A marble statue of late Pope John Paul II is backdropped on Saturday by the Agostino Gemelli Polyclinic in Rome, the place Pope Francis was hospitalized after a weeklong bout of bronchitis worsened.
Alessandra Tarantino/AP
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Alessandra Tarantino/AP
ROME — Docs on Saturday prescribed “absolute rest” for Pope Francis and modified the remedy for his respiratory tract an infection, the Vatican mentioned, a day after the 88-year-old pope was admitted to a hospital following a weeklong bout of bronchitis.
On medical doctors’ orders, Francis will not ship his conventional Sunday midday blessing, which he might have executed from his hospital room if he was effectively sufficient.
Francis slept effectively throughout a quiet first night time within the hospital, ate breakfast, learn the newspapers and obtained the Eucharist on Saturday, alternating relaxation with prayer and studying throughout the afternoon, the Vatican mentioned.
The Argentine pope was admitted to Rome’s Gemelli hospital on Friday after a weeklong bout of bronchitis worsened. It was his fourth hospitalization since his 2013 election and raised questions on his more and more precarious well being.
Preliminary exams confirmed that he had a respiratory tract an infection, which was confirmed Saturday. In a late afternoon bulletin, the Vatican mentioned that Francis had no fever on Saturday and that exams confirmed some enchancment.
The Vatican canceled his audiences via Monday at the least.
Francis, who’s vulnerable to respiratory infections in winter, was identified with bronchitis on Feb. 6, however had continued to carry day by day audiences in his Vatican resort suite. He had presided at an outside Mass final weekend and attended his common viewers Wednesday. However he has been handing off his speeches for an aide to learn aloud, saying he was having bother respiration.
“To facilitate his recovery, the medical staff prescribed absolute rest,” a Vatican assertion mentioned.
Francis had a part of one lung eliminated as a younger man and has battled different well being issues.
He had 33 centimeters (13 inches) of his giant gut eliminated in 2021 due to a narrowing of the colon. He had additional belly surgical procedure in 2023 to take away intestinal scar tissue and restore a hernia. He makes use of a wheelchair, walker or cane when shifting round his residence and not too long ago fell twice, hurting his arm and chin.
Rome’s Gemelli hospital has a personal suite for popes on the tenth flooring. Francis revealed that in a 2023 hospitalization, he was really identified with “an acute and strong pneumonia, in the lower part of the lungs.”
Generally bronchitis can result in pneumonia, a deeper and way more severe an infection of the lungs’ air sacs. Docs could detect pneumonia by listening for a crackling or whistling sound within the lungs whereas the affected person breathes, however typically different exams are wanted together with a chest X-ray and pulse oximetry that measures how a lot oxygen is within the blood.
Remedy varies by severity however can embody offering oxygen via a nasal tube or masks, intravenous fluids — and remedy of the underlying explanation for the an infection.
