President George W. Bush traveled to Chicago over the Memorial Day weekend to have knee replacement surgery at the Rush University Medical Center's Midwest Orthapaedics.
The former president had outpatient surgery on Saturday, according to multiple sources familiar with the surgery, and stayed at the Peninsula Hotel on Michigan Avenue until he returned home to Dallas on Monday.
"The reports are correct that he had a successful partial knee replacement on Saturday," Bush's spokesman Freddy Ford said in a statement. "He returned to Dallas on Monday and is doing great."
His wife Laura and a Secret Service contingent stayed with him during the weekend surgical visit. Rather than stay at Rush Medical center, doctors visited the former president at his hotel.
It's not clear which of Bush's knees was replaced. In 2004, Time Magazine reported that the 43rd president had torn a meniscus in his knee, but which knee was never made clear.
The president gave up jogging because of the bad knee and started mountain biking in May 2004, according to reports.
Rush University is considered a leader in joint replacement surgery.
