Pope Francis, in the hospital for "a respiratory infection"
A pain in the chest. The Pope set off all the alarms around him yesterday morning when he expressed this feeling of discomfort while he was in his residence in Santa Marta. Francisco had just returned from Saint Peter's Square where he had delivered his catechism in the framework of the usual Wednesday audience. Neither during his speech nor during the tour in the popemobile was any gesture of the Successor of Peter visible that showed an ailment beyond the difficulty of mobility due to his battered knee.
However, when the Latin American pontiff shared how he was feeling with his personal health assistant, Massimiliano Strappetti, back home, the nurse advised him to go immediately for check-ups at the Gemelli hospital, the reference clinical center for all the Popes. As Elisabetta Piqué recounted in the Argentine newspaper LA NACIÓN, the holy Father he was transferred before lunch by ambulance.
Thus, after carrying out the pertinent tests, they ruled out that it was a serious problem that was related to both a heart condition and the operation for diverticula in the intestine for which he underwent surgery two years ago. Even so, the Gemelli medical staff decided that he would remain hospitalized. The Italian newspaper “Il Corriere della Sera” also confirmed that in the cardiology department they found that the situation “was not worrisome”, while “the computed tomography of the chest would have turned out well”. In addition, "blood saturation is correct," ANSA added, citing medical sources from the center.
As explained by the Holy See in a statement late in the afternoon, the different "exams" to which he was subjected by medical specialists ruled that it was "a respiratory infection", although it is excluded that it is a coronavirus. Of course, the doctors announced that Francisco "will need a few days of timely hospital medical therapy" so his schedule for today and tomorrow has been cancelled. He has also had to postpone a television interview that he had scheduled with the Italian journalist Lorena Bianchetti, from a religious program of the RAI.
It remains up in the air, for the moment, whether or not the Pope will be present in San Pedro to preside over the procession of palms and the Palm Sunday mass that marks the beginning of Holy Week.
"Pope Francis is moved by the many messages received and expresses his own gratitude for the closeness and prayer," the Vatican statement also included.
Thus, the day ended with some calm after a few hours of uncertainty, caused, among other reasons, by the erroneous communication from the Vatican that even spoke about "previously scheduled controls" when in parallel the Vaticanists had already confirmed his hospital transfer. for an unforeseen
In any case, it is confirmed that the Pope's state of health, in principle, is not serious, in addition to taking into account that he is an 86-year-old man and that at the age of 21, severe pneumonia forced him to have his lobe removed. of the right lung at the Hospital Sirio Libanés in Buenos Aires.
