{"id":373608,"date":"2025-12-28T18:58:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-28T18:58:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/373608\/"},"modified":"2025-12-28T18:58:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-28T18:58:09","slug":"brazils-ex-president-bolsonaro-undergoes-medical-treatment-for-hiccups","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/373608\/","title":{"rendered":"Brazil’s ex-President Bolsonaro undergoes medical treatment for hiccups"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brazil’s former president Jair Bolsonaro has received a medical procedure to treat his chronic hiccups, his medical team has said.<\/p>\n

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”.<\/p>\n

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 In\u00e1cio Lula da Silva.<\/p>\n

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

Ahead of the surgery, Bolsonaro also endorsed his son Fl\u00e1vio 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.<\/p>\n

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

“It’s been nine months of struggle and anguish with daily hiccups,” Bolsonaro’s wife, Michelle, said on Saturday.<\/p>\n

She explained in a social media post that her husband’s procedure had “blocked” one of his phrenic nerves.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

His doctors later confirmed they had treated the right phrenic nerve and had scheduled to work on the left nerve on Monday.<\/p>\n

Once discharged from hospital, the former president will return to a cell in the federal police headquarters to continue serving his sentence. <\/p>\n

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<\/a> after being deemed a “concrete flight risk”.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Brazil’s former president Jair Bolsonaro has received a medical procedure to treat his chronic hiccups, his medical team…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":373609,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":{"0":"post-373608","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373608","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=373608"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373608\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/373609"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=373608"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=373608"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=373608"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}