BRAZIL – Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva was recovering in an intensive care unit on Tuesday, doctors said, after being rushed to a Sao Paulo hospital for emergency surgery to drain a bleed on his brain linked to a fall in October. The 79-year-old Lula was in stable condition and speaking and eating normally after the successful operation at Sirio Libanes Hospital, doctors said at a press conference.

The bleeding that Lula experienced occurred between his brain and meningeal membrane, said the doctors, who ruled out any injury to the brain or neurological complications. Lula, who was in surgery for about two hours, is expected to remain in intensive care for 48 hours and return to the capital Brasilia early next week “if everything goes well,” his doctor, Roberto Kalil Filho, told reporters.

The emergency surgery added to health concerns about the aging president, a standard bearer of the Latin American left who is halfway through his third non-consecutive term. Weak results for his Workers Party in this year’s municipal elections underscored the lack of a clear leftist successor if he chooses not to run for reelection in 2026. Lula has curtailed travel in recent months while doctors monitored his recovery from trauma to the back of his head when he fell at his home in late October, requiring stitches. He complained of a worsening headache during talks with congressional leaders on Monday evening in Brasilia, and was taken to a local hospital for exams, presidential spokesperson Paulo Pimenta said in a radio interview. An MRI scan detected an intracranial hemorrhage, and Lula was flown soon after to Sao Paulo for the surgery, according to a medical note released by the government. Vice President Geraldo Alckmin canceled plans in Sao Paulo on Tuesday to return to Brasilia, his aide said, where he will assume Lula’s agenda, including a visit from Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico. Pimenta said Lula may not need to formally transfer the powers of the presidency to Alckmin. (CNN)

Photo: Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, pictured in Brussels. (Getty images)