Argentine president recovering from surgery

(Vatican Radio) Argentina's President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner is recovering well after surgery to remove a blood clot lodged between her inner skull and brain.

Initially undiagnosed, a second visit to the hospital revealed the subdural hematoma – a blood clot that was producing severe headaches, an irregular heartbeat, and numbness in President Cristina Fernandez's left arm. This probably resulted from a fall she suffered in August.

A hole had to be drilled in her skull and the blood clot drained. Doctors and her spokesman say the operation went well and the President is making a good recovery. However that recuperation spell from this sort of operation can be three months, or more.
Vice President Amado Boudou has stepped in, and is in charge.

President Fernandez had to suspend her campaigning in the mid-term Congressional elections, which will determine her power base for the last two years of her current term. To change Argentina's Constitution to run for a third consecutive term would require a two-thirds majority of those legislators. This latest medical emergency could seriously hamper that political quest.

Last year President Fernandez had a thyroid gland removed, which proved non-cancerous.

Her husband, former President Nestor Kirchner, died of a heart attack in 2010.

Listen to James Blears' report: