Bill Clinton released from hospital after urological infection

Former US President Bill Clinton was successfully treated for an infection and will head home to New York to continue his recovery.

Former President Bill Clinton had been in California for an event for his foundation prior to his hospital admission [Damian Dovarganes/AP]

Bill Clinton has been discharged from a southern California hospital where he was treated for a urological infection and will head home to New York to continue his recovery.

The former president left the University of California Irvine Medical Center about 8am on Sunday with Hillary Clinton on his arm. Dressed in jeans and a sports coat and wearing a face mask, he made his way out of the hospital slowly and stopped to shake hands with doctors and nurses lined up on the sidewalk.

He gave a thumbs-up when a reporter asked how he was feeling, and he and Hillary then boarded a black SUV. They departed in a motorcade escorted by the California Highway Patrol and headed to the airport.

Bill Clinton’s “fever and white blood cell count are normalised, and he will return home to New York to finish his course of antibiotics,” Dr Alpesh N Amin said in a statement shared on Twitter by a Clinton spokesman.

Clinton, 75, was admitted on Tuesday to the hospital southeast of Los Angeles with an infection unrelated to COVID-19. He plans to continue his recovery at his home in Chappaqua, New York, officials said.

He had been in California for an event for his foundation prior to his hospital admission.

Spokesman Angel Urena said on Saturday that Clinton would remain hospitalised one more night to receive further intravenous antibiotics. But all health indicators were “trending in the right direction”, Urena said.

“President Clinton has continued to make excellent progress over the past 24 hours,” Urena said.

Hillary has been with her husband at the hospital and was accompanied there on Saturday by her daughter Chelsea.

President Joe Biden said on Friday night he had spoken to Clinton, and the former president “sends his best”.

“He’s doing fine, he really is,” Biden said during remarks at the University of Connecticut.

An aide to the former president said Clinton had a urological infection that spread to his bloodstream, but he is on the mend and never went into septic shock, a potentially life-threatening condition.

The aide, who spoke to reporters at the hospital on the condition his name was not used, said Clinton was in an intensive care section of the hospital but was not receiving ICU care.

In the years since Clinton left the White House in 2001, the former president has faced health scares.

In 2004, he underwent quadruple bypass surgery after experiencing prolonged chest pains and shortness of breath. He 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.

He responded by embracing a largely vegan diet that saw him lose weight and report improved health.

The Democrat served two four-year terms, overseeing strong economic growth while engaging in bruising political battles with congressional Republicans.

He became the second US president to be impeached after the Republican-controlled House of Representatives impeached him in 1998 on charges arising from his sexual relationship with White House intern Monica Lewinsky, though he was acquitted by the Senate.

A former Arkansas governor, Clinton is known for combining a folksy charm with deep knowledge of policy issues. After his presidency, he and Hillary moved to New York, where she served as US senator before twice launching her own bids for the presidency.

Source: News Agencies