Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has recovered from a bowel obstruction for which he had to be hospitalized in Sao Paulo and will not undergo surgery, the hospital said on Tuesday, without setting a date for his discharge.
According to the latest bulletin published by the Vila Nova Star Hospital in the city of Sao Paulo (south-eastern Brazil), Mr. Bolsonaro “has evolved with good acceptance of the liquid diet that was offered to him during the day, which led to the withdrawal of the nasogastric tube “.
This is the same conservative treatment option chosen by the president’s doctors during his last hospitalization, for four days in July 2021, in the same hospital and for the same condition.
“The patient’s digestive tract is showing signs of recovery. No discharge is planned for the moment,” we can also read in the hospital bulletin.
This photo obtained from the official twitter account of Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro (@jairbolsonaro) shows the Brazilian head of state in his hospital bed in Sao Paulo, where he is being treated for a sub-intestinal obstruction on January 3. 2022. / Jair Bolsonaro’s official Twitter account / AFP
This establishment had announced Tuesday morning in a statement that “the sub-occlusive intestinal state” of the president – a partial obstruction of the transit – “is resolved” and that “a surgical intervention is not necessary”.
The decision not to operate was taken by surgeon Antonio Luiz Macedo, who interrupted his vacation in the Bahamas to examine the president at dawn on Tuesday.
Nine months before the presidential election, the 66-year-old head of state had to leave his vacation spot in the southern and seaside state of Santa Catarina overnight from Sunday to Monday to be transported to Sao Paulo and admitted at the Vila Nova Star Hospital.
– Photos on social networks –
Photos posted on social media to Jair Bolsonaro and his wife Michelle’s accounts show Dr Macedo, who has operated on the president in the past, giving him an abdominal palpation. Among the keywords: #faith # Jesus # president “.
In another photo, Bolsonaro is seen walking through the halls of the hospital, in black Bermuda shorts, and still equipped with a gastric tube and an intravenous drip.
Since the stabbing attack of which he was the victim in September 2018, in the midst of the presidential election campaign, Jair Bolsonaro has suffered a succession of abdominal alerts.
Stabbed in the intestine during a walkabout, he narrowly escaped death. The after-effects of this attack, which earned him four operations on his abdomen, have punctuated his mandate.
A digestive system surgeon quoted Tuesday by the daily O Globo estimated that Jair Bolsonaro, who wants to run for president in October, would probably be handicapped all his life by intestinal problems.
One of his sons, Senator Flavio Bolsonaro, lamented in an interview with the international channel CNN the lifelong consequences of the stabbing on his father. The shock is “not only physical, but also psychological. He has to give up a lot of things, he has a permanent dietary restriction, he has to maintain a certain routine,” he said.
But two tweets were published on the official account of the president, about the approval of a tax abatement for the importation of scientific material, a way of showing that he remains in control of the country despite his hospitalization.
Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro in Brasilia, December 9, 2021 / AFP / Archives
Jair Bolsonaro was criticized during the holiday season for staying at his vacation spot in Santa Catarina rather than going to the state of Bahia (northeast), stricken by floods.
In the end, it was his abdominal pain that made him cut his stay short.
The far-right president is entering his last year in office in a delicate position, with popularity ratings at an all-time low and polls showing him widely defeated in the October ballot by left-wing ex-president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva .
The economic context in Brazil is also worrying, with soaring inflation and not very optimistic growth forecasts for 2022.
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