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Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro gets in a vehicle after attending Mass at a Catholic church in Brasilia, Brazil July 1, 2021. REUTERS\/Adriano Machado\/File Photo<\/p><\/div>\n
BRASILIA, July 14 (Reuters) – Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro was hospitalized on Wednesday to identify the cause of chronic hiccups, the president’s office said, in the latest health scare for the far-right leader who was stabbed in the gut on the campaign trail in 2018.<\/p>\n
Bolsonaro, 66, went to the military hospital in Brasilia and is expected to be under observation for 24 to 48 hours, although not necessarily in hospital, the statement said.<\/p>\n
“He is feeling good and doing well,” it said.<\/p>\n
Local media outlet G1 reported that Bolsonaro had been admitted for unspecified medical testing after feeling abdominal pains during the early hours of Wednesday.<\/p>\n
In a national address on social media last Thursday, Bolsonaro struggled to express himself at one point, and said he had been suffering from hiccups for a week.<\/p>\n
Bolsonaro’s health has been an issue during his presidency. He nearly died after being stabbed in the intestines on the campaign trail in 2018, resulting in multiple follow-up surgeries. Pro-Bolsonaro federal lawmaker Bia Kicis wrote on Twitter on Wednesday that Bolsonaro’s hospitalization was “a consequence of the 2018 knifing.”<\/p>\n
Newspaper O Globo reported that Ant\u00f4nio Luiz Macedo, the surgeon who operated on Bolsonaro in 2018, had been called to Brasilia to be with the president.<\/p>\n
Aside from the knifing, Bolsonaro caught COVID-19 in July last year, but recovered. In appearances over the last few months, he has also had a stubborn cough.<\/p>\n