Rome – Pope Francis suffered two episodes of “acute respiratory failure” on Monday, marking another setback in his recovery of double pneumonia.
The Vatican said that the 88 -year -old Pontiff’s episodes were caused by “a significant accumulation of endobronchial mucus and the resulting bronchospasm.”
Two bronchoscopies were performed, when doctors use a bronchoscope to examine the trachea and lungs. In the afternoon it was given non -invasive mechanical ventilation.
The Vatican said that Francis remained alert and oriented throughout the treatment, and his prognosis “remains reserved.”
The Pope rested well on Sunday night. Earlier on Monday, it was described as stable, outside mechanical ventilation and showed no new infection signs after suffering a respiratory crisis at the end of last week.
He has been hospitalized since February 14 at the Gemelli Hospital in Rome.
Francis had spent all Sunday Without using the non -invasive mechanical ventilation mask that pumps oxygen to its lungs that it had to use after Friday cough episode. Francis continued to receive high flow oxygen through a nasal tube.
Friday’s respiratory crisis caused fears of a new lung infection because Francis inhaled some vomiting. The doctors aspired and said they needed 24 to 48 hours to determine if any new infection took up.
On Sunday night, they said Francis remained stable, without fever or signs of an infection, indicating that he had overcome the crisis. However, his prognosis remained guarded, which means that he was not out of danger.
Francis on Sunday also received a visit from the Secretary of State of the Vatican, Cardinal Pietro Parolin and his chief of cabinet, Archbishop Edgar Pena Parra. The content of his conversations was not known, but even when in the Vatican, Francis meets at least weekly with them.
Again his weekly noon blessing was skipped to avoid even a brief public appearance of the hospital. Instead, the Vatican distributed a message written by the Pope of the tenth floor in which he thanked his doctors for his care and supporters for his prayers, and prayed again for peace in Ukraine and in other places.
“From here, the war seems even more absurd,” Francis said in the message, which he wrote in recent days. Francis said he lived his hospitalization as an experience of deep solidarity with people who are sick and suffer everywhere.
“I feel in my heart the ‘blessing’ that is hidden within fragility, because it is precisely in these moments that we learn even more to trust the Lord,” Francis said in the text. “At the same time, I thank God for giving me the opportunity to share in the body and spirit the status of so many sick and suffering people.”
The Argentine Pope, who had part of a retired lung when he was young, was admitted in Gemelli on February 14 after his bronchitis worsened and became a complex pneumonia in both lungs.
On Sunday night in the Vatican, Cardinal Konrad Krajewski presided over the prayer of the rosary of the night in the Plaza de San Pedro.
“We pray with the whole Church for the health of the Holy Father Francisco,” said Krajewski, who is the Pope’s personal lune, a centenary work of delivering alms. Francis has raised work to turn it into an extension of its own personal beneficial organization.
CORRECTION (March 3, 2025, 8:19 am et): A holder in an earlier version of this bad article The Pope’s name. He is Francis, not French.
Associated Press reported from Rome, Marlene Lenthang reported from Los Angeles.
