Chief of world’s 1.4 billion Catholics admitted to the Gemelli Hospital for diagnostic checks and additional remedy.
Pope Francis has been admitted to a hospital in Rome for checks and remedy for bronchitis, the Vatican introduced, confirming the newest menace to the 88-year-old pontiff’s well being.
“This morning, on the finish of his audiences, Pope Francis was admitted to the Policlinico Agostino Gemelli for some mandatory diagnostic checks and to proceed his remedy for bronchitis, which remains to be ongoing, in a hospital setting,” his workplace mentioned on Friday.
Earlier than his hospitalisation, Francis nonetheless managed to satisfy with Vatican officers in addition to different company, together with visiting Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, the assertion mentioned.
Francis was identified with bronchitis final Thursday, however he has continued to carry each day audiences in his Vatican resort suite, preside over normal audiences and even presided at an outside Mass final Sunday.
He has nevertheless handed off his speeches for an aide to learn aloud, saying he was having hassle respiration.
Francis has been the chief of the 1.4 billion Catholics worldwide since 2013. He has suffered from influenza and different well being issues a number of instances over the previous two years.
The Argentinian pope, who succeeded Benedict XVI, is the second-oldest pope in historical past.
He had a part of one lung eliminated as a younger man, and has lengthy battled well being issues, particularly lengthy bouts of acute bronchitis in winter. He makes use of a wheelchair, walker or cane when transferring round his house and lately fell twice, hurting his arm and chin. He additionally had a big chunk of his massive gut eliminated in 2021.
Ever since his most up-to-date bronchitis analysis, Francis has appeared bloated, a sign the remedy he was taking to deal with the lung an infection was making him retain water.
Rome’s Gemelli hospital is similar medical facility the place the chief of the Catholic church was hospitalised in June 2023 to have surgical procedure to take away intestinal scar tissue and restore a hernia within the belly wall.
A couple of months earlier than that, he spent three days within the hospital to obtain intravenous antibiotics for a respiratory an infection.
In December of the identical 12 months, he needed to cancel a go to to Dubai to take part within the United Nations COP28 local weather change convention, as a result of one other bout of bronchitis.
Francis has a private doctor, Dr Roberto Bernabei, who’s an internist and geriatric specialist on the Catholic College of the Sacred Coronary heart in Rome.
He additionally has a private nurse, Massimiliano Strappetti, an worker of the Vatican well being system whom Francis credited with saving his life when Strappetti identified his 2021 intestinal drawback. In 2022, Francis named the nurse his “private well being care assistant”.
Strappetti and Bernabei often be part of Francis on his overseas journeys.
