MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Tracheotomy performed on former Paraguayan President Lugo

Lugo remains a critical patient, Querey explained

Former Paraguayan President and current Senator Fernando Lugo had a tracheotomy performed on him late Tuesday after complications that led physicians to postpone the withdrawal of life-support paraphernalia.

Senator Jorge Querey, who is also Lugo's family doctor, told reporters the former head of state suffered pharyngeal bleeding that made the procedure appropriate while discharging him from the ICU was ill-advised.

Earlier Tuesday, doctors had started the removal of the equipment attached to Lugo's body, but pharyngeal bleeding halted the procedure and led to the performing of a tracheotomy instead.

”Last night (Tuesday) we had an event,“ Querey explained. The pharyngeal bleeding was ”not large, but the risk of airway occupation forced us to perform a tracheotomy,“ he added.

Each of these events makes doctors hold off the removal of life-support apparatuses, Querey also pointed out. He then underlined that the procedure is always subject to the patient's tolerance since it involves an active effort and complications may always arise. ”In critical patients, we always have this type of situation,“ he elaborated.

Lugo's medical team will now wait between 24 and 48 hours to restart the procedure and to determine his neurological condition. The former president remains a critical patient ”who this morning is stable with the supports, medication, and devices, having overcome an event yesterday.”

Lugo, a Senator for the leftist party Frente Guasu, suffered a cerebrovascular accident (CVA) while in his Congress office and had to be admitted to the Intensive Care Unit of the San Roque sanatorium. A few hours later he was transferred for further studies to the Migone Sanatorium in Asunción, where he underwent an endovascular intervention due to bleeding in the brain.

During his tenure as President (2008-2012), Lugo was diagnosed with lymphoma cancer but managed to overcome the disease.

“The bleeding was not great, but the risk of occupying the airway forced us to perform a tracheotomy,” said the doctor, who is also a senator for the Frente Guasu.

Lugo, 71, suffered the stroke on August 10 shortly after returning from Bogota where he had attended the inauguration of Gustavo Petro as President of Colombia.