Silvio Berlusconi has been placed in intensive care following a heart operation. Italy’s former premier was admitted to hospital this month with a life-threatening condition.
Surgeons at San Raffaele hospital in Milan spent about four hours on Tuesday replacing Berlusconi’s faulty aortic valve, and he was then moved to the coronary care unit to recover. Hospital staff did not immediately give further detail of his condition or how long he would stay at San Raffaele.
The 79-year-old billionaire was admitted on 5 June on the advice of his doctor, Alberto Zangrillo, who is also San Raffaele’s leading anaesthetist. Before the operation, Zangrillo said his patient “risked dying” and did not want to believe the news of his ailing health.
Berlusconi appeared upbeat before the operation, saying he was concerned but grateful to his supporters. “Naturally I am worried. But I have been really comforted by such a display of respect, support and affection which I have received from each part, including from so-called political enemies,” he wrote on Facebook.
The operation was led by Ottavio Alfieri, the hospital’s top cardiologist, with Zangrillo in attendance.
Berlusconi’s brother, Paolo, arrived at the hospital on Tuesday morning, and the politician’s 30-year-old fiancee, Francesca Pascale, was seen wiping her eyes at one of the building’s windows.
A few supporters waited outside San Raffaele, including a Neapolitan man who reportedly spent the night there bearing a banner and a flag of Berlusconi’s Forza Italia party. Italian media reported that another fan carried a sign reading “President, thanks for being you”.
Berlusconi’s influence in Italy has waned in recent years following a string of legal troubles. The media mogul was banned from holding political office after a tax fraud conviction in 2013, and served a community service in a retirement home.
While the financial crime was Berlusconi’s only definitive conviction, greater damage to his reputation came from the “bunga bunga” scandal in which he was accused of having sex with an underage prostitute during orgies at his Milan mansion.
