Emergency brain surgery
President Lula has drainage removed from skull
12/13/2024 – 3:08 a.mReading time: 2 minutes
According to his doctors, Brazilian President Lula understood emergency surgery well. A drain had been removed from his head.
Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva had a drain unceremoniously removed from his skull on Thursday evening. This was communicated to his doctors in a letter after they had successfully completed the procedure. Lula, who underwent emergency surgery on Tuesday to stop bleeding in his skull, remains lucid and speaking normally, doctors at Sirio Lebanes Hospital in São Paulo wrote.
“The president is awake and can speak,” his doctor Roberto Kalil Filho told reporters. The operation lasted about an hour and was successful. The middle meningeal artery was closed.
The president's health had raised doubts as to whether he would run for re-election in 2026. However, Lula's spokesman confirmed on Thursday that the 79-year-old will throw his hat into the ring again in the next elections. He is expected to be released from the hospital early next week and then possibly resume his presidential activities.
Lula had to undergo emergency surgery there on Tuesday to stop bleeding in the brain. Lula, who has ruled Brazil since 2023 and previously served two terms between 2003 and 2010, fell in the bathroom on October 19 and injured the back of his head. According to doctors, he then complained of a headache. The cerebral hemorrhage was then discovered during an MRI scan.
After the accident, Lula canceled his participation in the Brics summit in Kazan, Russia. He therefore did not take part in the UN climate conference COP29 in Azerbaijan. Vice President Geraldo Alckmin has taken over Lula's duties.
Lula is one of the most colorful figures in Brazilian politics. Coming from a poor background in the north-east of the country, he moved to São Paulo at an early age, where he worked as a metal worker before pursuing a career as a trade unionist. In the 1970s, Lula led strikes against the then military government. After the country's transition to democracy, Lula co-founded the Workers' Party.
