Lula is shown walking for the first time since he had surgery

Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva posted 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, He underwent two operations at the Syrian-Lebanese Hospital in Sao Paulo to relieve and prevent hemorrhages in the skull.

In the Instagram video, Lula appears with small bandages on the top of his head and arm while he talks casually with his wife Rosangela da Silva and doctor Marcos Stavale, who conducted the surgery.

The video was released 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.”

He is expected to be discharged early next week.

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 in late 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. A drain was subsequently removed from his head without complications.

Towards mid-October, the Brazilian president reported that he hit his head in a fall that caused two small brain hemorrhages. Several planned official activities had to be cancelled.

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 cannot present again in 2026.

On Thursday, the president’s spokesman shrugged off any concerns that health or age could derail Lula’s expected re-election bid.

[Con información de Reuters]

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