The Vatican said Pope Francis suffered two new acute respiratory crises on Monday and was re-introduced with non-invasive mechanical ventilation in another setback in the fight against pneumonia.
During two bronchoscopy, doctors extracted “large amounts of” mucus from the lungs, where the tube at the pointed end of the camera is sent into the airway with suction cups at the tip to absorb the liquid.
The Vatican said mucus is the body’s response to a primitive pneumonia infection, not a new infection, given that laboratory tests have not shown any new bacteria.
Francis stayed alert, directed and worked with medical staff. The prognosis is still protected. The doctor did not say whether he was in a stable condition.
Doctors often use non-invasive ventilation to avoid intubation or use invasive mechanical ventilation. During the hospitalization period, Francis has not been intubated. It is unclear whether he has provided any advance instructions on the limitations of his concern, namely his refusal or loss of consciousness.
The crisis is a new setback, which has become more than two weeks of battle for the 88-year-old Pope, who suffers from chronic lung disease and has a part of the lung to overcome complex respiratory infections.
The Vatican said in its late update that these plots are caused by a “large accumulation of mucus” in lung and bronchospasm. The Vatican said “a large amount of secretions” were extracted during the bronchoscope and the pope was put back on a non-invasive mechanical ventilation, covering his nose and mouth and pumping oxygen into the lungs.
Since entering the hospital on February 14, the Vatican has not posted any photos or videos. This has become his longest absence for the pope of 12 years.
Archbishop urges Francis to speak
The Vatican defended Francis’ decision to recover in peace and public eyes. But on Monday, one of his closest friends at the Vatican Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia urged him to hear his voice, saying the world needs to hear it.
Speaking at a press conference, Pagria said: “We need someone who is truly universal like him, not only one-sided,” he said, speaking at the press conference, and he presented his annual conference of the Pope Life Academy, the Vatican School of Bioethics, which has a theme of “Apocalypse?”.
Francis wrote a message to the February 26 parliament, lamenting that international organizations are increasingly effective in responding to the threats facing the world and undermined by “short-sighted attitudes related to the protection of specific and national interests.”
This is the theme he expressed before. Francis also repeatedly called for peace between Russia and Ukraine while trying to maintain traditional diplomatic neutrality in the Vatican and seeking to achieve similar balancing acts with the Hamas war in Gaza.
Archbishop Georg Gaenswein said that even the Vatican ambassador was not too close to Frances, saying that believers needed to hear him when war broke out in Europe. Gaenswein is the long-term secretary of Pope Benedict XVI. Francis used him as the Baltic Vatican ambassador after publishing a memoir of criticism in 2023.
“The voice of Pope Francis is crucial to the world because he is the only authority to talk about peace, condemn war, all wars that began in Ukraine,” La Repubblica quoted Gaenswein as saying.
Francis’ 17-night hospitalization was by no means a papal record set during a quarter-century long hospitalization by St. John Paul II.
Canadian Cardinal Michael Czerny told CBC News that Pope Francis had difficulty breathing during a visit three weeks ago, and the pope was hospitalized and subsequently diagnosed with pneumonia.
