Pope Francis suffered two new acute respiratory crises on Monday and was returned to non -invasive mechanical ventilation, in another setback to his battle to fight against pneumonia, said the Vatican.
The doctors extracted “abundant” amounts of mucus from their lungs during two bronchoscopies, in which a tube with a chamber tip to the respiratory tract was sent with a fool on the tip to suck liquid. The Vatican said that mucus was the reaction of the body to the original infection of pneumonia and not to a new infection, given the laboratory tests do not indicate any new bacteria.
Francis remained alert, oriented and cooperated with medical staff. The prognosis remained guarded. The doctors did not say if he remained in stable condition, although they referred to the crises in past time, which suggests that they had ended.
The crises were a new setback in what has become a battle of more than two weeks by the 88 -year -old Pope, who has chronic lung disease and that a part of a lung was eliminated, to overcome a complex respiratory infection.
In a late update, the Vatican said that the episodes were caused by a “significant accumulation” of mucus in his lungs and bronchial spasms. “Copious secretions” were extracted during bronchoscopies and the Pope was replaced in non -invasive mechanical ventilation, a mask that covers the nose and mouth and pumps oxygen to the lungs, said the Vatican.
The Vatican has not published any photo or videos of Francis since before entering the hospital on February 14 with a complex lung infection. This has become the longest absence of his 12 -year -old papacy.
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The Vatican has defended Francis's decision to recover in peace and out of the public eye. But on Monday, one of Francis's closest friends in the Vatican, the archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, urged him to hear his voice, saying that the world needs to hear it.
“We need men like him who are truly universal and not just unilateral,” Paglia said, speaking after a press conference to launch the annual assembly of his Pontifical Academy for Life, the Vatican Bioethics Academy, which has as its subject this year “The end of the world?”
Francis wrote a message to the assembly in which he regretted that international organizations are increasingly ineffective to combat the threats facing the world and are being undermined by “myopic attitudes related to the protection of particular and national interests.” It was dated February 26 and signed “by Gemelli Polyclinic”.
Doctors often use non -invasive ventilation to avoid intubation, or the use of invasive mechanical ventilation. Francis has not been intubated during this hospitalization. It is not clear if you have provided anticipated managers on the limits of your care if you decrease or lose consciousness.
Catholic teaching argues that life must defend itself from conception to natural death. He insists that patients with chronic diseases, including those of vegetative states, should receive “ordinary” care, such as hydration and nutrition, but “extraordinary” or disproportionate attention can be suspended if it is no longer beneficial or only prolongs a precarious and painful life.
Francis articulated that for a meeting of the Bioethics of Paglia in 2017, saying that “there was no obligation to resort to all possible remedies in all circumstances.” He added: “Therefore, it makes possible a decision that is morally qualified as withdrawal from 'excessive treatment'.”
Paglia, whose office helps to articulate the position of the Catholic Church on the end of life, said that Francis is like any other Catholic and would continue to teach the Church if it were to that.
“Today, the Pope is giving us extraordinary teaching about fragility,” he added. “Today, the Pope, not through words, but with his body, reminds us of all, we start, older people to begin with, that we are all fragile and, therefore, we must take care of each other.”
Francis's hospitalization is not reaching the papal record that was established during the numerous hospitalizations of St. John Paul II for a quarter of a century.
& Copy 2025 the Canadian press