Jordi Pujol improves and can now speak and eat, but the MRI shows an "injury"

A group of journalists stands guard in front of the Hospital de Sant Pau in Barcelona where Jordi Pujol is admitted.Marta Pérez (EFE)

The former president of the Generalitat, Jordi Pujol, who suffered a stroke last Monday and underwent surgery at the Hospital de Sant Pau, is progressing favorably, his clinical condition has improved, he can now speak and has begun to eat, although an MRI has confirmed a injury to the left temporal region of his brain.

According to the medical report issued this Thursday by the Sant Pau Hospital, the 92-year-old former Catalan president is still admitted to the Sant Pau Stroke Unit, where he will remain under observation all this week.

“The evolution in the last 24 hours is favorable and his clinical condition has improved.

He is conscious, can speak and has started eating food, ”explained the doctors who are treating him.

However, the brain MRI performed yesterday afternoon has confirmed a lesion in the left temporal region, an area that corresponds to the distal territory of the left middle cerebral artery, where the occlusion was located, which was treated last Monday by means of a endovascular treatment.

The hospital has reported that the former president of the Generalitat will remain hospitalized all this week for observation and to assess the evolution of his neurological status.

In that sense, in statements to Rac1, Albert Lleó, the doctor who supervises Pujol's evolution, has indicated that the MRI "shows an injury", although "that does not mean that there are sequelae, because each person recovers in a different way. different".

“It may take months and now it is premature to say what sequels will remain at the language level, because it will depend on the evolution”, pointed out Lleó, who explained that Pujol “is under the effect of sedative medication and does not have a sufficient state of alert that allows us to evaluate the detail of their cognitive and language level”.

The former Catalan president and leader of the extinct CiU was admitted to Sant Pau at five in the afternoon last Monday from Barcelona Hospital due to an acute obstruction in a cerebral artery, whose symptoms began with a language disorder.

Despite being 92 years old, the medical team, according to the

's family , agreed to subject him to an intervention to remove the thrombus, because he was "in good previous condition despite his age" and within eight hours from the start of symptoms, as explained by the neurologists who treat him at the Hospital de Sant Pau.

The medical team applied an endovascular treatment, which consisted of the mechanical extraction of the thrombus through the femoral artery, in an intervention that was successful.

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