Pope Francis responded well to colon surgery, Vatican says
By Chico Harlan and Stefano Pitrelli,
Remo Casilli Reuters
ROME — Pope Francis responded well to a scheduled colon surgery, the Vatican said in a brief statement late Sunday night, eight hours after announcing the pontiff was admitted to a Roman hospital for the procedure.
The operation — to address a stenosis, or potential narrowing, of his large intestine — was performed at Gemelli hospital by Sergio Alfieri, a specialist in the colon, rectum and stomach. The Vatican did not provide a timetable for the pope’s recovery, nor did it provide other details about the operation, including its duration.
The surgery marks a rare health problem for the 84-year-old pontiff, who has been remarkably durable and routinely holds events or meetings at least six days a week. Francis on Sunday morning held his usual Angelus blessing and had not mentioned the operation.
But a week earlier, he had notably emphasized that he needed spiritual support.
“Pray in a special way: The pope needs your prayers,” Francis had said.
ANSA, the Italian news agency, said Francis would remain hospitalized for at least five days. A Gemelli hospital spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Francis is staying in a special wing at Gemelli reserved for papal care — used most notably during the pontificate of John Paul II, who was treated at Gemelli after a 1981 assassination attempt against him and in the weeks leading up to his 2005 death.
Francis had not been slowed in the days leading to the announcement. On Thursday, he hosted a delegation from Lebanon, aiming to address the country’s crisis, and Friday he met with the prime minister of Iraq.
But he is also at an age when any surgery is noteworthy. He is just as old as Pope John Paul II was at the time of his death. And he’s one year shy of Benedict XVI’s age when the former pontiff stepped down, citing failing strength of “body and mind.”
Francis has not undergone any other known surgeries as pontiff, but he has breathing problems stemming from an illness as a 21-year-old in Argentina. Francis’s illness was misdiagnosed as the flu, and he was eventually hospitalized, with fluid in one lung, “hanging between life and death,” the pope said in a book by papal biographer Austen Ivereigh. He eventually had part of one lung removed.
Francis more recently has dealt with several flare-ups of sciatica, which cause leg and back pain and have forced him to cancel a few events this year.
Francis had said Sunday — before the surgery — that he would be traveling to Hungary and Slovakia in mid-September, a sign he expects to be on the move by then. Several days earlier, the Vatican had said that Francis’s regular Wednesday audiences with the public would be suspended for the rest of July; that announcement cited the “usual summer break.”
Francesco William Guglielmi, head of the gastroenterology unit at a hospital in Barletta, in southern Italy, said the procedure — as described by the Vatican — was fairly standard, and in some cases can even be treated laparoscopically.
“It’s a tranquil surgery,” said Guglielmi, who was speaking generally and did not have specific information about the pope’s case.
He said the condition amounts to an inflammation of the colon that can lead to scar tissue and a narrowing of the intestine’s internal walls.
“If he is undergoing surgery now, it means he has been suffering this for a while,” Guglielmi said. “If it has been planned, it means you decided to proceed to get rid of this restricted section.”
Another Italian surgeon, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the case of somebody who was not his patient, said that in general, people remain hospitalized for five to seven days after such an operation, and then “little by little you reacquire your normal habits.” But he said the recovery time depends on whether the surgery is laparoscopic, or whether a larger incision is required. The age of the patient is also a factor, he said.
Italian President Sergio Mattarella relayed the thoughts of all Italians, along with his own, in a statement wishing for a “swift recovery.” He said Italians were “accompanying Your Holiness in these hours.”
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