“He’ll pull through, I’m sure,” he said, wearing a green-and-yellow striped shirt in Brazil’s colors, and a cap with Bolsonaro’s picture on it.
The far-right former leader had said Saturday on X that his latest problem was “a consequence of the multiple surgeries I needed to undergo after the attack in 2018.”
Bolsonaro was flown to Brasilia aboard a medical plane from the northeastern city of Natal, where he was hospitalized Friday during a tour of the surrounding Rio Grande do Norte state — an impoverished region and historically a leftist stronghold.
‘Delicate’ operation
Doctors in Natal initially said surgery was not necessary.
But on Sunday, the hospital in Brasilia said that “new tests revealed the persistence of the intestinal blockage despite the clinical treatment initially adopted.”
“That is why the medical teams opted, by common agreement, for the surgical intervention,” it said.
The former army captain was stabbed in 2018 while wading through a crowd of supporters by a man later found to be mentally ill.
Bolsonaro was elected president just weeks later.
The stabbing has taken a lasting toll, however, leading to repeated hospitalizations and surgeries.
Bolsonaro said Saturday on X that his doctors told him the latest setback was “the most serious situation since the attack that nearly cost my life.”
“Even the doctors were surprised” by the gravity of the matter, he added.
Intestinal adhesions are bands of scar tissue that form between the intestines and the abdominal wall.
“These operations are delicate because you need to have the patience to undo each adhesion,” Camila Beltrao, a surgeon specializing in digestive tract operations, told AFP.
Supreme Court case
Two weeks ago, the country’s Supreme Court decided to open a case against Bolsonaro.