NATION : Sinus Ailment Grounds 1st Lady
Barbara Bush will not accompany President Bush on next week’s five-nation South America trip because of “a low-grade sinus infection,” the White House said today.
The President’s daughter, Dorothy LeBlond, will make the Dec. 2-8 journey to Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina, Chile and Venezuela in her mother’s place, spokesman Marlin Fitzwater said. The 65-year-old First Lady was at Bush’s side for the past two weeks during his travels through Europe and the Middle East--including spending Thanksgiving Day in the Saudi desert with American GIs--and to Mexico on Monday and Tuesday.
Press Secretary Anna Perez said the sinus infection, which Barbara Bush has been trying to shake off for two or three weeks, is “irritated by going up and down in airplanes.”
LeBlond, 31, is the youngest of the five Bush children and the only daughter. She works for a Washington hospital.
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