SAO PAULO (AFP) – Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is “in perfect neurological condition” after surgery to relieve bleeding pressure on his brain and should be leaving intensive care, his medical team said.
A follow-up operation on Thursday to block blood flow to the affected area was a “success”, Lula’s doctor Roberto Kalil told a news conference at the Hospital Sirio-Libanes, where the 79-year-old president is being treated.
“He is doing very well,” neurosurgeon Marcos Stavale said.
The update came two days after the emergency surgery to drill through Lula’s skull to relieve pressure built up in protective intracranial membranes.
The injury was linked to a blow to the head Lula suffered in October, when he fell in a bathroom in his presidential residence.
Lula’s doctors stressed on Thursday that he was doing physically and mentally well, was awake and talking, and should be soon returning to his duties.
“If everything continues as it is, at the beginning of next week the president should be discharged” from the Sao Paulo hospital, and “he will gradually resume his normal activity”, Kalil said.
He added that, while Lula would be able to work, his convalescence would still require “relative rest over several weeks”.
The president’s “neurological examination is normal, he is very well”, though “he should not exert himself physically or mentally”, neurologist Rogerio Tuma added.
Early Thursday, doctors inserted a catheter in Lula’s femoral artery to block blood flow going through the middle meningeal artery in his head, to minimise the risk of a haemorrhage reoccurring.
Kalil described the procedure as “routine” and “minimally invasive”, carried out under sedation rather than anesthesia. The doctor said there were no signs of any complications, and the longer that lasted, the better for Lula’s prognosis.
“Every week, every month plays in favour of a patient who has had a brain haemorrhage,” he said.
A medical drain inserted on Tuesday for the haemorrhage was removed later on Thursday without incident, the hospital said in a public update. It added that Lula remained “lucid and engaged” and was receiving visits from family members.