Rome (EFE) that he must be at least the whole of the next week admitted to the Gemelli hospital in Rome.
The doctor who operated on him both last Wednesday and in July 2021 in an intervention in the colon, Sergio Alfieri, appeared before the media today to give full details about the pope’s health and his postoperative period.
“In recent days, all intravenous treatment has been suspended and he is fed a semi-liquid diet. He is apyretic (no fever) and hemodynamically stable. His blood tests and postoperative chest X-ray are good,” Alfieri explained at a press conference at the hospital.
However, given the need to allow the mesh implanted for the repair of the abdominal muscles to heal optimally, the doctors have advised him not to exert himself and not appear in public to celebrate the Angelus from the hospital, as he already did. in his previous hospitalization in July 2021 after colon surgery.
The Pope will not celebrate the Angelus prayer publicly
This will be the first time in his pontificate that the pope does not celebrate the Angelus prayer publicly, since even during the pandemic he celebrated it in the pontifical palace and it was broadcast.
“On the advice of the medical staff and the personal health assistant, and as can be deduced from the normal postoperative recovery times in operations of this type, tomorrow the Pope will recite the Angelus prayer in private, uniting himself spiritually, with affection and gratitude, to the faithful who will want to accompany him, wherever they are,” the Vatican explained in a statement.
Alfieri also stressed that “the pope has not had any kind of heart problem or suffered a heart attack,” Alfieri said when asked by journalists during a press conference at the hospital.
From a cardiorespiratory point of view, the pope is fine, added the doctor, who is in charge of surgery at the Gemelli hospital, and explained that two months ago he had a small problem (pneumonia) “as any 86-year-old person can have but he doesn’t have any practically treatment, the only problem in the knee, but he has not and has not had any problem ”.
About how many days he will have to be hospitalized, Alfieri reported that at least for the whole of next week. “It is a prudent decision to facilitate recovery, but everything is going well,” he said.
“To ensure that he returns to Santa Marta (his residence) in the best conditions, we would like him to remain hospitalized for a week. Full recovery is three months for everyone. It is very important that you return to work physically strong. But we can suggest it to him, because he is the one who decides. We gave him a medical suggestion for Sunday, and he will decide, ”he explained.
Alfieri pointed out that “if attention is not paid to the healing and tears in the mesh, it will be necessary to take him back to the operating room. If, on the contrary, a careful convalescence is observed, he will not have any discomfort ”and he clarified that the other time during hospitalization he prayed the angelus,“ but after seven days and he did not have to rest the abdominal wall ”.
“But I tell you, everything is going well, everything is very good to date. We do not prevent the Pope from doing things, the Pope decides for himself. He will be able to walk during his recovery, but he is not a person who returns to the office in public to work three days after surgery, rather he is a head of state,” he noted.
Although Alfieri assured that if the Pope is 86 years old, “his head is like a 60-year-old man”, when he decided to have surgery the day after the CT, he did it because he had planned that it was the best date because in August he would go on a trip, he explained. the doctor.
He also explained that the pope is not suffering a lot of pain and that is why “he undergoes normal analgesic therapy to make sure he can breathe well, because when you have surgery on your abdomen, you try to breathe more shallowly to feel less pain” but that “it is not a soft analgesic, nothing special, to allow you to breathe well”.
