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POPE-HOSPITAL (THIRD UPDATE) Feb-24-2005 (790 words)
Pope undergoes successful elective tracheotomy
By John Thavis and Cindy Wooden
Catholic News Service
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope John Paul II underwent a successful tracheotomy to alleviate his breathing difficulties Feb. 24, the Vatican announced.
A source close to the pope said he was alert and doing well after the operation.
Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said the pope consented to the operation, which lasted 30 minutes, and there were no immediate problems with recovery. He said the pope would spend the night in his room at Rome's Agostino Gemelli Polyclinic.
Navarro-Valls said the pope had been recovering from the flu, but his condition "was complicated by the renewal of successive episodes of acute respiratory problems caused by a pre-existing functional obstruction of the larynx." The pope was hospitalized for 10 days in early February and was readmitted Feb. 24 with breathing difficulties caused by spasms of the larynx.
"This clinical situation led to the carrying out of an elective tracheotomy" to assure adequate breathing for the pope and to resolve the larynx spasms, Navarro-Valls said. The operation was completed about 8:50 p.m.
An informed source said the pope had suffered a serious respiratory attack Feb. 23, but that it had been alleviated with drugs. When the respiratory problems began again Feb. 24, Vatican officials took him to the hospital, the source said.
Many doctors consider a tracheotomy -- an operation in which a hole is cut in the throat and a tube is inserted to assist breathing -- a fairly routine operation. In most cases, general anesthesia is used; Navarro-Valls said the pope received anesthesia, but he did not say if it was local or general.
An informed source said the pope's larynx spasms were less acute than in early February, but the current episode was equally worrisome because it had recurred, and at a time when the pope and his immune system were weaker.
Earlier in the day, Navarro-Valls said the 84-year-old pope left the Vatican at 11:25 a.m. and arrived at Gemelli at about 11:45 a.m.
Police at the hospital said the pope arrived by ambulance at a side entrance to the hospital, not at the entrance to the emergency room. A source at the hospital said Pope John Paul was conscious when he arrived.
Most people working at the hospital did not know the pope was inside even an hour after he had arrived.
Pope John Paul had been scheduled to lead an 11 a.m. ceremony, known as an "ordinary public consistory," finalizing plans for the canonization of five priests.
Cardinal Angelo Sodano, Vatican secretary of state, presided over the ceremony and read the message the pope had prepared for the consistory.
In the written text, the pope said he had been advised not to attend the ceremony.
"For reasons of prudence, I have been advised to follow the ceremony from my apartment through a closed-circuit television connection," the message said.
Because canon law requires the pope's presence or authorization for a valid consistory, the pope, in his letter, authorized Cardinal Sodano to preside over the event in his name.
The Vatican did not announce that the pope had been sent to the hospital until after the ceremony had ended.
Nicola Cerbino, the hospital spokesman, confirmed the pope was in the 10th-floor suite of rooms reserved for his use at Gemelli, but would provide no details about the pope's condition or the treatment he was receiving.
The afternoon of Feb. 24, visitors and pilgrims streamed in and out of St. Peter's Basilica as usual.
Many did not know that the pope had been readmitted to the hospital, but one couple from Amherst, Mass., suspected something newsworthy was going on.
"I thought something was up because there were all these (television) cameras set up in the square," said Pauline Meese.
Rebecca Daley of Johnstown, R.I., said the pope's absence from the Vatican did not lessen his authority or image as head of the universal church.
"What he gives doesn't disintegrate with age," she said.
Whatever his condition may be, "no matter what, he helps reaffirm your faith," she added.
Vatican officials privately expressed concern at the latest papal health scare.
On Feb. 1, the pope was rushed to Gemelli suffering from a swollen throat and spasms of his larynx. He was released from the hospital Feb. 10 and was out of the public eye Feb. 14-20 during the Vatican's annual Lenten retreat.
From his private library Feb. 23, the pope presided over a video-link version of his weekly general audience. Although wheezing, he spoke briefly in Italian, English, French, German, Spanish and Polish.
The audience, broadcast to hundreds of visitors and pilgrims in the Vatican's audience hall, lasted more than 20 minutes.
- - -
Contributing to this story was Carol Glatz.
END
Copyright (c) 2005 Catholic News Service/USCCB. All rights reserved.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed.
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