Brazil’s Lula to undergo additional medical procedure after brain bleed emergency surgery

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is expected to undergo an additional medical procedure on Thursday as part of his treatment following the emergency surgery he had Tuesday to drain a bleed on his brain.

The president’s doctor, Roberto Kalil, told Reuters the procedure was considered a “complement” to Tuesday’s surgery.

“This involves a catheterization that targets the meninges artery. Why? Because when a hematoma is drained, there is a slight chance that the small arteries in the meninges could cause a minor bleed in the future,” Kalil said.

In previous comments soon after the surgery, Kalil had said it was “important to note that (Lula) did not sustain any brain injury. The hematoma, the bleeding, was not inside the brain; it was outside the brain and has been completely drained.”

Lula – who remains in the hospital’s intensive care unit – spent the “day well, without complications, underwent physiotherapy, walked and received visits from family,” the note released by the hospital says, adding that “the president remains under the accompaniment of the medical team.”

The 79-year-old Lula was operated on Monday due to a brain bleed linked to a fall in October.

The emergency surgery added to health concerns about the aging president, a standard-bearer of the Latin American left who is halfway through his third non-consecutive term.

Lula has curtailed travel in recent months while doctors monitored his recovery from trauma to the back of his head, sustained when he fell at his home in late October, requiring stitches.

Prior to the emergency surgery, Lula had complained of a worsening headache during a congressional event Monday evening in the capital, Brasilia, and was taken to a local hospital for examination, presidential spokesperson Paulo Pimenta said in a radio interview.

An MRI scan detected an intracranial hemorrhage, and Lula was flown to Sao Paulo soon after for the surgery, according to a medical note released by the government.