NEWS STORY: Pope Has Tracheotomy After Relapse of Flu

c. 2005 Religion News Service VATICAN CITY _ Doctors performed a successful tracheotomy on Pope John Paul II Thursday to help the ailing pontiff recover from breathing problems related to a relapse of the flu, the Vatican said. A tracheotomy is an urgent procedure in which a hole is made in the throat and a […]

c. 2005 Religion News Service

VATICAN CITY _ Doctors performed a successful tracheotomy on Pope John Paul II Thursday to help the ailing pontiff recover from breathing problems related to a relapse of the flu, the Vatican said.

A tracheotomy is an urgent procedure in which a hole is made in the throat and a tube is inserted to assist breathing. The surgery comes with risks, including unintended effects of anesthesia and the possibility of a lung infection.


But Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls told reporters that the operation was a success and that the pope will be spending the night in his hospital room.

The pope was rushed to a Rome hospital by ambulance earlier Thursday (Feb. 24) for the second time this month.

Navarro-Valls, who has a medical degree, issued a statement at midday saying that on Wednesday afternoon the pope had suffered “a relapse of the influenza syndrome with which he was affected in preceding weeks.”

“For that reason the pope was admitted this morning to the Gemelli Polyclinic for timely specialized assistance and further tests,” Navarro-Valls said.

The bishops’ conferences of Italy and the pope’s native Poland called for prayers. “We are crossing our fingers and praying for him,” the Rev. Jozef Kloch said in Warsaw.

Franciscans in the Holy Land, tourists in St. Peter’s Basilica and members of Italy’s Muslim and Jewish communities joined in the prayers.

An unmarked ambulance, which is on constant standby, sped the 84-year-old Roman Catholic pontiff to the Agostino Gemelli Polyclinic Hospital, where a suite of rooms on the 10th floor is kept reserved for him.


“I can only confirm that the Holy Father has been admitted again to the 10th floor of the Polyclinic for respiratory problems,” hospital spokesman Nicola Cerbino told reporters.

It was the 10th time in his 26 years as pope that John Paul has been admitted to the Gemelli, a large Catholic teaching hospital 2 1/2 miles from the Vatican.

John Paul returned to the hospital exactly two weeks after he ended his last stay. He was a patient Feb. 1-10, suffering from severe respiratory problems due to an acute infection of the windpipe, which was caused by influenza.

Doctors have said influenza is potentially serious for John Paul because he is in the advanced stages of Parkinson’s disease, a degenerative neurological condition that has affected his ability to move and to speak. But they said his strong heart and will to live work in his favor.

Virologist Fabrizio Pregliasco told the Italian news agency Adn Kronos that seven out of 10 elderly flu patients suffer a relapse, usually caused by “complications, other infections, above all bacterial, which attack the weakened organism.” He said that 80 percent of the infections, like the pope’s, are respiratory.

Italy has been hit by an unusually prolonged cold spell, which started last month, and doctors reported at one point that one out of every 10 Italians had the flu.


The pope had not left his apartments in the Apostolic Palace since his discharge from the hospital. He spent the first week taking part in the Vatican’s Lenten spiritual exercises, which he watched on closed-circuit television. He resumed a near normal work schedule this week, holding audiences and meeting with aides.

For the last two Sundays, however, John Paul was exposed to cold air when he appeared at his open study window overlooking St. Peter’s Square for the noon Angelus prayer. He spoke briefly last Sunday (Feb. 20) in a hoarse but relatively clear voice.

Because of rain, hail and high winds on Wednesday, Vatican officials canceled plans for him to speak again from his open window to pilgrims gathered for his weekly general audience. Instead, the pilgrims were directed to the Paul VI Audience Hall to see John Paul’s image on a giant screen as he addressed an audience by video conference from his study for the first time.

John Paul had been expected to preside Thursday over a Consistory, or meeting, of cardinals in the Apostolic Palace to approve the creation of five new saints. It was the first Consistory he has missed since he became pope.

Cardinal Angelo Sodano, secretary of state and No. 2 in the Vatican hierarchy, read the cardinals a letter in which the pope said that “for reasons of prudence” he had been advised to watch the meeting on closed-circuit television in his apartments rather than attend. He directed Sodano to preside in his place.

About 30 minutes later, aides decided to rush John Paul to the hospital. Hospital staff said he arrived at a back entrance and was wheeled to his room lying propped up on a stretcher and looking relaxed, his legs covered by a blanket.


The same medical team that treated John Paul earlier this month took charge. It is coordinated by Rodolfo Proietti, 59, an anesthesiologist and specialist in reanimation who is head of the hospital’s emergency unit.

Hospital sources said the pope’s condition was similar to that of his last hospitalization on the night of Feb. 1 when he was rushed to the Gemelli with a fever, an acute infection of the trachea and spasms of the larynx.

The pope has spent a total of 159 days in the Gemelli Polyclinic.

The hospital was credited with saving his life when he was shot in the abdomen and severely wounded May 13, 1981, by Turkish terrorist Mehmet Ali Agca during an open air audience in St. Peter’s Square. He returned to the hospital when the wound became infected.

In July 1992, he was admitted for surgery to remove a pre-cancerous tumor of the colon, in November 1993 for treatment of a shoulder he dislocated in a fall during an audience, in April 1994 for surgery to repair a femur he broke in a fall in his bathroom, in August 1997 for an appendectomy.

The pope has also undergone routine checkups in the hospital he has called “the third Vatican,” referring to his country residence at Castelgandolfo outside Rome as the second.

MO/RB RNS END POLK

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