In the president’s case, doctors initially prescribed a month’s rest, because in some cases the fluid can be absorbed without intervention, but they decided on surgery after she complained of numbness and weakness in her upper left arm, in addition to the headaches and irregular heartbeats she has been suffering.
While messages of sympathy poured in, critics questioned the secrecy surrounding her health. Her condition was announced in a three-paragraph statement late Saturday after she spent more than nine hours in the hospital. It said she suffered a “traumatismo cranial” on Aug. 12, but gave no details on how this injury happened.
August 11 was a rough day for the president. Despite her intensive campaigning, primary election results that night showed a significant drop in support for her party’s candidates ahead of the Oct. 27 congressional elections.
Fernandez, who followed her highly popular husband into the presidency, has come to dominate Argentine politics after nearly six years in office, and now she’ll be off the campaign trail just three weeks before voting day.
Vice President Amado Boudou was put in charge during her surgery, but there was no official announcement of the handover of power, nor were any documents released formalizing Boudou’s new role, but government websites eventually began describing him as “the vice president in charge of the executive branch.”