Brazil’s imprisoned ex-president Jair Bolsonaro receives nerve block treatment for nine-month hiccup issue while hospitalised for hernia surgery
FORMER Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro underwent a medical procedure to treat recurrent hiccups he has been dealing with for months.
The 70-year-old ex-president, who is serving a 27-year prison sentence for an attempted coup, had been released from prison to undergo surgery for a groin hernia at the DF Star Hospital.
That surgery was performed without incident, and Bolsonaro remained hospitalised for evaluation.
During that time, his medical team determined it was necessary to perform an anesthetic block of the phrenic nerve to treat his recurring hiccups.
Bolsonaro’s doctor, Claudio Birolini, told reporters that the procedure involved locating the nerve using an ultrasound machine and then injecting it with a local analgesic.
The procedure “went well,” according to another of the doctors, Mateus Saldanha.
Birolini said the process took about an hour, adding that “it’s not surgery…it does not involve any incisions.”
The right side of the nerve was treated, and a procedure to treat the left side is set for Monday.
“My love just went to the surgical center to have his phrenic nerve blocked,” former first lady Michelle Bolsonaro wrote in an Instagram post.
“It’s been nine months of struggle and anguish with daily hiccups,” she added.
The far-right former president has for years been dealing with the aftermath of an abdominal stab wound he suffered during a 2018 campaign rally.
In September, Brazil’s Supreme Court found Bolsonaro guilty of conspiring to stay in power after losing the 2022 election, and handed him a 27-year prison sentence.
The far-right ex-president has claimed his innocence, claiming he was being persecuted by the Supreme Court.
Bolsonaro was under house arrest from August until his imprisonment on November 22.
Once discharged from the hospital, Bolsonaro will return to serving his sentence at a federal police jail in the capital.
Brazil’s Supreme Court also ordered house arrest for 10 officials from Bolsonaro’s administration who were involved in planning the coup plot.
The 10 officials had been convicted but were out of prison due to pending appeals.
One of the officials, Silvinei Vasques, was detained in Paraguay after he allegedly tried to board a flight with false papers.
