MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Former president Kirchner leaves hospital and recovering satisfactorily

The Argentine leader left the hospital with wife Cristina

Former Argentine president left Los Arcos hospital Sunday a few minutes after 20:00 hours next to his wife President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner. A presidential press officer said the Argentine leader would be leaving at 23:00 hours given the “satisfactory evolution” of the emergency angioplasty he underwent Saturday night.

Spokesman Alfredo Scoccimarro said that Kirchner will slowly be “reincorporating himself and dealing with his usual weekly tasks.”

Several ministers, secretaries from the Executive Branch and lawmakers went to Los Arcos clinic in order to see how the ex president and current UNASUR head was doing.

Presidential Secretary Oscar Parrilli visited the ex president and told the press that he is “in a good mood” and “was very happy for Las Leonas' hockey match, but not so keen on the result of Racing Club's game.”

Parrilli also confirmed Kirchner “saw the surgery from a monitor, because the surgery was done with local anaesthesia”.

The vascular episode occurs only seven months after his partially obstructed right carotid demanded emergency surgery.

Saturday’s night surgery consisted in placing a stent in one of Kirchner’s coronary arteries. Earlier in the day there were rumours the former president had suffered a heart attack, since he was allegedly suffering strong “chest pains”. This however was discarded by the medical team who said that an eco-Doppler had shown the need to catheterise the arteries that irrigate the heart.

President Cristina Kirchner spent the night next to her husband while groups of militants camped outside the hospital waiting for news about the evolution of the patient.