Ford ‘Doing Well’ in Hospital

Former President Gerald R. Ford was responding well to treatment for pneumonia Tuesday, his fourth day in the hospital near his desert home in Riverside County, his spokeswoman said.

Ford, 92, was admitted Saturday to Eisenhower Medical Center in Rancho Mirage. It is his second hospital stay in a month and a half.

The 38th president was “doing well,” according to a brief statement Tuesday from his chief of staff, Penny Circle.

Ford’s condition is evaluated daily; if he continues to improve he will probably return home Thursday, said Elizabeth Wholihan, spokeswoman for Eisenhower Medical Center.

Ford suffered two small strokes in 2000 and a dizzy spell on a golf course in 2003. Last month he was in the hospital for a bad cold and medical tests.

Ford served in the White House from 1974 to 1977, taking the oath of office after Richard M. Nixon resigned during the Watergate scandal. Nixon had named Ford vice president in 1973 after Vice President Spiro T. Agnew’s resignation. Before that, Ford represented Grand Rapids, Mich., for 25 years in Congress.

Ford has lived in the Coachella Valley with his wife, Betty, since leaving Washington in 1977.