Brazil’s Bolsonaro suffers memory loss after fall

‘I did not know, for instance, what I had done in the previous day… I slipped forward and fell on my back,’ he says

(SBT Jornalismo)

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro confirmed he briefly lost his memory after taking a fall at his presidential residence in Brasilia earlier this week.

The president’s office disclosed on Monday that Mr Bolsonaro, 64, was taken to hospital for a brain scan following the fall.

The scan detected no abnormalities and Mr Bolsonaro was discharged on Tuesday.

But he told the Band TV network on Tuesday night: “I had partial memory loss. This morning I managed to recover a lot of stuff.

“Now I am fine. I did not know, for instance, what I had done in the previous day… I slipped forward and fell on my back.”

Mr Bolsonaro has undergone four surgeries since September 2018 due to a knife attack he suffered during the election campaign.

Earlier this month, he told journalists he had been examined for skin cancer but a biopsy ruled out the disease.

The fall comes after Mr Bolsonaro accused the press of bias against him and his son Senator Flavio Bolsonaro, after allegations surfaced of the latter hiring employees with no duties during his time as state legislator.

Prosecutors are now investigating money laundering suspicions through these “phantom” workers, reported NBC News.

Mr Bolsonaro was elected on an anti-crime platform to address corruption among the political class and has been vocal about his displeasure regarding the accusations.

At a press conference last Friday, he complained about the media attention to the case, and said to one reporter: “Your face looks an awful lot like a homosexual’s, but that’s no reason to accuse you of being a homosexual.”