WASHINGTON — President Bush made what is expected to be his final trip as commander in chief to Walter Reed Army Medical Center in northwest Washington on Monday, where he visited soldiers wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan and also had a personal medical appointment.
Bush, 62, had a magnetic-resonance imaging scan done on his left shoulder, which had been causing him pain. The White House physician determined that there was no serious injury and that only a cortisone shot was required, officials said.
Bush met with 13 patients at Walter Reed during the visit, and presented seven of them with Purple Hearts. He also met with the family of a patient who is staying in the hospital’s intensive-care unit, officials said.
“I oftentimes say being commander in chief of the military is the thing I’ll miss the most,” Bush told reporters after the visit.
“Coming here to Walter Reed is a reminder of why I’ll miss it.”
It was Bush’s 16th trip to Walter Reed. The hospital became a symbol of shoddy care and deplorable conditions after an investigative series was published in The Washington Post.
Bush, who has apologized for the problems, said Monday that “every time I come here, I get amazed at the quality of care, the professionalism and the courage of our troops.”
