Barbara Bush recovering from surgery

Former first lady Barbara Bush underwent open-heart surgery in Houston to replace an aortic valve that had begun to harden.

The surgeon who operated on Barbara
Bush said Thursday that the procedure was uneventful and that she awoke from
the anesthesia quickly.

{mosads}Dr. Gerald Lawrie of Houston Methodist
Hospital said at a news conference that Bush’s surgery lasted about two and a half hours. He also said that the
condition was “diagnosed in an early phase” but that it was “extremely severe.”

Lawrie reassured reporters that the procedure, which took
place Wednesday evening, went well, saying that “the surgery was quite
uneventful.”

Bush, 83, was up and walking fairly quickly after the
surgery, he said, and former President George H.W. Bush was able to see her
right after the surgery ended.

The former president, speaking at the news conference, teared up and said his wife looked “beautiful.”

President Bush also said he’d spoken with Presidents Obama, Carter, Clinton, and his son, George W. Bush.