MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Bolsonaro hospitalized – emergency surgery not ruled out yet

Bolsonaro started feeling bad after Sunday's lunch

Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro was rushed to a hospital in the early hours of Monday with severe abdominal pain, which appeared to be a relapse in his intestine condition stemming from a 2018 stab wound while campaigning for the presidency. It has not been ruled out new surgery might be required.

Bolsonaro, 66, was spending his holidays in the southern state of Santa Catarina when he was flown to the Vila Nova Star clinic in São Paulo, possibly affected by yet another intestinal obstruction.

The President's chief physician Antônio Luiz Macedo explained tests were to be carried out in order to determine the severity of the President's condition. Bolsonaro was already admitted in mid-July at that medical facility to be treated for an intestinal obstruction. On that occasion, he spent four days in the hospital.

Due to the stabbing he received in 2018, the far-right leader underwent at least four surgeries that made him more prone to intestinal disorders.

Bolsonaro explained on Twitter straight from the hospital that “I started to feel bad after lunch Sunday.”

“I arrived at the hospital at 3 am today. They put me in a nasogastric tube. More tests will be done for a possible surgery for internal obstruction in the abdominal region,” he went on.

Bolsonaro recalled this was the second hospitalization with the same symptoms, which have already led to four major surgeries.

Dr. Macedo was to arrive from Bahamas at 3 pm Monday. He too was on vacation on the Caribbean island when Bolsonaro was hospitalized after days in Santa Catarina, where he bathed in the sea with followers, rode a jet ski, ate at a pizzeria and even acted as a car driver after a themed show at the Beto Carrero amusement park.

These images of a head of state having fun contrasted with nearly 90,000 people in the state of Bahia were left homeless following unprecedented rains for this time of year.