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Ford Out of Hospital, ‘Doing Well’

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Times Staff Writer

Former President Ford returned home from the hospital Wednesday morning after a 12-day stay during which he was treated for pneumonia, his spokeswoman said.

“He is doing well,” Penny Circle, Ford’s chief of staff, said in a brief statement Wednesday.

Ford, 92, originally had been scheduled to leave Eisenhower Medical Center in Rancho Mirage on Jan. 19, but doctors kept him for additional treatment.

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“Obviously, we’re delighted that he’s doing well,” said Ford’s son, Mike, director of student development at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C.

Circle has described Ford during the last week as out of bed, reading the newspaper and eating well.

The 38th president was hospitalized briefly last month for a bad cold when undergoing routine medical tests. Ford suffered two small strokes in 2000 and a dizzy spell on a golf course in 2003.

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The former chief executive served in the White House from 1974 to 1977, taking the oath of office after President Nixon resigned during the Watergate scandal. Nixon had appointed Ford vice president in 1973 when Spiro T. Agnew resigned.

Ford has lived in Rancho Mirage with his wife, Betty, for nearly three decades.

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