MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Bolsonaro discharged from hospital, will still require outpatient care

“Only God will take me out of the presidential chair,” said the President upon leaving the hospital

Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro was discharged Sunday from the Vila Nova Star Hospital in São Paulo where he had been admitted four days before to treat an intestinal obstruction linked to the stab wound he sustained during an attack while campaigning for office.

The president's condition appeared more serious last week but in the end, there was no need for surgery.

According to the medical team headed by surgeon Antônio Luiz de Vasconcellos Macedo, Bolsonaro will continue receiving outpatient care. Macedo has already operated on Bolsonaro after the attack on September 6, 2018, when he was stabbed in Juiz de Fora.

“I came here with a 90% chance of surgery,” said the president on leaving the hospital. “Two days later, the possibility of surgery was ruled out. I wanted to leave from day one, but they wouldn't let me. In about ten days, I'll be eating a barbecue rib.”

“The President of the Republic, Jair Messias Bolsonaro, was discharged today from the Vila Nova Star Hospital; he had been hospitalized since Wednesday, July 14 to treat a picture of intestinal substruction,” a medical bulletin read.

“I had to go on a diet, I did what I had to do. I wanted to leave from day one, but they wouldn't let me. I hope that in about ten days I can be eating a rib steak,” the president told reporters.

Despite being hospitalized, Bolsonaro continued to be in charge of the Executive and very active on social media, posting photos and commenting on political issues, such as the investigation against his Government by a Senate commission (CPI) for alleged irregularities in the purchase of anti-coronavirus vaccines.

“The CPI is constantly accusing me of being corrupt. I did not buy, I did not pay,” he said in statements to the press for more than half an hour and without wearing a mask.

Bolsonaro also defended his former Minister of Health, General Eduardo Pazuello, whose management is harshly questioned by the Senate's investigative commission on the management of the pandemic.

“Do you want to overthrow the government? I already said that only God will take me out of the presidential chair,” said Bolsonaro, who longs for a second term in office for which he would need to beat former leftist President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who most pollsters view as a clear favourite.

Bolsonaro was hospitalized after suffering acute abdominal pain and a hiccup attack that had lasted for more than ten days. The president's health failure arises in a context of the erosion of his popularity and political tensions, with suspicions of corruption in contracts negotiated by his government to purchase vaccines to combat the coronavirus pandemic.