Brazil’s Lula to undergo new operation to ‘minimise’ cranial bleeding risk
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Doctors performed emergency surgery on Dec 10 on Mr Lula, to relieve pressure on his brain from bleeding linked to an October fall at the presidential residence.
PHOTO: AFP
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SAO PAULO - Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva will undergo another operation on Dec 12 to “minimise the risk of future bleeding” in an area under his skull that received emergency surgery this week, his doctor said.
The 79-year-old president’s doctor, Dr Roberto Kalil, told journalists on Dec 12 outside the Hospital Sirio-Libanes where Mr Lula is convalescing that the procedure was an “expected” follow-up to the surgery carried out on Dec 10.
The hospital said in a medical bulletin: “As part of his treatment, complementary to the surgery, an endovascular procedure (embolisation of the middle meningeal artery) will be carried out tomorrow morning.”
The facility added that Mr Lula was otherwise well.
On Dec 11, it said, he “carried out physiotherapy, walked and received family visits.”
Doctors performed emergency surgery on Dec 10 on Mr Lula to relieve pressure on his brain from bleeding in cranial membranes linked to a fall he had in October, in a bathroom at the presidential residence.
After complaining of a headache in Brasilia on Dec 9, an MRI scan found a hemorrhage between his brain and the dura mater membrane that protects it.
He was rushed to the Hospital Sirio-Libanes - the country’s top medical facility - where doctors carried out a trepanation, involving drilling through his skull to relieve pressure.
Earlier on Dec 11, the hospital said Mr Lula was alert and had “progressed well” since the surgery, “without incident.”
In a post-surgery news conference on Dec 10, his medical team said he had suffered no brain damage.
They said he would spend a couple of days in intensive care, under observation, and he was expected to be released from hospital next week.
After suffering his fall on Oct 19, Mr Lula told an official from his Workers’ Party that the accident had been “serious”.
In the weeks following, the president skipped planned overseas trips. But from mid-November he resumed his active schedule, hosting a G-20 summit in Rio and attending a Mercosur summit last week in Uruguay. AFP
