Doctors in Brazil say President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva had a surgical procedure Thursday to treat bleeding in his brain – his second this week. The operation was successful, and he was recovering in a hospital’s intensive care unit – ICU.
Speaking to reporters at Sao Paulo's Sirio-Libanes Hospital, the president’s doctor, Roberto Kalil Filho, said the 79-year-old Lula was awake and speaking, following the early-morning procedure, which lasted about an hour.
Doctors performed a “middle meningeal artery embolization,” a minimally invasive treatment that blocks one or more blood vessels, in this case intended to reduce the risk of future bleeding.
They said he is expected to be moved from the ICU Friday and released from the hospital to resume normal activities next week.
Thursday’s procedure follows a two-hour “unscheduled” surgery Tuesday to drain bleeding between his brain and the meningeal membrane that surrounds it. Lula traveled from Brasilia, 1,000 kilometers south to Sao Paulo, in the early hours of Tuesday to be treated.
Doctors said the surgery was linked to an accident at the president ‘s official residence in October. Media reports said he was trimming his toenails in the bathroom October 19 when he fell and hit his head.
He was taken to the hospital, received five stitches and was discharged, but as a precaution, doctors barred him from traveling to a BRICS intergovernmental summit in Russia.
At the time of the accident, Dr. Filho told GloboNews TV the president’s fall caused “great” trauma to the back of his head, requiring stitches and resulting in a “small brain hemorrhage” in the temporal-frontal region. He said then that the injury would have to be monitored.
Some information for this report was provided by The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse.
