Experts described the procedure as generally low risk and almost always having positive results. But the surgery involved drilling through the 60-year-old leader’s skull, and recovery can take months, worrying many Argentines who have struggled to imagine their country with anyone else at its center.
Hundreds of her supporters cheered and chanted at word she was recovering from the operation. Some had kept vigil through the night outside the Fundacion Favaloro, carrying signs, statues of Argentina’s virgin and messages such as “Fuerza Cristina,” urging her to show her strength.
The hospital was sealed off, and all inquiries were referred to presidential spokesman Alfredo Scoccimarro, who did not answer his phones.
Fernandez was diagnosed with “chronic subdural hematoma,” or fluid trapped between the skull and brain. This can happen when the tiny veins that connect the brain’s surface with its outermost covering, or dura, tear and leak blood. As people age, it can happen with a head injury so mild that they don’t remember it.