Finance minister Joaquim Miranda Sarmento is in hospital today following a suspected TIA (transitory ischemic attack).
The 47-year-old is undergoing observation/ tests at Lisbon’s Santa Maria hospital – and further news bulletins on his state of health will follow.
Observador, for example, is already reporting that he is in good spirits.
But the implications of a TIA – at any age – point to a situation of high stress/ anxiety, which in this case almost certainly ‘goes with the territory’.
Experts called to explain TIA’s to news anchors have stressed that these are very different from ‘AVCs’ (or in English ‘cerebrovascular accidents’) and patients usually ‘completely recover from symptoms within less than an hour’. The problem is identifying what has prompted the TIA, and trying to control it.
In worse case scenarios, TIAs can herald full-blown strokes – and this will be what Miranda Sarmento’s doctors will be doing their best to ensure does not happen.
