Pope John Paul’s condition was said on Wednesday night to have improved following a downturn in his health that left him gasping for breath and in need of urgent hospital attention.
The Vatican’s chief spokesperson, Joaquin Navarro-Valls, said the 84-year-old Pope had needed help with his breathing overnight and was running a slight fever.
He added that the pontiff would remain hospitalised ”for a few more days”, but stressed that he had never lost consciousness during the latest in a long line of health scares.
”I think everyone has to be calm because there is no reason for alarm today,” said Navarro-Valls, himself a doctor.
Leaving the Gemelli hospital in Rome where the Pope lay in a suite on the 10th floor, Italy’s health minister echoed the upbeat message. ”The Pope’s condition is improving. We are more optimistic today than yesterday,” said Girolamo Sirchia, a member of Silvio Berlusconi’s cabinet.
The prime minister himself later predicted that ”the episode could be overcome in two or three days”.
Sirchia added that a bulletin agreed by the Vatican with the Pope’s doctors on Wednesday morning was ”absolutely truthful and reflects the Holy Father’s condition”.
Pope John Paul was whisked out of the Vatican — reluctantly, according to Italian media reports — after suffering spasms that blocked the passage of air to his lungs. These were said to be the result of a throat infection, apparently caused by a bout of influenza he contracted last weekend.
The statement described the spasms as ”acute”. It added: ”During the night, the therapy of respiratory assistance continued, allowing the clinical situation to stabilise.”
The statement did not say that the Pope’s condition had improved, nor that he was able to breathe without the help of a mask. But it did say his heart, lungs and metabolic system were all functioning ”within the bounds of normality”.
Navarro Valls, said on Wednesday that the Pope had not lost consciousness during the emergency of the previous night and had spent part of the morning helping to say mass from his sickbed.
But medical experts not directly involved in his treatment expressed concern over the danger of complications and were cautious about the pontiff’s chances of recovery.
There were also indications from elsewhere of the gravity of Tuesday night’s crisis, and suggestions that it was too early to say it was over.
Italian news agencies reported that the head of the Gemelli’s intensive care unit and the hospital’s top heart specialist were both called in during the night.
The Pope has been suffering for many years from Parkinson’s disease, which weakens the nervous system. Several experts noted that, as it progresses, the disease can interfere with the ability of sufferers to use their throat muscles.
”Patients suffering from Parkinson’s tend to have difficulties swallowing and expectorating, so that often a proportion of saliva can end up in the lungs,” said Gianni Pezzoli, head of the Parkinson’s centre of the ICP, a teaching hospital in Milan.
Luigi Allegra, director of the cardio-respiratory department of the Milan Policlinico, said the infection was ”in any case a new illness afflicting someone who is already seriously ill, and it will certainly not be got over without doing further harm”.
Cardinal Javier Lozano Barragan, the Vatican’s top health official, pointed to another factor in an interview with Associated Press Television News. He said the pontiff’s stoop, the result of an industrial accident he suffered as a young man, had left his lungs and diaphragm in a crushed position.
While the Pope is in hospital, ordinary Vatican business will be taken care of by his inner circle. But they have no power to alter church teachings on issues of faith and morals.
In recent years, there has been speculation in the Vatican that the Pope has given a close aide a letter authorising the church to pick a new leader should any ailment leave him mentally incapacitated. – Guardian Unlimited Â