Former US President George W. Bush. AP FILE PHOTO
WASHINGTON — Former US President George W. Bush underwent surgery Tuesday to clear a blocked artery in his heart but plans to resume his normal schedule this week, his office said.
Doctors detected the problem during a routine check up on Monday on the 67-year-old ex-president and successfully implanted a device called a stent to unblock his artery in an operation carried out in Texas, the office said.
“President Bush is in high spirits, eager to return home tomorrow and resume his normal schedule on Thursday,” the office said in a statement.
Bush, the nation’s 43rd president as he served from 2001 to 2009, lives in Dallas.
Son of former president George H. W. Bush, his two terms in office were largely shaped by the September 11, 2001 suicide airliner attacks by al-Qaeda and their aftermath.
After leaving office and retiring to Dallas, he has for the most part kept out of public view and policy debates for the past five years.
There was no immediate comment from the White House on Bush’s surgery.
Campaigning for the presidency in 2008, President Barack Obama lashed out repeatedly at the war-torn legacy of the Bush years.
But Obama spoke kindly of Bush when the Bush presidential library opened in Dallas in April, praising what he called the Republican’s strength and determination in serving the country.