Brazil's Bolsonaro in semi-intensive care after abdominal surgery

SAO PAULO,

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro was in semi-intensive care in hospital Monday following abdominal surgery and was set to be stay in the hospital at least another week, his office said.

Concerns of potential infection meant the medical team wanted more time to monitor the far-right leader, 63, after the operation a week ago to remove a colostomy bag, the office said.

He was originally expected to be discharged on Wednesday or Thursday this week but now would not leave the hospital in Sao Paulo "before next Monday at the earliest," presidential spokesman Otavio do Rego Barros told a news conference.

Bolsonaro was stabbed by a mentally unstable lone assailant on September 6 while campaigning in a crowded street in the southeastern state of Minas Gerais.

MASSIVE BLEEDING

After emergency surgery in a local hospital to save his life and stop massive bleeding, he was forced to lay up for nearly a month -- but saw his popularity rise because of public sympathy and the way the attack played into his hardline law-and-order agenda.

Bolsonaro went on to easily win October elections and took office on January 1. He has vowed to crack down on crime and corruption in Latin America's biggest country.

The leader, who is continuing with official paperwork from his hospital bed, had a light fever late Sunday and "a notable alteration after certain laboratory tests," his doctors said in a medical bulletin.

RESTRICTIONS

They said he was being given a broad-spectrum antibiotic. A buildup of liquid was detected in the intestinal area where the colostomy bag had been removed, they said.
A tube had been put down his throat after nausea and vomiting, but the hospital insisted that there were no "post-operative complications."

Restrictions were placed on receiving visitors.

It was unclear to what extent Bolsonaro was still in charge of day-to-day operations of Latin America's biggest economy, which he has led since January 1.