Uruguay: former president José Mujica was hospitalized for a fish bone in the esophagus

Former Uruguayan President José “Pepe” Mujica was urgently hospitalized and will undergo an operation on Tuesday for remove a fish bone stuck in the esophagus, they said to AFP sources from the hospital where he is admitted.

“He intervened at 9 pm”, confirmed a medical source from Casmu, the private sanatorium he arrived at this afternoon.

The former president’s personal doctor, Raquel Pannone, told the newspaper The country What it is “a minor procedure”, but stressed that at 85, any intervention is potentially risky.

According to various media, the doctors first attempted to remove the spine without anesthesia, with an outpatient procedure, but given the impossibility of doing so, they opted for surgery. “It’s something simple and tomorrow he will be back homePannone insured.

Relatives of the 85-year-old former president say he is in good spirits.

His partner, Lucía Topolansky, had a dialogue with the newspaper The observer that the discomfort contracted on Monday during a meal and that she was surprised that it was a thorn as she is generally careful when preparing such a dish. “Yesterday he was eating and he could smell it, he was eating a boneless fish fillet. I review them but these things happen, “said former Uruguayan vice-president. And he added that then the medical recommendation over the phone was that he have a drink and wait until Tuesday morning to see how it plays out. “But when he got up, he was still in the same pain,” Topolansky explained.

Mujica, one of the main leaders of the left-wing Frente Amplio (FA) and who became president (2010-2015) being one of the most popular and at the same time the most resistant politicians in Uruguay due to his past as guerrillas, had a huge international projection.

His style away from protocols and his speeches on global platforms focused on unusual human values ​​in political parlance have made him a sought-after figure by media around the world.

In October 2020, he left his seat in the Senate, but he assured that this did not mean the abandonment of politics but that of the “first rank”. “I am grateful, with many memories and a deep nostalgia. The pandemic threw me out, ”he said at the time.

With information from AFP

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