Pope is recovering after Tracheotomy operation

Pope spent a second night in hospital amid uncertainty. How quickly he could recover from throat surgery and whether he would be in shape to appear at a regular address this weekend. Pope had eaten breakfast on Friday and was breathing more easily after a tracheotomy operation.

In a medical bulletin, the Vatican said doctors had advised the Pope not to speak for some days a much softer take on his situation than that given by doctors who said it could be weeks before he would be able to make any noise at all. Pope, who also shakes with Parkinson’s disease and is racked with arthritis, has bounced back from numerous health scares, not least a near-miss assassination attempt in 1981.

He has brushed off doomsayers who predicted he was close to death over the years, pointing out that many of them had died and he was still leading the 1.1 billion members Catholic Church. But as he gets older, the Pope will take longer to recover and faces more potential complications. Medical experts said there was a significant likelihood a post-tracheotomy patient of his age and frailty could get pneumonia. Vatican officials are meeting today to decide if the pontiff is well enough to make some statement or gesture aimed at reassuring the world his recovery is progressing after his second breathing crisis in less than a month.

The options open to the Vatican – as an alternative to the Pope’s traditional Sunday address – could be a written statement or a short appearance from a window of Rome’s Gemelli Polyclinic hospital. But much depends on the delicate state of the 84-year-old pontiff, who has been advised not to try to speak for several days to avoid setbacks from a breathing tube inserted in his throat.

The Vatican took pains yesterday to emphasize the positive: the Pope was breathing on his own, showed no signs of pneumonia and ate a breakfast that included coffee with milk, yoghurt and 10 biscuits. But there were other descriptions impossible to ignore: the Pope fitted with a tube to ease his breathing and following doctors’ orders to avoid speaking for several days. Each detail of his condition was shadowed by uncertainty, including how long the tracheotomy device would remain and if the pope would regain full command of his voice. No official health update was expected until Monday.

The pontiff’s rush by ambulance Thursday to Rome’s Gemelli Polyclinic hospital a replay of a breathing crisis earlier this month crushed hopes he was out of danger. Just a day earlier, he made his longest public appearance 30 minutes since returning to the Vatican from the hospital Feb. 10. Surgeons cut a small breathing hole in the pope’s throat to bypass suspected obstructions and insert the tube. The most common uses for a tracheotomy are to ensure that better quality air reaches the lungs and as a device for removing mucus, which can foster bacteria. “It was a question of assuring adequate breathing of the patient. … He (the pope) has a significant feeling of relief,” said papal spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls. He denied reports that John Paul was placed on a “mechanical” respirator.

“He’s breathing on his own,” Navarro-Valls said, and there were no signs of fever or pneumonia. The next major health decision could involve the tracheotomy tube. The spokesman says the pope’s breathing has improved significantly since the tracheotomy, and that he has been experiencing a significant feeling of relief. He says the pope has not been using any mechanical assistance, such as a respirator.

The Vatican spokesman, who is himself a medical doctor, did not give any details as to when the tube would be removed. He said that decision would be taken by the pope’s doctors. The spokesman also made clear that the pontiff showed no signs of a lung infection, was not suffering from pneumonia when he was taken to the hospital Thursday and did not have a fever. He said a new medical bulletin on the pope’s condition would be issued Monday.