The president of Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, underwent emergency surgery this Tuesday morning to drain a cranial hematoma. According to the Syrian-Lebanese Hospital, the head of state is well, conscious and under surveillance in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU).
Everything began to unfold at the end of Monday afternoon, when the president went to the Sirio-Lebanés, in Brasilia, complaining of severe headaches. Tests revealed bleeding, and the medical team decided to transfer him to São Paulo.
Lula boarded a Brazilian Air Force plane around 10:30 p.m. and was admitted to the São Paulo hospital around midnight. The operation, a craniotomy to drain a hematoma, began around 1:30 a.m. and was a success, according to the hospital.
“The president was transferred to the Syrian-Lebanese Hospital, São Paulo unit, where a craniotomy was performed to drain the hematoma. The operation was carried out without incident. At this moment, the president is well, under surveillance in a hospital bed. the ICU,” the hospital said. The doctors who treated the president will give a press conference in the afternoon.
The vice president, Geraldo Alckmin, took over Lula’s agenda and flew to Brasilia to hold meetings with the Prime Minister of Slovakia, Robert Fico, on an official visit to Brazil. Five events are planned, including a bilateral meeting, the signing of minutes, a statement to the press and a lunch.
According to ‘O Globo’, the Brazilian president had been suffering from headaches for a week, and it was a friend, businessman José Seripieri Filho, who at the end of Monday afternoon alerted the doctors that the president was behaving “strangely.”
On that Monday afternoon, Lula complained of a headache and drowsiness to the ministers he spoke with. His last appointment was a meeting with the presidents of the Chamber of Deputies, Arthur Lira, and the Senate, Rodrigo Pacheco. He was initially scheduled to undergo tests this Tuesday morning, but the pain brought forward his trip to the hospital. His wife, Rosângela da Silva, Janja, accompanied him at all times.
In October, The president had already suffered a fall in the bathroom at the Alvorada Palace, the presidential residence. He was treated and received stitches. The hemorrhage occurred almost two months later, everything indicates that it was a consequence of that domestic accident.
“I thought my brain had broken”the Brazilian president said at that time. “I fell where I should never have fallen. You see, I came home and sat down to cut my nails. I cut them, I filed them, sitting on a stool that I always sit on. And behind the stool that I was sitting on There was a mirror, drawers where things are stored and a large whirlpool bathtub, 1.5 meters high. I was sitting,” Lula described.
After that accident, the Brazilian president underwent periodic MRIs and took preventive medication. This Tuesday, the memory of that fall returned.