Brazil’s President Lula ‘well’ after surgery for brain bleed

Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is doing “well” after undergoing surgery for a brain bleed, his doctors say.

The 79-year-old was taken to hospital in the capital, Brasília, on Monday after he had complained of a severe headache.

An MRI scan revealed the bleed and Lula was transferred to the renowned Sírio-Libanês hospital in São Paulo to have it drained.

The intracranial haemorrhage was caused by a blow to the head he sustained when he fell in his bathroom at the presidential residence in October, according to a hospital statement.

Doctors said they had performed a craniotomy on the president, a procedure in which part of the bone is surgically removed from the skull to treat the bleed and relieve the pressure. The bone is then replaced.

In a news conference on Tuesday morning local time, the doctors said that the president was in a stable condition following the surgery and was conscious.

They said Lula was “lucid” and conversing with medical staff.

They also insisted that he had not sustained any brain injury and was not experiencing and after-effects from the surgery.

Asked when he would return to the capital, doctors said that if everything went well, they expected Lula to be back in Brasilia “next week”.

Earlier, the presidential spokesman, Paulo Pimenta, had said that Lula would likely remain in the intensive care unit for another 48 hours.

“He is stable, conscious and calm,” Mr Pimenta said.

While Lula is in hospital, Vice-President Geraldo Alckmin will take on some of the president’s commitments, including welcoming Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, who is due to arrive in Brazil later today.

The doctors said the bleeding was a result of the fall Lula had sustained in October.

They explained that it was not unusual for problems from a blow to the head to appear “months later”.

Lula had slipped in the bathroom in the Alvorada Palace on 19 October and hit the back of his head.

He had to have five stitches and, on his doctors’ advice, cancelled his planned trip to Russia for a summit of the Brics countries.

He returned to full duties days later.

Lula has been in power since 1 January 2023 after narrowly beating the incumbent, Jair Bolsonaro, in a bitterly fought election.

During the election campaign, he often joked that he had “the energy of a 30-year-old”.