An update to our previous post:
Matteo Bruni, Vatican spokesperson, indicated that Pope Francis is in “good general condition, alert and breathing spontaneously” after a successful surgery and is expected remain in the hospital for several days for recovery and monitoring, “barring any complications.”
Philip Pullella, reporting for Reuters, has the story:
Pope Francis is alert, breathing without assistance, and in a good overall condition following surgery to remove part of his colon, the Vatican said on Monday.
The 84-year-old pope is expected to stay in hospital for seven days barring any complications, following his three-hour operation on Sunday night by a 10-person surgical team at Rome’s Gemelli hospital, spokesman Matteo Bruni said in a statement.
The pope underwent a left hemicolectomy, a procedure in which one side of the colon is removed, Bruni said. It was the first time the Vatican had disclosed the specific nature of the surgery.
The statement did not specify whether the decision to remove part of the colon had been taken before or during the surgery.
Pullella reports this is the first time that Francis has been hospitalized during his papacy. Please continue to pray for Pope Francis and for a speedy and full recovery.
Please keep Pope Francis in your prayers as he recovers from a surgical procedure he underwent Sunday afternoon.
Gerard O’Connell reported in America:
Pope Francis, 84, underwent a pre-planned surgery for a restriction of the sigmoid portion of the large intestine at the Gemelli Hospital in Rome this Sunday afternoon, the director of the Holy See press office, Matteo Bruni, confirmed just before midnight local time.
“The Holy Father reacted well to the intervention carried out under a general anesthesia by Professor Sergio Alfieri.”
O’Connell also relayed:
Francis arrived at the Gemelli hospital around 3 p.m. in a small car driven by a chauffeur and accompanied by an assistant, according to the Italian news agency ANSA. He was assigned the suite on the tenth floor of the hospital that was once used by John Paul II, who also underwent surgery here several times, including after the assassination attempt in 1981 and for the removal of a benign tumor of the colon in 1992.
Pope Francis is likely to remain here for at least five days, ANSA said.
Vatican News reports the latest statement from Matteo Bruni, director of the Holy See Press Office:
“Admitted in the afternoon to the A. Gemelli Hospital, the Holy Father underwent surgery in the evening for a diverticular stenosis of the colon”.
“The Holy Father”, Bruni explained, “reacted well to the surgery done under general anaesthesia and performed by Prof. Sergio Alfieri, assisted by Prof. Luigi Sofo, Dr. Antonio Tortorelli and Dr. Roberta Megnhi.”
“Anaesthesia was administered by Prof. Massimo Antonelli, Prof. Liliana Sollazzi, Dr. Roberto De Cicco, and Dr. Maurizio Soave. Also present in the operating room were Prof. Giovanni Battista Doglietto and Prof. Roberto Bernabei.”
Pope Francis had left the Casa Santa Marta in the early afternoon.
Hours before his surgery, Pope Francis spoke in his Angelus address about how through the incarnation, Jesus is one of us, and he is with us in the day-to-day:
This is the scandal: the incarnation of God, his concreteness, his ‘daily life’. And God became concrete in a man, Jesus of Nazareth, he became a companion on the way, he made himself one of us. “You are one of us”, we can say to Jesus. What a beautiful prayer! It is because one of us understands us, accompanies us, forgives us, loves us so much. In reality, an abstract, distant god is more comfortable, one that doesn’t get himself involved in situations and who accepts a faith that is far from life, from problems, from society. Or we would even like to believe in a ‘special effects’ god who does only exceptional things and always provokes strong emotions. Instead, brothers and sisters, God incarnated Himself: God is humble, God is tender, God is hidden, he draws near to us, living the normality of our daily life.
May Christ accompany our Holy Father Pope Francis through the “daily life” of his recovery and in the challenges that he faces every day as he leads the Church.
Image: Agostino Gemelli university hospital, part of the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore (Catholic University of the Holy Heart of Jesus). The statue on front is a marble monument to the late John Paul II. By Sergio D’Afflitto, CC BY-SA 3.0 it, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=26748295
Mike Lewis is the founding managing editor of Where Peter Is. He and Jeannie Gaffigan co-host Field Hospital, a U.S. Catholic podcast.
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