Sepsis a threat in pope’s pneumonia battle as Vatican celebrations march on without him – National

[Pelican Press 0]

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

Sepsis a threat in pope’s pneumonia battle as ******** celebrations march on without him – National

The ******** carried on with its Holy Year celebrations without the pope Saturday, as Pope Francis battled pneumonia and a complex respiratory infection that doctors say remains 

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

 and will keep him hospitalized for at least another week.

Francis slept well overnight, ******** spokesman Matteo Bruni said in a brief early update Saturday.

But doctors have warned that the main threat facing the 88-year-old Francis would be the 

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

, a serious infection of the blood that can occur as a complication of pneumonia. As of Friday, there was no evidence of any sepsis, and Francis was responding to the various drugs he is taking, the pope’s medical team said in their first in-depth update on the pope’s condition.

“He is not out of danger,” said his personal physician, Dr. Luigi Carbone. “So like all fragile patients I say they are always on the golden scale: In other words, it takes very little to become unbalanced.”

Story continues below advertisement

Francis, who has chronic lung disease, was admitted to Gemelli hospital on Feb. 14 after a 

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

.

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png">

Get breaking National news

For news impacting Canada and around the world, sign up for breaking news alerts delivered directly to you when they happen.

Doctors first diagnosed the 

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

 and then the onset of pneumonia in both lungs. They prescribed “absolute rest” and a combination of cortisone and antibiotics, along with supplemental oxygen when he needs it.

More on World
More videos

Carbone, who along with Francis’ personal nurse 

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

 organized care for him at the ********, acknowledged he had insisted on staying at the ******** to work, even after he was sick, “because of institutional and private commitments.” He was cared for by a cardiologist and infectious specialist in addition to his personal medical team before being hospitalized.

Dr. Sergio Alfieri, the head of medicine and surgery at Rome’s Gemelli hospital, said the biggest threat facing Francis was that some of the germs that are currently located in his respiratory system pass into the bloodstream, causing sepsis. Sepsis can lead to organ failure and death.

“Sepsis, with his respiratory problems and his age, would be really difficult to get out of,” Alfieri told a press conference Friday at Gemelli. “The English say ‘knock on wood,’ we say ‘touch iron.’ Everyone touch what they want,” he said as he tapped the microphone. “But this is the real risk in these cases: that these germs pass to the bloodstream.”

Trending Now

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png">

Liberal leadership candidate Ruby Dhalla disqualified from race

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png">

Bank of Canada governor’s tariff warning: ‘There won’t be a bounceback’

“He knows he’s in danger,” Alfieri added. “And he told us to relay that.”

Story continues below advertisement

Deacons, meanwhile, were gathering at the ******** for their special Jubilee weekend. Francis got sick at the start of the 

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

, the once-every-quarter-century celebration of Catholicism. This weekend, Francis was supposed to have celebrated deacons, a ministry in the church that precedes ordination to the priesthood.

In his place, the Holy Year organizer will celebrate Sunday’s Mass, the ******** said. And for the second weekend in a row, Francis was expected to skip his traditional Sunday noon blessing, which he could have delivered from Gemelli if he were up to it.

“Look, even though he’s not (physically) here, we know he’s here,” said Luis Arnaldo Lopez Quirindongo, a deacon from Ponce, Puerto Rico who was at the ******** on Saturday for the Jubilee celebration. “He’s recovering, but he’s in our hearts and is accompanying us because our prayers and his go together.”

Beyond that, doctors have said Francis’ recovery will take time and that regardless he will still have to live with his chronic respiratory problems back at the ********.

“He has to get over this infection and we all hope he gets over it,” said Alfieri. “But the fact is, all doors are open.”

&copy 2025 The ********* Press

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

#Sepsis #threat #popes #pneumonia #battle #******** #celebrations #march #National

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up