|
News Items:
|
|
Headlines
|
|
News Briefs
|
|
Stories
|
|
Movies
|
|
Word To Life
|
|
Special Items:
|
|
Vatican
|
|
Election 2004
|
|
Africa
|
|
Charter update
|
|
John Jay study
|
|
Other Items:
|
|
Client Area
|
|
Links
|
|
Archives:
|
|
Origins
|
|
.
|
|
Did You Know...
|
The whole CNS
public Web site
headlines, briefs
stories, etc,
represents less
than one percent
of the daily news
report.
Get all the news!
If you would like
more information
about the
Catholic News
Service daily
news report,
please contact
CNS at one of
the following:
cns@
catholicnews.com
or
(202) 541-3250
|
|
.
|
|
Copyright:
|
This material
may not
be published,
broadcast,
rewritten or
otherwise
distributed.
Copyright
(c) 2005
Catholic News
Service/U.S.
Conference of
Catholic Bishops.
|
|
 |
|
CNS Story:
|
POPE-RECOVERY Feb-25-2005 (940 words) xxxi
Pope spends calm night, breathes on own after tracheotomy
By John Thavis
Catholic News Service
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope John Paul II spent a calm night and was breathing on his own after recovering from a successful tracheotomy to relieve acute breathing problems, the Vatican said.
Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said the pope had experienced "notable relief" after doctors performed the 30-minute surgery to insert a tube into the throat to assist breathing late Feb. 24.
The pope "ate breakfast with a good appetite," consuming coffee and milk, biscuits and yogurt, the spokesman said.
"The post-operative situation continues regularly. He is breathing on his own and cardiocirculatory conditions remain good," Navarro-Valls said. The pope had no fever and no respiratory infection and had not needed to be put on a respirator, he said.
Doctors told the pope not to speak for several days to favor the healing of his larynx, the source of the breathing problems, the spokesman said. He said the primary purpose of the operation was to increase the amount of air moving in the respiratory system, to favor healing of an inflamed larynx.
The pope underwent the tracheotomy after suffering "successive episodes of acute respiratory problems" caused by a larynx spasms, Navarro-Valls said.
Vatican sources said the pope suffered one serious breathing attack late Feb. 23, but it was controlled by drugs. After he had another episode the morning of Feb. 24, he was taken by ambulance for the second time in a month to Rome's Agostino Gemelli Polyclinic.
After tests and observation, doctors proposed an "elective" tracheotomy, and the pope personally agreed to the 30-minute operation, the Vatican said.
The pope was awake and alert soon after the operation, according to several sources.
Navarro-Valls said that after returning to his room, the pope took a sheet of paper and wrote, in a light vein: "What have they done to me?" and then wrote below it: "I am still 'Totus tuus' (totally yours)." That was a reference to his motto, which dedicates his life and ministry to Mary.
Gianni Letta, an aide to Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi, said he visited the pontiff and found him "well and calm" after the surgery. He said doctors were pleased at the pope's immediate post-operative condition.
Letta said the doctors also reported the pope was in generally good humor. Told that it would be a small operation, the pope was said to have quipped: "Small? That depends on who it's for."
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.
The immediate mood in the Vatican was one of relief after the successful conclusion of the tracheotomy. But church officials privately expressed deep concern that the operation was needed and that the 84-year-old pontiff had suffered a relapse of the throat spasms that led to his hospitalization for 10 days at the beginning of February.
The tracheotomy means a longer recovery period for the pope, and at least for the short-term compromises his ability to speak. The pope suffers from a neurological illness believed to be Parkinson's disease, which typically weakens respiratory muscles, and medical experts have said that is a likely factor in his recurring breathing problems.
Insertion of a tracheotomy tube can be temporary or permanent. One Vatican source said he expected the tube to be left in to make it easier to deal with potential breathing problems in the future.
The pope's hospitalization caught most people at the Vatican by surprise. After his release from his earlier stay in the hospital Feb. 10 and a week off for a Lenten retreat, the pontiff had been easing into his daily schedule of audiences and meetings, looking and sounding better with the passage of days.
On Feb. 23, although wheezing at times, he spoke in several languages to pilgrims via a video link from his private library.
On Feb. 24, the pope had been scheduled to lead an 11 a.m. ceremony, known as an "ordinary public consistory," finalizing plans for the canonization of five priests. Instead, the pope sent a message authorizing Cardinal Angelo Sodano, Vatican secretary of state, to preside over the ceremony.
At the end of the event, the cardinals learned that the pope was on his way to the hospital.
A nurse interviewed on Italy's RAI television network said she saw the pope taken into the hospital through a secondary entrance. The pope was conscious and not in apparent distress, she said, and he raised his hand in greeting to the hospital staff.
Following the pope's hospitalization, prayers were offered in St. Peter's Basilica and other Rome churches for his recovery. Polish residents and pilgrims gathered in the Church of St. Stanislaw in downtown Rome to light candles for the Polish-born pope.
Pilgrims visiting the Vatican learned by word of mouth that the pope had been hospitalized. 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.
- - -
Contributing to this story were Cindy Wooden and Carol Glatz.
END
Copyright (c) 2005 Catholic News Service/USCCB. All rights reserved.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed.
CNS · 3211 Fourth St NE · Washington DC 20017 · 202.541.3250
|
|
|
|
