Brazil's Bolsonaro, stabbed in 2018, may need emergency surgery

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A presidential convoy with an ambulance transporting Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro leaves the armed forces hospital (HFA) in Brasilia, Brazil, July 14, 2021. /Reuters

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro was transferred to a Sao Paulo hospital on Wednesday to undergo tests for an obstructed intestine, with the president's office saying he could receive emergency surgery in his latest health complication from a 2018 stabbing.

The Vila Nova Star hospital in Sao Paulo, where Bolsonaro, 66, was transferred, said late on Wednesday that the president would remain hospitalized "initially under conservative management."

His son Flavio, speaking to radio station Jovem Pan, said Bolsonaro had been moved to an intensive care unit in Brasilia and intubated earlier in the day.

Shortly after news of his transfer to Sao Paulo, Bolsonaro posted a photo of himself smiling with his eyes closed and lying in a hospital bed covered in sensors and cables on his Facebook page.

"I thank everyone for their support and prayers," the president said in the post.

Bolsonaro went to the military hospital in Brasilia early on Wednesday, with his office initially saying it was to undergo tests for chronic hiccups.

But later, the president's office said Antonio Luiz Macedo, the surgeon who operated on Bolsonaro in 2018, had decided the president should go to Sao Paulo for additional tests to investigate an obstructed intestine and possible emergency surgery.

Fabio Faria, Brazil's communications minister, told a news conference that Bolsonaro had been sedated in the morning and would likely travel to the same hospital where Macedo had previously operated on him. He arrived at the Vila Nova Star hospital in Sao Paulo in the evening, television images showed.

Faria added that the president's schedule would be cleared for 48 hours.

Bolsonaro's son Flavio, in a separate interview with CNN Brasil, said a procedure to remove liquid from his father's stomach had been performed as a precaution. He added that if his father needed surgery, he had been assured it would not be a serious operation.

Source(s): Reuters