Bolsonaro released after 4 days in hospital for intestinal blockage

Sao Paulo, Jul 18 (EFE).- Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro was released from a Sao Paulo hospital on Sunday four days after being admitted for an intestinal blockage, medical sources announced.

The 66-year-old leader entered the Vila Nova Star hospital last Wednesday after being transported from a medical center in Brasilia, where he had been admitted with intense abdominal pain and a case of the hiccups.

The medical team treating him came to the conclusion that Bolsonaro might have to undergo surgery to deal with the intestinal blockage, but later they decided to adopt a more “conservative treatment” that – according to all indications – provided good results.

After recovering “satisfactorily,” Bolsonaro was released at 9:30 am on Sunday, according to the latest bulletin from the private hospital, and he was scheduled to return to the Brazilian capital the same afternoon.

“He (Bolsonaro) will continue to have outpatient monitoring by the attending medical team,” the report emphasized, although it did not say whether or not the obstruction had been completely removed or relieved.

Gastroenterological specialist Dr. Antonio Macedo told reporters that the president was released because his digestive system is functioning properly, but he warned that Bolsonaro “will have to take it easy in resuming his work routine.”

The ultrarightist leader left the hospital on his own two feet, accompanied by several aides.

“I’ll be back at work tomorrow (Monday),” he told reporters gathered at the site.

“I had to submit to a diet. I did what was necessary. I wanted to leave (the hospital) right from the first day, but they didn’t let me. I hope that in about 10 days I’ll be eating beef barbecue again,” he added.

Bolsonaro took advantage of the situation to criticize the Senate committee set up to investigate potential government omissions in handling the coronavirus pandemic and once again defended his former health minister, Gen. Eduardo Pazuello, whose management of the ministry was questioned by the investigative committee.

“Do they want to topple the government? I already said that only God will remove me from the presidential chair,” said Bolsonaro, who aspires to win a second term in the 2022 election, although former leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is currently the favorite, according to voter surveys.

In the past few years, Bolsonaro has undergone five operations, four of them as a consequence of the 2018 assassination attempt, when he was stabbed in the abdomen during a campaign rally in the town of Juiz de Fora, in southeastern Minas Gerais state.

The attacker was arrested immediately after the attack, but the judge overseeing the case found him to be mentally incompetent and thus unfit to be charged.