DOCTORS treating Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva after surgery this week to stop a hemorrhage inside his head took him out of intensive care on Friday but kept him hospitalized.
Lula, 79, “remains in the Hospital Sirio-Libanes, in Sao Paulo, under semi-intensive care,” they said in a public medical update.
The update came after doctors performed emergency surgery on Tuesday to drill through Lula’s skull to relieve pressure built up because of bleeding in protective intracranial membranes.
The injury was linked to a blow to the head Lula suffered in October, when he fell in a bathroom in his presidential residence.
A presidency official explained Friday that Lula was in the same room as before, but the “semi-intensive” medical regime meant he had monitoring at regular intervals, instead of around-the-clock as when he was under intensive care.
The medical update said Lula “remains lucid and engaged, is eating normally and is taking walks in the corridors.”
The president’s medical team has previously stressed that Lula’s cognitive functions are “perfect” and he suffered no brain damage from the intracranial hemorrhage detected and operated on early this week.
He is expected to leave hospital early next week, and will be able to return to the capital Brasilia, the doctors have repeatedly said.
Despite the doctors restricting visits to family members only and saying the president needed to rest, Lula has been sporadically carrying out some of his duties while convalescing.
He has been speaking with officials and signing documents electronically, ministers said.
Lula’s vice president, Geraldo Alckmin, has been taking on some of the president’s workload but the presidency has not officially tapped him to assume full presidential duties.
The latest medical emergency adds to a list of health problems Lula has suffered over the years, including treatment in 2011 for throat cancer, and a hip replacement operation last year.
On Thursday, doctors performed a follow-up procedure to the surgery by inserting a catheter to block blood flow going through an artery to the area of his head operated on, to minimize the risk of a hemorrhage reoccurring.