Pope Francis ‘not out of danger’ say doctors

The Pope had asked his doctors to deliver a briefing on Friday evening, Dr Sergio Alfieri said, because it was a week since his admission to hospital.

Pope Francis will remain in hospital for all of next week at least, his doctors said on Friday.

“Is he out of danger? No,” said Sergio Alfieri, the head of the Pope’s medical team at the Gemelli Hospital. “But if the question is, ‘Is he in danger of death?’, the answer is ‘no’.”

The Pope was admitted to hospital suffering from bronchitis on 14 February, and on 17 February was diagnosed with double pneumonia. The Vatican has reported slight improvements in his condition since then.

In a briefing at the hospital on Friday evening, Dr Alfieri said: “The Pope is fine.” He said Francis was suffering from seasonal flu on his admission to hospital and from fatigue “due to his challenging duties”.

Dr Luigi Carbone, the Pope’s personal doctor from the Vatican health service, said Francis was responding to “strengthened” drug therapy following the pneumonia diagnosis on Monday. He said the Pope was “a fragile patient”.

Alfieri said he was receiving drugs to treat bacterial and viral infections, as well as a diabetic condition caused by the other treatments. He said the Pope had faced a “critical condition” but his medical team were providing the necessary treatment “as we do with all other patients in this hospital”.

He confirmed that the Pope was breathing independently, although he occasionally struggled and received oxygen supplements, and kept his physical movements to a minimum. The main danger, the doctor said, was from the infection causing sepsis which could lead to wider organ failure.

The Pope had asked his doctors to deliver a briefing that evening, Alfieri said, because it was a week since his admission. He said Francis remained animated and joked with his doctors. “The humour is always the same,” he said. “The humour is perfect.”  He reported that earlier on Friday the Pope visited the hospital’s chapel to pray.

Alfieri also noted widespread speculation about the Pope’s condition and the circulation of what he called “fake news”.

In response to a broadcast on Friday afternoon by the Italian network Rai News 24, the Holy See Press Office issued a statement denying that the Pope had held a meeting with the Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin and the Jesuit Cardinal Gianfranco Ghirlanda.

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