The Brazilian president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, published a video on Instagram on Friday in which he is seen walking for the first time since he was rushed to a hospital this week, giving visual evidence of a delicate recovery.
The 79-year-old leftist leader, known simply as Lula, was subdued to two operations at the Sirio-Lebanes Hospital in Sao Paulo to relieve and prevent hemorrhages in the skull.
The latest health scare suffered by the veteran politician, now in his third non-consecutive term as president, has raised doubts among political analysts.with some arguing that succession plans within Lula’s Workers’ Party would be derailed if he is unable to run again in 2026.
On Thursday, the president’s spokesman shrugged over any concerns that health or age could thwart Lula’s expected re-election bid.
In the Instagram video, Lula appears with bandages on the top of his head and arm while he talks nonchalantly. with his wife Rosangela da Silva and the doctor Marcos Stavale, who directed the surgery.
The video was posted several hours after a medical note from the hospital said Lula was in “semi-intensive care,” adding that “He remains lucid, is eating normally and walked through the hallways.”
Doctors operated on Lula for about two hours on Tuesday to drain a hemorrhage between the brain and the meningeal membrane. which they said was related to a fall at their home at the end of October.
The president underwent a second intervention on Thursday, an embolization of the middle meningeal artery, aimed at minimizing the risk of new bleeding in the future. He subsequently had a drain removed from his head without complications.
