Bush's mother leaves hospital after ulcer surgery

HOUSTON (Reuters) - Barbara Bush, mother of President George W. Bush, was released from a Houston hospital on Tuesday after having surgery for a perforated ulcer.

Bush, 83, underwent laparoscopic surgery on November 25 at Methodist Hospital after complaining of abdominal pain that she said was "worse than childbirth."

Mrs Bush, the wife of former President George H.W. Bush, is "in excellent condition" and on a liquid diet while she recovers, according to Pat Reardon, her surgeon.

During the procedure, surgeons cleaned her abdominal area, then patched and closed a 1 cm (3/8 inch) hole in her stomach caused by the ulcer. The ulcer was about the size of a dime.

Former President Bush and Reardon appeared at a brief news conference at the hospital, which Barbara Bush did not attend.

The former president said his wife, who he referred to as "the silver fox," was in "extraordinary agony" when she was admitted to hospital last week, and said doctors quickly decided to operate.

The former first couple plan to travel to the Camp David presidential retreat just outside Washington later this month to spend Christmas with President Bush and his wife, Laura.

(Reporting by Chris Baltimore; Editing by David Storey)