(CNN Español) –– The president of Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro, was hospitalized in the early hours of Monday for intestinal obstruction.
Bolsonaro suffers from an “intestinal subocclusion,” according to the Vila Nova Star hospital in Sao Paulo in a statement. This is the most recent medical problem linked to the 2018 incident in which Bolsonaro was stabbed in the election campaign.
Bolsonaro is “stable”
In a statement, the hospital indicated that the president is stable, undergoing treatment and will be reevaluated this morning by the team of Dr. Antônio Luiz de Vasconcellos. At the moment, it is not known when he will be discharged, the official note concluded.
Minutes after the news was known, Bolsonaro published a tweet in which he detailed that he began to feel bad “after Sunday lunch” and that he arrived at the hospital at 3:00 am this Monday. “I got a nasogastric tube. More tests will be done for possible surgery for internal obstruction in the abdominal region,” he wrote.
– I started to feel sick after Sunday lunch.
– I arrived at the hospital at 3:00 am today.
– They put me in a nasogastric tube.
– More tests will be done for possible surgery for internal obstruction in the abdominal region. 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 “that the president is fine and that more details will be released later,” according to a statement that he cited. Brazil Agency, state news outlet.
Bolsonaro arrived in São Paulo around 1:30 am, after leaving Forte Marechal Luz, in São Francisco do Sul, on the coast of Santa Catarina, where he spent the New Year, reported Agencia Brasil.
Bowel obstruction problems
President Bolsonaro had already been 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 the bag colostomy that was inserted after the stabbing.
“This is the second hospitalization with the same symptoms, the result of the stabbing (September 6, 2018) and four major surgeries,” Bolsonaro wrote in a second tweet. He also added that Macedo was traveling but would arrive at the hospital on Monday afternoon.
The political moment
Bolsonaro is preparing to run for reelection in October. But opinion polls show that his main rival, former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, has a dominant advantage.
The populist Bolsonaro has been harshly criticized for his handling of the pandemic, which has left Brazil as one of the worst affected countries in the world. The president has dismissed covid-19 as a “little flu” and has refused to get vaccinated.
The nation has suffered from slow vaccine distribution and staunch resistance to containment measures by the Bolsonaro government.