Pope slept well through the night, Vatican says

VATICAN CITY: The Vatican said on Tuesday that the Pope slept well through the night and is still resting after suffering two respiratory insufficiencies a day earlier, as per Vatican News.

“The Pope slept through the night and now continues to rest,” the Holy See Press Office said on Tuesday morning.

The Pope has been receiving treatment for bilateral pneumonia at Rome’s Gemelli Hospital since February 14, as per Vatican News.

Pope Francis experienced “two episodes of acute respiratory failure,” the Vatican said Monday, marking the latest in a series of medical crises the 88-year-old pontiff has endured since he was first hospitalized on February 14, CNN reported.

Monday’s episodes were caused by a “significant accumulation of endobronchial mucus” and a consequent narrowing of the airways, CNN reported, quoting the Vatican.

Earlier on Monday, the Pope underwent two bronchoscopies and doctors removed a buildup of secretions. In the afternoon, Francis was given oxygen through a mask to help with his breathing, according to the Vatican.

“It was a complicated afternoon,” Vatican sources told CNN, adding that the acute respiratory crisis, which lasted for part of the afternoon, is over, and that the Pope was resting.

“The accumulation of the mucus is a result of the pneumonia and that causes coughing and spasm as the bronchi try to expel the mucus as it irritates them,” the sources said.

Theodore Iwashyna, professor of pulmonary and critical care medicine at Johns Hopkins University told CNN that a bronchoscopy is a moderately invasive procedure, and that “it is not good” to need two bronchoscopies within a short period of time to manage secretions.

“In a person that’s quite ill and requiring non-invasive ventilatory support, you would usually need to have a good reason to do it,” Iwashyna said, adding that mucus buildup is not a positive sign in a patient with pneumonia, as per CNN.

“As your pneumonia gets better you’ll produce less mucus. Sometimes as your pneumonia gets better you finally get strong enough to cough it up,” he said, as per CNN. (ANI)