How is President Lula da Silva after second brain surgery in less than a week?

The doctors of the president of Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, said that the risk of a new intracranial hemorrhage is “minimal”, after the president underwent a second operation this Thursday in São Paulo.

The intervention, which had been planned since the cranial surgery was performed last Tuesday, lasted about an hour and managed to plug, by means of a catheter, an artery that irrigates the part of the meninge where the president had the hemorrhage.

The procedure, for which the 79-year-old president had to be anesthetized, was described as “preventive” and “relatively simple” and consisted of placing a type of gelatin to occlude the artery.

The operation, described by doctors as low risk, was performed using a catheter inserted through an incision in the leg.

Neurologist Rogério Tuma stated during a press conference at the Sirio-Lebanés hospital that, with this second intervention, the risk of a new hematoma “falls with each passing day” and that at this moment that probability is 5%.

When will Lula da Silva leave the hospital?

Lula, who remains in the ICU, must stop receiving intensive care on Friday and He is scheduled to return to the Planalto Palace in Brasilia between Monday and Tuesday of next week if everything continues as before, according to the doctors.

All in all, the president will have to spend a few weeks in “relative rest” and will “little by little” resume his normal activity, according to Dr. Roberto Kalil, Lula’s personal doctor.

The president was transferred on Monday night from Brasilia to São Paulo to undergo emergency surgery to drain the hematoma that was detected by doctors after the president felt severe headaches.

That first drainage operation was also considered a success and, a few hours later, the doctors reported that he was lucid and talking.

According to Roberto Kalil, the second “complementary” intervention carried out this Thursday was planned from the beginning, although it was not reported until Wednesday afternoon.

The bruise is the result of the fall that Lula suffered on October 19 in the Alvorada Palace, the president’s official residence, when he hit his head in the bathroom and had to receive five stitches in the back of his neck.