Brazil’s 79-year-old President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who is recovering from emergency surgery after suffering an intracranial hemorrhage, has a long history of health problems and accidents.
But just like politics, the hyperactive Left – which is halfway through its third term – has overcome every misfortune.
– Lost a finger –
In 1964, when Lula was a metalworker in a car parts factory, he lost the little finger on his left hand in a workplace accident.
Lula, who was 19 at the time, said that a press broke and when he tried to fix it, his finger was crushed.
Before entering politics he became a trade union leader.
– Fear of high blood pressure –
Lula was forced to cancel a trip to the World Economic Forum in Davos in January 2010 after being hospitalized with worryingly high blood pressure.
He was 64 years old at the time and nearing the end of his second term.
Doctors said he was suffering from stress and fatigue after a flu illness.
After a few hours he was discharged from the hospital and later quit smoking after fifty years.
– larynx cancer –
After leaving power in 2011, at the age of 66, he was diagnosed with laryngeal cancer and had to undergo chemotherapy and radiotherapy.
Doctors announced that he had made a full recovery the following year, although he was left with the hoarseness in his once booming voice that became a trademark on his expedition returns.
During the 2022 presidential race, which marked his spectacular return to power after a year and a half in prison on corruption charges, some of his opponents questioned his health due to his weak voice.
Three weeks after his re-election, he had surgery to remove a lesion from his vocal cords.
– hip replacement –
In September 2023, he underwent hip replacement to relieve pain that had been troubling him for over a year.
Lula suffers from osteoarthritis, or wear and tear of the cartilage that protects the joints.
The image-conscious President has since published videos of himself exercising at the Presidential Palace.
– bathroom fall –
On October 19, 2024, he fell in his bathroom and hit his head, which required stitches.
After that accident, he canceled his participation in a meeting of the BRICS block in Russia and worked from his official residence for several days.
– Bleeding in the head –
Doctors discovered intracranial hemorrhage related to the fall on Monday, for which the president underwent emergency surgery on the morning of December 10 in São Paulo.
His medical team assured that there was no brain damage.
Doctors said he would remain under observation in the intensive care unit for the next 48 hours and would remain hospitalized for the next week.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
