Brazil’s Lula is still under intensive care but making progress after surgery, doctors say

RIO DE JANEIRO -- Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva remains in intensive care in a Sao Paulo hospital but is getting better, doctors said in a statement on Wednesday.

The 79-year-old leader underwent an unplanned surgery for a brain bleed in the early hours of Tuesday, after suffering from complications resulting from a fall at home in October. Doctors told journalists after the operation that Lula would remain in intensive care for 48 hours.

Lula “progressed well in the immediate postoperative period, with no complications,” doctors from the Sirio-Libanes hospital said on Wednesday. “He is lucid, oriented, talking and spent the night well,” they said, adding that Lula remained hooked up to a surgical drain as he awaits further routine tests.

The day before doctors had said that there would be no aftereffects from the surgery and that Lula was expected to return to the capital, Brasilia, at the beginning of next week. Until then, they said, he would be unable to work.

Lula canceled a trip to Russia for a BRICS summit after the accident, his office said at the time. It left him with a visible cut on the back of his head, slightly above his neck.

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