Doctors treating Pope Francis give first briefing on his condition

Doctors treating Pope Francis have said that the pontiff is “not out of danger” and will require at least another week of hospitalisation. They added he is not at immediate risk of death, but indicated that the situation is still precarious and that the development of sepsis is a concern.

“Is the Pope out of danger? No, he’s not out of danger,” said Doctor Sergio Alfieri, director of the medical surgical department of Rome’s Gemelli Hospital and head of the Pope’s medical team there.

He spoke with journalists on the afternoon of 21 February in the first press conference doctors have given since Pope Francis was admitted to the facility on 14 February due to persistent bronchitis.

“Right now he is not at risk of dying, but the situation is realistically this, [that] the door is open to both possibilities,” Alfieri said.

He explained that the Pope was initially treated for a cold in the Vatican, which, given his age and his active schedule, developed into bronchitis that could no longer be treated there, and therefore required hospitalisation.

After being admitted to Gemelli, the Pope, who is especially vulnerable to respiratory illnesses after having part of one lung removed due to a serious bout of pneumonia as a young Jesuit, was diagnosed with a polymicrobial respiratory infection and bilateral pneumonia.

In terms of his current status, “the asthmatic bronchitis remains, the chronic disease remains,” Alfieri said, adding that the Pope “knows that the situation is serious” and that “sometimes he can’t breathe”.

However, he said the Pope is currently breathing entirely on his own and is in good humour, often cracking jokes, while he also reads, works and moves around the room with assistance, sitting in a chair or going to the chapel to pray.

On how long the Pope’s hospital stay would last, Alfieri said the Pope will remain hospitalised “a least all of next week,” adding that “his treatment needs time to work”.

“He must leave well, and we are working for this,” he said, explaining that the Pope’s medical situation is complex because the different drug treatments he is receiving can have counterproductive effects on one another.

For example, he said the cortisone therapy the Pope is receiving for his pneumonia can lower the body’s immune defences, and can therefore interfere with the antibiotic treatment he is receiving for his infection, meaning his infection can spread and lead to sepsis in his other organs.

On the other hand, too low a dose of cortisone means there is a risk that his pneumonia will worsen, the doctor explained, adding that the Pope’s medical team are monitoring the doses carefully in an attempt to find the right balance.

In the past two days the Vatican’s medical bulletin on the Pope’s condition have reported “slight improvement” in his blood tests and in his overall clinical condition.

Alfieri did not indicate a precise timeline for the Pope’s return, other than indicating that his hospital stay will last through next week.

“The treatments need time. He will return to Santa Marta when hospital care is no longer necessary,” he said. “From when he arrived, he is a lot better, but in a day the situation can change, because he is receiving a very significant load of medicines.”

Luigi Carbone, deputy director of the Health and Hygiene department of Vatican City State and the Pope’s personal doctor, told journalists during the press conference that the daily medial bulletins that are published on the Pope’s condition are a product of the team’s observations, and are approved by the Pope.

“He wanted us to always tell the truth. It was him who asked us to say: ‘I realise that I am an elderly man and that I have chronic problems.’ Even if he gets better, the asthmatic bronchitis and bronchiectasis remain,” Carbone said.

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Though Pope Francis is able to move around, his mobility is still limited, as are the number of aides and visitors allowed in to see him. So far, his only visitors have been what the Vatican described as his “closest collaborators”, and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.

This will mark Francis’s longest hospital stay, having previously spent two 10-day stints at Gemelli, once in 2021 for an invasive colon surgery, and again in 2023 after surgery to repair an abdominal hernia resulting from a previous operation.

If he remains in the hospital longer than 18 days, his stay will surpass the longest-ever hospital stay of his predecessor, Pope Saint John Paul II, whose longest admittance to the facility was nearly 20 days.

John Paul II reigned as pope for nearly 27 years and was admitted to Gemelli a total of seven times during his papacy, with his longest hospitalisation lasting 18 days. If Pope Francis’s stay stretches beyond that, it will mark the longest papal hospitalisation during the three most recent pontificates.

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Photo: Sergio Alfieri (right) and Luigi Carbone give a press conference at the Gemelli hospital where Pope Francis is hospitalised, Rome, Italy, 21 February 2025. (Photo by ALBERTO PIZZOLI/AFP via Getty Images.)

The post Doctors treating Pope Francis give first briefing on his condition first appeared on Catholic Herald.

The post Doctors treating Pope Francis give first briefing on his condition appeared first on Catholic Herald.