a local hospital!
Wow that is seriously good news you were able to do that. I am being serious when I say we need to have your recovery story out there for the medical establishment to look at. Please continue to promote your success fighting a serious illness with oregano oil ! As we will not get recommendations for treatment in this way from large government trails we need to cull all the dosage/recommendations we can on our own.
Thanks so much for sharing
The technology now exists that can completely sanitize any and all surfaces and areas on a continuing basis of operation. These need to become coded for all public then private facilities where germs breed. They can be incorporated into all infrastructure from hospitals to the ducting and piping of cruise ships, schools to all public buildings, malls and all facilities. They neutralize germs. Make it law make it now! Demand the best and get it and that includes separate cubicles in all medical facilities. Let us move all powers to redesign the entire civilization to a green healthy balanced infrastructure design to serve a healthy long lived and favored race. in a healthy planet wide environment. It is just, it is real vision; all lesser ways spells war, disease, pollution, and death! Choose life demand change for life for Planet Earth and all its citizens and creatures now!
Death of Andy Warhol.
Former President George H W Bush suffers from “vascular Parkinson’s” a very difficult disease to regulate without an infection.
I have had a similar bout with endless congestion and bronchitis for several months, (years)
After 6 weeks of antibiotics and feeling worse I realized the doctor was no healer.
What finally rid me of my illness was Shou Wu Chih.
Main ingredient Polygonum. A well revered Chinese herb.
Cleans the liver and kidney.
Past it on to the former President. It might save his life…
Precisely! I am on the same page when it comes to cleaning the bodies filtration system, ie liver, kidneys, galbladder. When those organs are struggling to filtrate then toxins build up in your body.
When this happens, disease happens. If you clean your house, auto, or any other filters because they get clogged then it stands to reason that our bodies are no different. Detox is a great place to start and something that should be done once a year.
Telling it the way it is—@ i hate to have to believe it.
I would never stay in a hospital unless I was basically going to die if I left. Doctors often want patients to stay so that they can “get some rest”. I worked for an elderly gentleman a number of years ago who had one such stay. I stayed with him during his first night there and was appalled. A new person came into his room nearly every hour throughout the night to check his vitals, throwing on the light and waking him at each visit. By 1 a.m. even I was tired and finally told them that the purpose of his stay was to get rest and not another person was allowed into the room. I said they should all get together, do their checks at once, and then leave him to sleep for the night. The person I admonished declared that wasn’t how things worked and left. Fortunately, the visits were less frequent for the rest of the night, but neither of got any rest…though I’m sure he was billed handsomely for the private room.
“natural’ foods and vitamins can kill just as dead as manufactured/artificial vitamins and foods, when mis-used and/or used in the wrong doses.
I tend to walk gingerly when adding / trying a new food or vitamin, and see how my body reacts. Not many of us have the knowledge or equipment necessary for intravenous feedings.
It still would be necessary to engage the services of a professional.
You must be one of those “professionals”. lol Since 2003 I have taken responsibility for my own health and well being. I stopped taking the drugs my doctors said I would die without. I did that. I would never tell somebody else to do that so let that be clear. When I make bad food choices, it shows, and I feel really bad. Drinking organic vinegar water and honey, drinking ceyanne tea, and eating nutrient rich foods is a good way to be well. I take a whole food multi-vitamin along with extra C and kosher D3. There is so much more I could do but my budget will not allow it. Several years ago, my doctor put me in a hospital for a 24 hour observation because I had pain for two weeks in my middle upper back. It was a nightmare. Just as Michael said, nurses were in my room every hour on the hour. I was so tired I could not wait until morning. I don’t eat pork and every meal was some kind of pork. The food was processed. No water was given. I had to beg for water. Dr. W tried to talk to me about taking a statin. During a follow up visit to talk about my 24 hour observation, he talked about me taking an ACE inhibitor. I never went back to him. And I avoid hospitals like the plague. lol
Apparently you don’t know enough about supplements, high quality supplements. They do have professionals, high quality and highly qualified alternative professionals.
Suzanne, You may want to do some research. Have you heard of liposomal vitamin C? My guess would be no, There are some of us that have more knowledge, than just a “professional”
False! No one has ever died of vitamins or nutrition or natural foods for as long as records have been kept! There are natural poisons and pathogens in the world that people can die of. But that is a completely different topic..
For an article on the “real story”, you have an article of suppositions on what Mr. Bushes real problems might be based on all of the negative aspects of hosptial treatment. It may be true that famous poeple get over-treated–no one wants be part of a headline about not taking an illness seriously. But really, this is a post about much you dislike about mainstream medicine, superimposed on the scant information all of us have on his health condition, with no attempt to hide an a bias against conventional medicine. Also there seems to be an assumption that all decisions and treatments are profit motivated. As a medical doctor, I see very little of that, and know no other doctors who act and think that way. I am interested in, and read some alternative medicine and nutritional information, but this assumption of profit motivated conspiracy in alternative practioners and researchers cuases some loss of credibility. I do agree that there is much we don’t know, and alot to know in research that has not not been put into common practice, but to superimpose frustrations in the system on Mr. Bushes was a stretch. LB
Dr Barrowes, to what then do you attribute Mr Bush’s conspicuously long hospital stay, if not a nosocomial infection? Granted, he went in for “little cough” and he is well past his three score and ten, but if he was admitted and then held for treatment for emphysema, tuberculosis, cancer, etc., I can see no reason for the media black out, aside from the Bush family’s lifelong links to spookdom and their propensity for secrecy.
There was nothing in this article that isn’t easily verifiable, the senior Bush’s true physical condition notwithstanding. There is a valid basis for a bias against orthodox medicine. That is not to say that there is not value in modern medicine. There is much. Its just mainstream medicine’s rejection, nay, suppression of any proven therapy which does not include obscene profits for pharmaceutical manufacturers, and the practitioners’ flat earth mentality toward nutrition and alternative therapies that drives the popularity of alternative health. It works for a great many people who have been disappointed by medicine’s failures.
Perhaps the next generations of med school graduates will see the value in an integrative and open minded approach to healing. Until such a time, ANH provides a valuable service to the public. I give them a pass for their infrequent “frustration” – and a big thank you for their efforts to bring about humane and sensible reform.
Poor H.W. Globalists don’t “take care of” their old apparacheks. Remember, HW was the first Bush quoted for “The New World Ordure” Buzz-words. –Imo, if he developed a Nosicomial/itrogenic-infection, he should consult an attorney, which might get him safely released, as the Hospital admin would hear of that. I felt they were trying to kill him, because I doubt that he got IV-Vitamin C, because his chronic-cough would have quickly wound-up, if he had, imho. I was thinking, maybe he’s exhausting his spouse Barbara, but then I remembered, they can afford all sorts of servants to cater to their every whim. His Secret Service should be more “pro-active”, for if he dies and they are released, their work could easily get harder with someone else, plus the Bushes are KNOWN as wonderful people to work for.
While mainstream healthcare is the number 1 killer in America the myth of doctors as gods prevails decades after doctors abandoned its oath for corporate policy of greed. The oldest among the population, like Bush, believe in this system. The recent death of Steve Jobs showed conservative views that highlighted his choce of alternative medicine as if mainstream medicine could have saved him. Until patients take responsibility for personal health mainstream medical practictiners will continue to bleed its patients of finances, health and welfare.
I am afraid that not only being a holistic health practitioner myself, but the mother of a doctor dedicated to his profession and serving others this blanket statement is erroneous and narrow minded. As a prior nurse I see mistakes on both sides of the isle. So unless there is a more tolerant conversation neither side will be accepted as the answer. Both the Allopathic and the Naturopathic have brought us wisdom, insight, science and healing. To accuse the allopathic of greed while The Drs Weils, Oz snd Furhman get a pass as they rake the money in is not helping the whole health profession or patients in general. When doctors have to go to school for so long, work long hours, get paid very little during those many years, while leaving them with enormous college and medical school loans, give me a break. I do not envy anybody making money, it is self defeating and keeps ones own finanances in the tank. As usual there are two sides of everyone’s story and though you are questioning why HW BUSH is still hospitialized – did you question Hilary Clinton’s hospitialization? And wonder what was the real health issue there ?
Yes, I completely agree with you. As you mentioned one does not get good, healthy nutritional food in a hospital…also, usually no exercise…and no fresh air! They’ve probably had him on constant antibiotics which will continue to erode any healthy bacteria in his digestive tract that he may have had to begin with…. So sad! Barbara…do him a favor and take him home and give him some good organic meat/bone broth!
the proper dose of IV vitamin C and the former president would have been out of there long ago.
The other night if believed I was on my last legs and would not survive it. I got up and made some ceyanne tea and got off the sugar and had a salad that evening. I am so afraid to even have to be in a hospital now that I’m 67 years old. Mainstream medicine is so corrupted by big pharma I feel like I have a snowball’s chance on the equator that I would ever walk out of a hospital today after an extended stay. I pray that they will give Mr. Bush better treatment and not intimidate him as they have tried to do for me. Two doctors sent me certified letters giving me 30 days to find another doctor because I had chosen to take an alternative approach to my health issues. I don’t trust doctors and I can’t afford a real doctor not that there are any in my area.
You said “fully eighteen percent of Americans say they or a loved one have acquired a dangerous infection following a medical procedure. That’s more than 56 million people.”
If the average person has 10 loved ones, that means 5.6 million. Also, it seems like that covers many years, say 10 years, which would mean 560,000 per year. Sorry, but I think this is a poor comparison.
The article about Mr. Bush’s health and extended stay is nothing more than a vehicle for someone to publish their negative opinion(s) about traditional medicine/hospitalization. Rules for posting on this site state there should be no using all ALL CAPS as it is considered ‘shouting’ but there is nothing mentioned about misleading the public by using a glaring headline to draw attention to an article that was lacking in facts but running over with supposition.
does anyone know his Vitamin D level?
I would bet the farm GHWB is not subject to the standard medical care. Only the best for a former President.
My intuitive sense was that Mr. Bush needs to be treated at home. And not to let him
go home at Christmas is unforgivable. It would be nice to contact him and his family to do the right thing and bring him home. I agree with everything in your article. I also realize that lawyers are advising behind the scenes about giving him the latest and greatest treatment or else someone will sue someone over his death. How sad, we wish him well.
This article makes some valid points about healthcare, but to say President Bush’s stubborn fever is “likely an indication” of a hospital infection without knowing is borderline unethical. The headline may be effective, but there are better ways to communicate your message than misleading the reader.
Hmmm.Either he has hospital acquired pneumonia or possibly a bowel obstruction, hence the “liquid diet”. Sounds like the hospital setting added to his list of ailments. No surprise given hospitals have the “best and strongest germs”. Thank God he’s home now. Avoid hospitalization at just about all costs if you can.
George Washington died of epiglottitis. Do some homework. He was also given all kinds of “natural” remedies prior to his death, which, with epiglottitis, may have added to the problem. The bleeding had no effect either way.
You, again, are fear-mongering. Why else would you say that we live in “a world where medical treatment is the number one cause of death”? That is inflammatory at best.
Now listen, I get that the moderator of this site isn’t going to approve what I’m typing, but at least he or she will see it…
the hospital is the worse place to be when u r sick, unless u hv been in an accident or need some necessary repair work, injury etc.
Why is this medical/big pharma swill still up if you find abusive, off-topic, personal attacks or otherwise discourteous and uncivil discourse offensive and in violation of your rules? I believe leveling a charge of “fear rmongering” falls in at least one of these categories.
You, along with other historians, suggest that Washington may well have died from the treatments he received whereas this writer, having been in attendance when Washington died, states with certainty that he died of “epiglottitis”. He then suggests that he observed (implied) Washington received several natural treatments which he wishes you to believe caused Washington’s death.
Really! Could we charge “idiot-mongering” and still be within the posting rules?