Brazil’s ex-President Bolsonaro undergoes medical treatment for hiccups

Brazil’s former president Jair Bolsonaro has received a medical procedure to treat his chronic hiccups, his medical team has said.

Saturday’s treatment “went well”, according to one of his doctors. Another, Claudio Birolini, added that the procedure – which he stressed was not a surgery – lasted for “about an hour”.

The far-right former leader is currently serving a 27-year sentence for plotting a coup after he lost the Latin American nation’s 2022 presidential election to left-wing opponent Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

This latest procedure comes after the 70-year-old successfully underwent surgery for a double hernia earlier this week, after being granted permission to be transferred to hospital.

Ahead of the surgery, Bolsonaro also endorsed his son Flávio to run against Lula in Brazil’s 2026 presidential election. His statement – a handwritten letter – was read out by the younger Bolsonaro outside the hospital.

Following the successful surgery, his medical team deemed it necessary to treat his recurrent hiccups, which he had been suffering from for months.

“It’s been nine months of struggle and anguish with daily hiccups,” Bolsonaro’s wife, Michelle, said on Saturday.

She explained in a social media post that her husband’s procedure had “blocked” one of his phrenic nerves.

The phrenic nerves contract and expand the diaphragm, which allows the lungs to inhale and exhale. Hiccups are caused by the involuntary spasming of the diaphragm, typically as a result of an irritated phrenic nerve.

His doctors later confirmed they had treated the right phrenic nerve and had scheduled to work on the left nerve on Monday.

Once discharged from hospital, the former president will return to a cell in the federal police headquarters to continue serving his sentence.

Bolsonaro was found guilty of the coup plot in September. He was placed under house arrest pending appeals, but was taken into police custody last month after being deemed a “concrete flight risk”.

Court officials said he had attempted to break his ankle monitor and planned to use a rally outside his house as cover for an escape attempt. Bolsonaro insisted he had no intention of fleeing.

Also on Saturday, Brazil’s Supreme Court ordered the house arrest of 10 officials for participating in his coup attempt. All of them had served in his government.