President Miloš Zeman ended up in hospital on Tuesday night due to a broken arm and had to undergo surgery at the Central Military Hospital in Prague, according to Zeman’s spokesman, Jiří Ovčáček.
Ovčáček announced that the president broke his right arm during a fall and according to him, the injury does not endanger the president’s life.
The surgery, which was performed at night, went well. The president canceled his scheduled program due to the accident, and his September trip to South Moravia is also in danger of being canceled.
“It is a fracture of the humerus, which was fixed during the operation. How long he will be in the hospital and how long the convalescence will last will be decided later,” Ovčáček wrote to the Novinky.cz news outlet. The humerus connects the shoulder and the elbow.
According to the spokesman, the operation took approximately an hour and a half and was performed under general anesthesia.
“The operation was performed in a standard way, without any complications. The patient is now in postoperative care,“ said hospital spokeswoman Jitka Zinke.
Zeman broke his right arm on Tuesday night after falling.
“In the evening, the president watched television news and after the end, he did not use the support in the form of a stick nor the help of security, he tripped and broke his right arm,” Ovčáček described.
In a statement for the Czech News Agency, Ovčáček stated that Zeman refused any help and wanted to walk by himself.
“He said he could cross a distance on his own, which he should not have done,” the spokesman added.
The head of the state suffers from foot neuropathy and needs a stick or the support of one’s arm to walk.
At the beginning of September, the Castle planned a presidential visit to South Moravian Region as Zeman was to start the school year at an event at a secondary school in Rajhrad.
“We will solve that next week,” said Ovčáček, however, he is rather skeptical about making a three-day visit to the region.
“It’s not even a general state of health, but of course if you have a broken arm and it is fixed, it causes discomfort,” the spokesman said, adding that convalescence is now a priority.
Title image: In this Wednesday, Sept. 11, 2019 file photo, Czech Republic’s President Milos Zeman attends a press conference at the Serbia Palace in Belgrade, Serbia. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic, file)
