(Adnkronos) – Jair Bolsonaro underwent a “phrenic nerve block procedure” on Saturday to treat his chronic hiccups. His wife Michelle Bolsonaro reported this on social media. The doctors who treated the former Brazilian president stated that the operation went well and that they had blocked the right phrenic nerve and scheduled a new intervention within 48 hours to block the left one. “It has been nine months of struggle and anguish, with daily setbacks,” his wife added.
In medical literature, the phrenic nerve is described as a vital nerve originating in the neck that controls the diaphragm, the main muscle of respiration. Bolsonaro, 70, had been hospitalized on Wednesday for hernia surgery. In September, he was sentenced to 27 years in prison by the Brazilian Supreme Court for planning a coup to overturn his 2022 electoral defeat. At the request of his defense lawyers, Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes authorized him to leave prison to undergo surgery. In a statement released while in hospital, Bolsonaro endorsed his son, Flavio Bolsonaro, for the 2026 presidential candidacy.
Once discharged from the hospital, Bolsonaro will return to serve his sentence in a federal police prison in the capital. Jair Bolsonaro has had health problems since he was stabbed in September 2018, during a presidential campaign event in the city of Juiz de Fora, in the state of Minas Gerais. After the stabbing, Bolsonaro underwent several surgeries in the abdominal region.
