Doctors say 41st US president able to go home after treatment for blood infection that struck a day after wife Barbara’s funeral

The former US president George HW Bush has been allowed home after spending 13 days being treated for an infection that required his hospitalization a day after his wife’s funeral.

Jim McGrath, a spokesman for the 93-year-old Bush, tweeted that doctors at Houston Methodist hospital “report he is doing well” and that the former president was “happy to return home.”

The 41st president was admitted to the hospital on 22 April for treatment of an infection that spread to his blood. Bush spent some time in an intensive care unit before being moved to a regular patient room.

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Bush was hospitalized a day after he attended the funeral and burial of his 92-year-old wife, Barbara, who died on 17 April at their Houston home. Married for 73 years, the Bushes were the longest-married presidential couple in US history.

In a tweet sent out during his hospitalization, Bush thanked Houston for its “professionalism and obvious care” during the memorials and services for his wife.

McGrath had previously said Bush was eager to get well so he could get to his summer home in Kennebunkport, Maine. He also noted that while hospitalized, Bush had been more focused on the Houston Rockets playoff series against the Minnesota Timberwolves “than anything that landed him in the hospital”.

The Rockets won the series 4-1 on 25 April. Bush has long been a fixture at Houston sporting events and was frequently accompanied by his wife.

Bush has used a wheelchair and an electric scooter for mobility since developing a form of Parkinson’s disease and has needed hospital treatment several times in recent years for respiratory problems.

Few details were released about Bush’s most recent illness. But medical experts say that people in their 90s with Parkinson’s disease are often at higher risk of pneumonia and other infections because their swallowing process can be compromised. Experts also say that the stress of losing a loved one can weaken the immune system.