Pope Francis had two acute respiratory crises on Monday, the Vatican said, stoking further concerns about the health of the 88-year old pontiff, who has been hospitalized in Rome in serious condition for more than two weeks.
The pope has been undergoing treatment for double pneumonia and a complex infection in a Rome hospital, and his condition has been alternating between improvements and setbacks. On Friday, Francis suffered a bronchial spasm that caused him to inhale his vomit after a coughing fit.
The Vatican said that Monday’s episodes were caused by a significant accumulation of mucus in his bronchial tubes as a consequence of pneumonia. Doctors examined the inside of the pope’s lungs, and then suctioned abundant secretions of mucus from his airways, the Vatican said.
The Vatican said in a statement that “The Holy Father has remained consistently alert, oriented, and cooperative.”
The pope’s medical prognosis remained guarded, implying that he was not out of danger as he spent his 18th day at the Gemelli Hospital in Rome.
Jeffrey Millstein, an internal medicine professor at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, said that such bronchial spasms are common in older people who don’t always have the muscular strength to expel accumulations of mucus.
“It sounds like he is struggling with the typical things that older, weaker folks struggle with when they have pneumonia,” he said.
Pope Francis was admitted to the hospital with bronchitis on Feb. 14, and later was diagnosed with pneumonia in both lungs. That raised particular concerns given his age and the fact that as a young man, Francis had part of a lung removed.
The pope has continued to do some light work during his stay at the hospital, including by signing off on the appointment of bishops and has moved five people along the path to canonization as saints, according to the daily bulletin on the Vatican website. On Monday morning the Vatican said he had been resting well.
Francis’s hospitalization has raised concerns about what happens if his health does not improve, and spurred speculation about the possibility of his resigning. Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican’s secretary of state, has dismissed such talk as “useless speculation.”
But news of the pope’s latest health crisis only heightened the concerns of many faithful.
“As a doctor, I am really worried,” said Gianluigi Radici, 60, a general practitioner from Bergamo, a city in northern Italy, as he walked in St. Peter’s Square with his family. They had come to Vatican City for the Jubilee, a holy year for Roman Catholics, Mr. Radici said.
“We really feel the pope’s absence,” he said.
Gina Kolata contributed reporting.
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