Lula, Brazil’s President, Is in ICU After Emergency Brain Surgery

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of Brazil was in stable condition on Tuesday and recovering in an intensive care unit after emergency surgery to ease bleeding in his skull that doctors believe is connected to a fall he suffered at home in October, the doctors treating him said.

The surgery — to drain a hematoma, or pooling of blood — was “uneventful,” the doctors said, and Mr. Lula was in the intensive care unit at a hospital in São Paulo, where he will remain for the next 48 hours.

“The president is progressing well,” said Dr. Roberto Kalil, one of the doctors treating Mr. Lula. “He is now stable, talking normally, eating and will be under observation for the next few days.”

Mr. Lula, 79, went to Hospital Sírio-Libanês in Brasília, the country’s capital, on Monday night with a severe headache and flulike malaise, according to his medical team. An M.R.I. showed that he was suffering from an intracranial hemorrhage.

Mr. Lula was then transferred to a partner hospital in São Paulo for an operation that lasted about two hours, according to Dr. Kalil.

The surgery did not impact Mr. Lula’s brain functioning and left “no side effects, no change in movement, absolutely nothing,” Dr. Kalil said during a news conference on Tuesday.