After bad hiccups, Bolsonaro may need intestinal surgery

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, who has suffered from a 10-day bout of unshakable hiccups, was admitted Wednesday to a hospital where he was being evaluated for possible emergency surgery to clear an intestinal obstruction, his office said.

Bolsonaro, 66, was admitted to the Armed Forces Hospital in Brasilia early in the morning and was feeling well, according to an initial statement that said doctors were examining his persistent hiccups.

But hours later, the presidents office said Dr. Antonio Luiz Macedo, the surgeon who operated on Bolsonaro after he was stabbed in the abdomen during the 2018 presidential campaign, decided to transfer him to Sao Paulo, where he will undergo additional tests to evaluate the need for an emergency surgery.

Bolsonaro posted on his official Twitter account a photo of himself lying on a hospital bed, eyes closed, several monitoring sensors stuck to his bare torso.

The 2018 stabbing caused intestinal damage and serious internal bleeding and the president has gone through several surgeries since, some unrelated to the attack.

In recent weeks, Bolsonaro has appeared to struggle with speaking on various occasions and said that he suffers from recurring hiccups.

“I apologize to everyone who is listening to me, because Ive been hiccupping for five days now,” Bolsonaro said in an interview with Radio Guaiba on July 7. He suggested that some medications prescribed after dental surgery might be the cause. “I have the hiccups 24 hours a day.

The following day, during his weekly Facebook Live session, Bolsonaro apologised again for not being able to express himself well due to the weeklong hiccups.

Bolsonaro has been under growing pressure from a congressional inquiry into his administrations handling of the coronavirus pandemic and alleged corruption in the acquisition of vaccines against COVID-19, and recent polls have indicated that he could lose in the next 2022 election.

On Tuesday night, in a 20-minute encounter with the president in Brasilia, supporters repeatedly asked him to look after his health.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by The Federal staff and is auto-published from a syndicated feed.)