Pope Francis was conscious but still receiving high flows of supplemental oxygen Sunday following a respiratory crisis and blood transfusions, as he remains in critical condition with a complex lung infection, the Vatican said.
” The evening passed quietly, the bishop rested”, Vatican official Matteo Bruni said in an earlier speech. The 88-year-old bishop, who had a portion of one lung removed when he was just a young man, was receiving additional diagnostic testing. Francis experienced a protracted allergic respiratory crisis on Saturday that needed “high flows” of air to aid him breathe through a bronchial tube. After testing revealed low platelet counts, he likewise received blood transfusions. Physicians said Saturday his outlook was “reserved”.
Physicians have said Francis ‘ state is touch-and-go, given his age, vulnerability and pre-existing heart disease. His situation has rekindled rumors about what might happen if he falls incapacitated or otherwise unresponsive, and whether or not he might resign.
Francis was supposed to include celebrated Mass on Sunday in St. Peter’s Basilica as part of the Vatican’s yearlong Holy Year remembrance. At the Mass, Archbishop Rino Fisichella called for” stronger and more powerful” prayer for Pope.
Doctors have cautioned that Francis would face the greatest danger from the onset of fever, a major blood infection that could develop as a result of pneumonia. As of Friday, there was no evidence of any fever, and Francis was responding to the different medicines he is taking, the priest’s health team said in their first in-depth release on the priest’s problem.
The bishop was admitted to the Policlinico Agostino Gemelli on February 14 after spending his tenth day in the hospital with a complicated respiratory tract infections that later developed into bronchitis in both breathing.
