ROME (AP) — Pope Francis suffered two new acute respiratory crisis on Monday and was returned to non-invasive mechanical ventilation amid another setback to his fight to combat pneumonia, the Vatican said.
The doctor extracted a “rich” amount of mucus from the lungs during two bronchoscopy. During this bronchoscopy, a tube at the tip of the camera was sent into the airway with a suction cup to inhale the liquid. The Vatican said the mucus was his body’s response to the original pneumonia infection, not a new infection, and that clinical testing does not show new bacteria.
Francis was vigilant, oriented and worked with medical professionals. The prognosis was still protected. The doctors did not say whether he was still in a stable state, but they mentioned the past tense crisis, suggesting that they were over.
The crisis was a new setback that was a battle that took place for more than two weeks by the 88-year-old pope, who had chronic lung disease and had part of one lung removed, in order to overcome a complex respiratory infection.
Dr. John Coleman, a lung critical care doctor at Northwestern Medicine in Chicago, said Francis inhaled the vomit that he needs to cough, then placed in non-invasive mechanical ventilation for the day, and no more needed, and the episode is more concerned than Friday’s final episode.
The use of bronchoscopy reflects mucus and pH at the level of concern in the lungs, Coleman said. “The fact that they had to go there and remove it manually means that he wasn’t cleaning up the secretions himself,” he said.
“He’s been moving forward a little and then he’s back,” said Coleman, who is not involved in Francis’ care.
Due to the slow update, the Vatican said the episode was caused by a “significant accumulation” of mucus in his lungs and bronchial convulsions. During bronchoscopy, “abundance of secretions” was extracted and the Pope was returned to non-invasive mechanical ventilation. This is a mask that covers the nose and mouth and pumps oxygen into the lungs.
Francis, who is not physically active, was using a wheelchair, overweight, and was trying to improve lung function by undergoing respiratory physiotherapy. However, the buildup of secretions in his lungs was a sign that he had no muscle strain that coughed violently enough to drain the fluid.
The Vatican has not released any photos or videos of Francis before he entered the hospital with a complicated pulmonary infection on February 14th. This is the longest absence of his 12 years of Pope.
The Vatican defends Francis’ decision to recover from peace and the public eye. But on Monday, Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, one of Francis’ closest friends at the Vatican, urged him to hear him, saying the world needs to hear it.
“We need not only universal and one-sided like him, but men like him,” Paglia said after the press conference to launch his annual meeting of Pontifical Academy for Life.
Francis wrote a message to Congress that it was increasingly ineffective for international organizations to combat the threats facing the world, undermining “myopia attitudes related to protecting certain national interests.” It was signed on February 26th, “from Gemeri Policic.”
Doctors often use non-invasive ventilation to stop the use of intubation or invasive mechanical ventilation. Francis was not intubated during this hospitalization. If he declined or lost consciousness, it is not clear whether he provided advance instructions on the limits of his care.
Catholic teaching believes that life must be kept from conception to natural death. Chronic disease patients, including nutritional status, need to receive “normal” care, such as hydration and nutrition, but are no longer beneficial and claim that “extraordinary” or unbalanced care can be interrupted if they are prolonging an unstable and painful life.
Francis told a 2017 Bioethics Association meeting in Paglia that he “is not an obligation to resort to any possible remedies in any circumstances.” He added:
Paglia said the office helped clarify the Catholic Church’s position on end-of-life care, and that Francis is like another Catholic, and that if he did so he would follow the church’s teachings.
“Today, the Pope gives us extraordinary teachings about vulnerability,” he added. “Today, the Pope reminds us all, not through words, but with his body.
Francis’ 17-night hospitalization never reaches the Pope’s record set during the numerous long hospitalizations of St. John Paul II over a quarter century. The longest single hospitalization occurred in 1981 when John Paul spent 55 days at Gemeri for a minor surgery, followed by a long infection.
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Associated Press Writer Carla K. Johnson contributed from Washington State.
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Associated Press’ Religious Reporting will be supported through collaboration with the Associated Press and Conversation, along with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is responsible for this content only.
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