Bush visits Walter Reed patients, has MRI

WASHINGTON, Dec. 23 (UPI) -- U.S. President George Bush not only visited patients at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, he was a patient himself briefly.

White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe said Bush underwent a magnetic resonance imaging scan Monday at Walter Reed after noticing pain in his left shoulder, The Washington Post reported.

The MRI didn't indicate a serious injury and White House physician Dr. Richard Tubb gave Bush a cortisone shot to ease the pain, Johndroe said.

When asked how his shoulder was after his visit, Bush told reporters Monday it was in "good shape."

"It's about an 80-mile-per-hour fastball," he added jokingly.

It was Bush's 16th visit to the medical facility, which came under fire for shoddy care and deplorable conditions for soldiers recovering from injuries sustained in Iraq and Afghanistan revealed in a Post investigative series.

Bush visited with 13 patients, giving seven of them Purple Hearts.