Former Paraguay president Lugo in induced coma after stroke
Asunción, Aug 10 (EFE).- Former Paraguayan president Fernando Lugo was in an induced coma after suffering a stroke in Asunción on Wednesday, said fellow legislator and doctor Jorge Querey.
Lugo, a current senator aged 71, was rushed from his Senate office to hospital.
Querey, of the leftist Frente Guasu coalition to which Lugo belongs and who is overseeing much of his care, told reporters that the former president was admitted due to an “ischemic cerebrovascular accident.”
The senator and doctor said that initial tests indicated that the former president had a seizure and suffered a “relatively small” lesion.
The episode took place Wednesday after he experienced “very minor symptoms” during a weekend trip to Colombia for the inauguration of Gustavo Petro.
After further tests were carried out on Wednesday afternoon, Querey told journalists that Lugo, who is connected to mechanical ventilation, had cerebral bleeding that “has increased – in a small amount, but it has increased.”
“So that requires aggressive intervention before [it becomes] significant life-threatening bleeding,” he said.
Querey said that Lugo was taking drugs for hypertension and had previous health problems.
In 2010 the former president was diagnosed with lymphoma cancer, for which he received treatment in Brazil and was declared to be in remission in 2012.
The former Catholic bishop’s presidency ended in June 2012 when he was impeached by the Senate.
His supporters on Wednesday called for a vigil in front of the hospital where he is kept in a coma in order to “adequately oxygenate” his brain. EFE
lbs/tw
