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Brazil\u2019s former president Jair Bolsonaro<\/a> underwent \u201ca phrenic nerve block procedure\u201d on Saturday to treat his persistent hiccups, his wife, Michelle Bolsonaro, said on social media.<\/p>\n The doctors treating Bolsonaro said later that they blocked the right phrenic nerve and scheduled a new procedure in 48 hours to block the left one.<\/p>\n The phrenic nerve is described in medical literature as a vital nerve originating in the neck that controls the diaphragm, the primary muscle for breathing.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s been nine months of struggle and anguish with daily hiccups,\u201d Michelle Bolsonaro said.<\/p>\n Bolsonaro\u2019s doctors said the procedure went well.<\/p>\n Bolsonaro, 70, had been hospitalised on Wednesday for hernia surgery. In September, he was convicted and sentenced to 27 years in prison<\/a> by Brazil\u2019s supreme court for plotting a coup to overturn his 2022 election loss.<\/p>\n At the request of his defence lawyers, he was authorised by supreme court justice Alexandre de Moraes to leave prison for the surgery. In a statement issued while he was in the hospital, Bolsonaro endorsed the 2026 presidential bid of his son, Flavio Bolsonaro.<\/p>\n Once discharged from the hospital, Bolsonaro will return to serving his sentence at a federal police jail in the capital.<\/p>\n