Pope Francis not out of danger but expected to live, medical team says

ROME - Pope Francis, who is being treated in hospital for double pneumonia, is not yet out of danger but is expected to live, one of his doctors said on Feb 21.

The pontiff is being treated at Rome’s Gemelli Hospital, where he was admitted on Feb 14 after struggling with breathing difficulties for several days.

“If the question is whether he is out of danger, the answer is no,” Dr Sergio Alfieri told a press conference. “But if you’re asking whether he is currently in life-threatening danger, the answer is also no.”

Pope Francis will not appear in public on Feb 23 to lead his usual prayer with pilgrims for a second consecutive week, the Vatican said.

The Holy See press office said that the text of the Sunday Angelus prayer would be published, rather than read out.

Double pneumonia is a serious infection that can inflame and scar both lungs, making it difficult to breathe. The Vatican has described the Pope’s infection as “complex” because it is polymicrobial, meaning it is being caused by two or more microorganisms.

The Pope’s medical team said he was able to get out of bed, sit in an armchair to do some work, and even visit the chapel in his self-contained apartment within the hospital.

But it predicted he would remain at the facility “at least” through the coming week.

Dr Alfieri, one of the medical staff at Gemelli, said that given the Pope is 88, with prior health concerns, he was obviously a fragile patient.

He told reporters that the pontiff did not have sepsis, a potentially life-threatening condition when the body responds to an infection by harming its own tissue and organs.

However, Dr Alfieri said there was still a risk that the infection could spread.

“If, unfortunately, one of these germs were to enter the bloodstream, any patient would develop sepsis, and sepsis, combined with his respiratory condition and age, could be very difficult to overcome.”

Oxygen

The Feb 21 press conference was the first with the medical team since the Pope was admitted to hospital last week. No photos of Pope Francis have been released out of respect for the pontiff’s privacy, Dr Alfieri said.

The update came after the Vatican said on Feb 20 that the Pope’s condition was “slightly improving” for a second day.

While the doctors said Pope Francis was able to breathe on his own, they also confirmed for the first time that he was occasionally being provided oxygen via a tube under his nose.

Dr Luigi Carbone, who said he was the Pope’s general practitioner at the Vatican, said Pope Francis would stay at the hospital for as long as necessary.

“As mentioned earlier, he is not out of danger, so like all fragile patients, it is always a delicate balance,” he said. “It would take very little for his condition to become unstable,” said the doctor. “It is difficult to give a precise timeline at this moment.”

Resignation a ‘distant hypothesis’

Pope Francis, who has been pope since 2013, has suffered bouts of ill health in the past two years. He is particularly prone to lung infections because as a young adult he developed pleurisy and had part of one lung removed.

One retired Catholic cardinal suggested on Feb 20 that Pope Francis’ fragile health could lead the Pope to resign as leader of the 1.4 billion-member Catholic Church, as his late predecessor Pope Benedict XVI did.

But Pope Francis has firmly ruled out resigning in the past, calling it in 2024 only a “distant hypothesis”.

Pope Francis is known for keeping a brisk schedule, sometimes holding dozens of meetings a day. Vatican officials expect that his latest health crisis may lead him to slow down.

All the Pope’s public engagements have been cancelled through Sunday and he has no further official events on the Vatican’s published calendar. REUTERS