Brazil's ex-president Bolsonaro treated for hiccups

BRASILIA, Brazil: Former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro underwent a medical procedure Saturday to treat recurrent hiccups he has been dealing with for months, according to his medical team.

The 70-year-old ex-president, who is serving a 27-year prison sentence for an attempted coup, had been released from prison Wednesday to undergo surgery for a groin hernia at the DF Star Hospital in Brasilia.

That surgery was performed Thursday without incident, and Bolsonaro remained hospitalized for several days for evaluation.

During that time, Bolsonaro’s medical team determined it was necessary to perform an anesthetic block of the phrenic nerve — which controls the diaphragm — to treat his recurring hiccups.

Bolsonaro’s doctor, Claudio Birolini, told reporters on Thursday that the procedure involved locating the nerve using an ultrasound machine and then injecting it with a local analgesic.

The procedure on Saturday “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 Saturday, and a procedure to treat the left side of the nerve is set for Monday.

‘Months of struggle’

“My love just went to the surgical center to have his phrenic nerve blocked,” former first lady Michelle Bolsonaro wrote in an Instagram post Saturday.

“It’s been nine months of struggle and anguish with daily hiccups,” she added.

The far-right former president, who was in power from 2019 to 2022, has for years been dealing with the aftermath of an abdominal stab wound he suffered during a 2018 campaign rally, requiring several major surgeries.

In September, Brazil’s Supreme Court found Bolsonaro guilty of conspiring to stay in power after losing the 2022 election to leftist Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, and handed him a 27-year prison sentence.

The coup failed due to a lack of support from top military brass. 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 on Saturday also ordered house arrest for 10 officials from Bolsonaro’s administration who were involved in planning the coup plot, sought legal justification for it, or spread disinformation about it on social media.

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 on Friday after he allegedly tried to board a flight with false papers.