RIO DE JANEIRO — 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 president’s 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.
Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has been admitted to hospital to investigate the cause of persistent hiccups, according to his government office | Read more: https://t.co/RyBJ0Se4OC pic.twitter.com/p5GLx8hVyU
— RTÉ News (@rtenews) July 14, 2021
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.
- Estaremos de volta em breve, se Deus quiser. O Brasil é nosso! ?? pic.twitter.com/3ohUwHBEHG
— Jair M. Bolsonaro (@jairbolsonaro) July 14, 2021
“I apologize to everyone who is listening to me, because I’ve 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 apologized 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 administration’s 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.
