Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has been discharged from hospital after undergoing emergency surgery for a brain haemorrhage. said the doctors.
The 79-year-old appeared with his medical team at a news conference at São Paulo’s Sírio-Libanês Hospital.
“This is not an interview here, this is just a session to thank, first of all, to thank Allah, who took care of me in a very generous way,” he said.
Lola was taken to the hospital on Monday after complaining of severe headache.
Doctors performed a craniotomy on the president, a procedure in which a section of bone is surgically removed from the skull to treat bleeding and relieve pressure. The bone is then replaced.
The brain bleed, or intracranial hemorrhage, was caused by a head injury he suffered when he fell in his bathroom at the presidential residence in October, according to a statement from the hospital.
“Thank you so much for the prayers,” Lola added Sunday. “And for those who just hate, you’re forgiven. Here I am alive, whole and with more desire to work.”
Doctors said on Tuesday that the president’s condition is stable and conscious after the surgery.
They added that Lula was “happy” and was communicating with medical staff.
He also insisted that he had not suffered a brain injury and was not suffering from the after effects of the surgery.
Asked when he would return to the capital, doctors said they expected Lula to return to Brasilia “next week” if all went well.
While Lula was in the hospital, Vice President Geraldo Alcman fulfilled some of the president’s promises.
Doctors said the bleeding was the result of Lola’s fall in October.
He explained that it was not unusual for problems to appear “months later” from a head injury.
Lola slipped and hit the back of the head in the bathroom at Alvarada Palace on October 19. On Sunday, he explained that he was cutting his toenails at the time and sitting down.
He needed five stitches. On the advice of his doctors, the president canceled his planned visit to Russia for the BRICS summit.
He returned to full duty days later.
Lula has been in power since January last year, after defeating the incumbent, Jair Bolsonaro, in a bitterly fought election.
During the campaign, he often joked that he had the “energy of a 30-year-old”.
Additional reporting by Malo Curcino