Brazilian President Lula returned to his official residence in Brasilia on Sunday, two days after undergoing hip surgery, leaving the hospital earlier than expected after “good clinical progress,” the presidency said. Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, 77, “is at the Alvorada Palace,” the official residence, where he will continue his recovery, the presidential office said. The Syrian-Lebanese hospital in Brasilia, where the operation took place on Friday, confirmed in a medical bulletin that the head of state had left the facility “after presenting a good clinical development.”
Another bulletin earlier in the day said Lula “spent the night in a stable condition” and even “walked up and down stairs with the help of physical therapists.” He had already taken a few steps and started physical therapy on Saturday morning, the day after surgery. Shortly after that surgery, a total hip replacement, his doctors had initially planned to leave the hospital “Monday, Tuesday at the latest.”
“Lula’s reaction to the anesthesia was good”
The left-wing president, who began his third term in January, underwent surgery under general anesthesia to relieve pain that caused him pain more than a year ago and left him “in a bad mood.” After inserting the prosthesis, doctors took advantage of “Lula’s good response to anesthesia” to perform another procedure, cosmetic surgery, to correct the drooping eyelids.
Even though he returned earlier than expected, the former trade unionist must remain in Brasilia for at least four weeks, a forced break in his intensive travel schedule abroad. He plans to continue to “work normally” during his recovery. His personal doctor, Roberto Kalil Filho, assured on Friday that he had “the certainty” that his patient would be back on his feet in time to go to the UN climate change conference COP-28 in Dubai at the end of November.
An important meeting for the man who claims to be an environmental advocate and has promised to stop deforestation in the Amazon by 2030. Until then, he has to move around with a walker, but his personal photographer convinced him not to show him in front of the cameras so as not to show signs of weakness.