Brazilian Leader Lula Moves to Semi-Intensive Care After Brain Surgery
(Bloomberg) -- Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva left critical care and is now under semi-intensive care in a hospital in Sao Paulo, his doctors said Friday.
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According to the medical report, Lula is lucid, oriented, eating normally and was able to walk through the corridors of the medical center. On Thursday, doctors said the president should be discharged early next week.
Later on Friday Lula released on social media a video in which he is seen walking and talking to his wife and one of his doctors.
“I am firm and strong,” Lula said in the post’s text. “Walking through the corridors with Marcos Stavale, the neurosurgeon responsible for my procedure, talking a lot, eating well and soon ready to go home and continue working and caring for each Brazilian family.”
The 79-year-old leftist leader had emergency surgery on Tuesday after suffering headaches on Monday and being diagnosed with an intracranial hemorrhage. On Thursday morning, he underwent embolization of the meningeal artery, a process to stem bleeding. It was intended to prevent future intracranial bleeding related to complications from an accident he suffered in October, when he fell in the bathroom and hurt the back of his head.
Doctor Roberto Kalil told reporters in Sao Paulo on Thursday that Lula is in full decision-making capabilities and that his cognitive health is good.
Although the medical recommendation is that he doesn’t work while in the hospital, Lula has digitally signed documents and talked by phone to some advisers such as Vice President Geraldo Alckmin, Institutional Relations Minister Alexandre Padilha said in a press conference Thursday.
This week’s developments come at a challenging time for the leftist leader as his government tries to push public spending cuts through Congress
(Updated with Lula’s video and comments in the 3rd and 4th paragraphs.)
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