Pope Francis Recovering After Health Scare, Vatican Monitors His Condition Closely

Pope Francis, who has been in hospital for more than two weeks struggling with double pneumonia, had a peaceful night and is still under observation, the Vatican confirmed on Saturday. His health had taken a turn for the worse on Friday when he experienced a crisis of breathing, raising fears over his health.

A Vatican official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, assured that the 88-year-old pope had not suffered any further respiratory distress since yesterday’s incident. In a short statement, the Vatican said Francis had a quiet night and had breakfast, including a cup of coffee. A fuller medical update will be issued later in the day.

The Vatican on Friday reported that Francis had experienced an unexpected respiratory emergency, which had involved vomiting and airway blockade, and it had resulted in an abrupt worsen of his health. They carried out aspiration to evacuate airways and employed non-invasive mechanical ventilation to help him without intubating and sedation.

The condition is being observed very closely for a 24- to 48-hour time period by the medical experts in order to examine the long-term effects of the event. Francis had originally entered the hospital on February 14 with critical breathing complications, which deteriorated to double pneumonia, an infection within both lungs. Due to past medical history and resulting pleurisy, resulting in the partial removal of lungs, Francis becomes even more susceptible to infections within lungs.

The pope has not appeared in public since his hospitalization, his longest absence as pontiff since he took the office in 2013. Because of his continued recovery, he is unlikely to preside over Sunday prayers for a third week in a row. The Vatican will probably instead publish the text of the Angelus prayer instead of him saying it. Doctors have yet to say how long his treatment will last.