(CNN Spanish) – Brazil’s President, Jair Bolsonaro, was hospitalized in the early hours of Monday due to an intestinal blockage.
Bolsonaro suffers from “intestinal fusion,” Sao Paulo’s Villa Nova Star Hospital said in a statement. This is the latest medical issue linked to the 2018 incident in which Bolsonaro was stabbed in the election campaign.
Bolsonaro “stable”
The hospital indicated in a statement that the president is in a stable condition and is undergoing treatment and will be re-evaluated this morning by the team of Dr. Antonio Luis de Vasconcelos. The official memo concluded that it is currently unknown when he will be released.
Minutes after the news broke, Bolsonaro posted a tweet detailing that he was starting to feel bad “after Sunday lunch” and that he arrived at the hospital at 3:00 a.m. on Monday. “I got a nasogastric tube,” he wrote. “Further tests will be done for possible surgery for internal abdominal obstruction.”
– I started feeling sick after Sunday lunch.
– I arrived at the hospital at 3:00 this morning.
They put me in a nasogastric tube.
– Further investigations will be done for possible surgery for internal obstruction in the abdominal area. pic.twitter.com/NPgv6HwoHj– Jair M. Bolsonaro (@jairbolsonaro) January 3, 2022
For its part, the Communication Secretariat indicated that the hospitalization was due to abdominal discomfort, and added, “The president is fine and more details will be revealed later,” according to a statement transmitted. Brazil AgencyState news outlet.
Bolsonaro arrived in Sao Paulo around 1:30 a.m., after leaving Forte Marechal Luz, in São Francisco do Sul, on the Santa Catarina coast, where he has spent the new year, according to Agencia Brasil.
Intestinal obstruction problems
President Bolsonaro was already hospitalized in July 2021, when doctor Antonio Luiz Macedo found an intestinal obstruction. Macedo was the one who operated on Bolsonaro after he was stabbed in 2018. The president underwent surgery in January 2019 to remove a colon cyst that had been inserted after the stabbing.
“This is the second time he has been hospitalized with the same symptoms, as a result of a stabbing (September 6, 2018) and four major surgeries,” Bolsonaro wrote in a second tweet. He added that Macedo was traveling but would arrive at the hospital on Monday afternoon.
political moment
Bolsonaro is preparing to run for re-election in October. But polls show his main rival, former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, has a dominant advantage.
The populist Bolsonaro has come under fire for his handling of the pandemic, which has made Brazil one of the worst-affected countries in the world. The president has denied COVID-19, calling it a “little flu” and refusing to vaccinate it.
The nation has suffered from slow vaccine distribution and stiff resistance to containment measures by Bolsonaro’s government.