NEWS STORY: Pope Breathing and Eating Well After Surgery, but Won’t Speak for Days

c. 2005 Religion News Service VATICAN CITY _ Pope John Paul II is breathing and eating well after surgery on his windpipe, but doctors have told him not to speak for several days, the Vatican said Friday (Feb. 25). Despite a second trip to the hospital in less than a month that had Catholics worrying […]

c. 2005 Religion News Service

VATICAN CITY _ Pope John Paul II is breathing and eating well after surgery on his windpipe, but doctors have told him not to speak for several days, the Vatican said Friday (Feb. 25).

Despite a second trip to the hospital in less than a month that had Catholics worrying that their beloved pope might die soon, the 84-year-old pontiff appeared to be in good spirits as he ate a breakfast of yogurt and biscuits. He displayed characteristic good humor and optimism in a hand-written note.


“He is now breathing normally. He feels notable relief and does not need breathing assistance, mechanical or otherwise,” Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said in a medical bulletin at mid-morning.

Navarro-Valls said that unless there were unexpected developments, he would not issue another medical bulletin until Monday morning.

The spokesman, who has a medical degree, underlined that the tracheotomy performed Thursday evening was “elective, which means it was not an emergency procedure.”

“The post-operative situation continues regularly. He is breathing on his own, and cardio-circulatory conditions remain good,” Navarro-Valls said. “Upon the advice of his doctors, the pope must not speak for several days so as to favor the recovery of the functions of the larynx.”

John Paul was taken to Agostino Gemelli Polyclinic hospital on Thursday morning suffering from what Navarro-Valls described as “new episodes of acute respiratory insufficiency, caused by a pre-existing function restriction of the larynx.”

Surgeons made a small incision in the windpipe and inserted a narrow tube to permit him to breathe and allow the larynx, which is the upper part of the windpipe, to heal. After the 30-minute procedure, the pope returned to his own room in a 10th floor suite the hospital reserves for him.

Although the tracheotomy is considered a relatively simple procedure, it carries the risk of a lung infection. Navarro-Valls said this has not happened.


“There is not now nor has there ever been any bronco-pulmonary infection,” he said.

John Paul has had no fever since Feb. 10 when he was discharged from the hospital after his first stay of nine days for the same breathing problem caused by influenza, Navarro-Valls said.

“The Holy Father spent a night of tranquil rest. This morning he ate breakfast with a good appetite,” the spokesman said. He said the breakfast consisted of caffe latte, biscuits and yogurt.

Testifying to the pope’s positive mood, Navarro-Valls said that on his return to his hospital room after the surgery John Paul was able to write a note asking in jest, “What have they done to me?”

“But I am always totus tuus,” he added in a reference to the prayer of dedication to the Virgin Mary, which he put on his papal coat of arms.

Deputy Prime Minister Gianni Letta, who went to the hospital immediately after plans for surgery were announced, said that doctors told him that the pope had given them a “friendly rebuke” before undergoing the procedure.

When the doctors informed John Paul that the operation would be a very small procedure he shot back, “It depends for whom.”


Given only light anesthesia, the pope on regaining consciousness raised his hand in his trademark gesture, part salute, part blessing, to the medical team, Letta said.

The pope’s condition was complicated by Parkinson’s disease, a degenerative neurological ailment, which has confined him to a wheelchair and made it difficult for him to swallow and to speak clearly.

Navarro-Valls said the pope returned to the hospital Thursday on the advice of a “reanimation specialist” and Angelo Camaioni, head of the Ear, Nose and Throat Department at the hospital of San Giovanni in Rome, who assisted in the tracheotomy. The spokesman reported earlier that the pope suffered a relapse of influenza and breathing problems on Wednesday.

Cardinal Angelo Sodano, secretary of state and No. 2 in the Vatican hierarchy, visited John Paul on Friday. Sodano is in charge of day-to-day operations in the pope’s absence but cannot make appointments or issue major statements.

In keeping with custom during the penitential season of Lent, high Vatican officials gathered in the Redemptoris Mater Chapel to hear the Rev. Raniero Cantalamess, preacher to the papal household, reflect on the Eucharist. The pope usually attends the prayer sessions.

Illustrating that the Vatican’s work will continue even as the pope recuperates, the Vatican Press Room issued a message prepared by John Paul for a meeting of members of the African Synod of Bishops. He thanked the bishops for “the important work that you have done and continue to do at the service of the Church in Africa.”


Cardinal Mario Francesco Pompedda, retired head of the Church’s supreme court, said in an interview with the newspaper La Stampa that if the pope is unable to speak he cannot celebrate Mass but can continue to govern the more than 1 billion-member Church as long as he can make his will known.

“You have to make a distinction between sacrament and the exercise of the power of government,” he said. “The power of government is based on an act of will. In the exercise of jurisdiction there is no formula to pronounce as there in the sacraments.”

President Bush was among leaders of church and state throughout the world sending the pope get-well wishes. “In the name of all Americans, Laura and I send our heartfelt best wishes to Pope John Paul II,” Bush said in a message issued by the White House.

Cardinal Ennio Antonelli, archbishop of Florence, said he prayed that the pope would recover “for the good of the Church and the world. We still need him.”

MO/LF RNS END

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