Arias Consults Doctors In U.S. on Throat Trouble

President Oscar Arias has a benign cyst on his vocal chords and must not speak for the next four weeks, said doctors at a private clinic in Philadelphia, where the president underwent medical exams this week.

If he does not feel better after a month, Arias will decide whether to undergo surgery, according to a Casa Presidencial press release.

The president will return to Costa Rica tomorrow after spending four days in the U.S. with his daughter, Silvia Eugenia Arias.

Presidency Minister Rodrigo Arias said the president had been unable to get an appointment at the clinic until September, but another patient canceled at the last minute.

The government did not pay for the trip or the exams, whose cost Arias would not reveal.

On May 12,Mauricio Buitrago, an ear, nose and throat specialist in Costa Rica, reported that Arias “suffers from an acute and severe problem with his vocal chords …

He must rest his voice for several weeks and receive intensive medical treatment.”