Brazil’s president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, is expected to leave intensive care on Friday after doctors successfully carried out a followup operation to reduce the risk of bleeding following his unplanned brain surgery earlier this week.
The president’s personal doctor, the cardiologist Dr Roberto Kalil Filho, said that Lula was “awake and talking” after the procedure on Thursday morning, which involved sedation but did not require general anaesthesia.
Lula, 79, has been at the Sírio-Libanês hospital in São Paulo since undergoing emergency surgery on Tuesday to drain a brain haematoma, a delayed result of a fall in the bathroom of the official residence in Brasília on 19 October.
After Tuesday’s trepanation – a procedure in which a small hole was made in the skull to drain the bleeding – the president underwent a non-surgical procedure known as a middle meningeal artery embolisation on Thursday morning.
“Today’s procedure was to prevent further bleeding,” said the neurosurgeon Dr Marcos Stavale. “[The procedure] blocked blood flow to the site of the original bleed, so now there is maximum safety, and the risk of another bleed is statistically negligible,” he added.
Filho said the president was expected to leave the intensive care unit on Friday. He is expected to be discharged from hospital on Monday or Tuesday next week.
Lula’s medical team has repeatedly emphasised that the president’s cognitive abilities have not been affected. “He is cognitively fine and neurologically fit. He’s normal,” said neurologist Dr Rogério Tuma.
He added: “Lula is in very good health and capable of performing any civil activities … but the medical recommendation is for him to avoid physical and mental exertion. Therefore, the request is that he refrain from working, avoid stress, and not receive visitors while he remains in hospital,” said Tuma.
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