Pope Francis is now reported in critical condition, more than a week after the 88-year-old pope first entered the hospital.
“Pope Francis is in critical condition after suffering a long asthmatic respiratory crisis Saturday morning, the Vatican says,” the Associated Press reported in a post on X.
Earlier Saturday, the Vatican had been guardedly optimistic about the pope’s recovery.
JUST IN FEB 22 evening: Vatican says Pope Francis is still “critical” & “not out of danger.” Vatican describes picture of significant ill health.
Today he had “an asmatiform respiratory crisis of prolonged magnitude over time, which also required the application of oxygen at… https://t.co/1t8hqBtDrt pic.twitter.com/t0wfmmMQmA
— Michael Haynes 🇻🇦 (@MLJHaynes) February 22, 2025
“The Pope rested well.” Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni said, according to CBS.
On Friday, doctors said the pope’s major heath risk was sepsis, a potentially life-threatening serious infection of the blood that can be a complication of pneumonia.
“Sepsis, with his respiratory problems and his age, would be really difficult to get out of,” Dr. Sergio Alfieri, the head of medicine and surgery at Rome’s Gemelli hospital, said.
The English say ‘knock on wood,’ we say ‘touch iron.’ Everyone touch what they want. But this is the real risk in these cases: that these germs pass to the bloodstream,” he said.
“He is not out of danger,” Dr. Luigi Carboni, the pope’s personal physician, said.
“So like all fragile patients, I say they are always on the golden scale: In other words, it takes very little to become unbalanced,” he said.
Statement from the Vatican: Pope Francis is in critical condition pic.twitter.com/jj2FXpoStu
— BNO News Live (@BNODesk) February 22, 2025
Initially hospitalized with severe bronchitis, the pope was diagnosed with pneumonia in both lungs, according to NBC.
Coming after years of declining health, a report from Politico said that the pope was in intense pain “and has privately expressed certainty he won’t make it this time.” The report was attributed to sources Politico did not name.
Politico cited a source it did not name as saying Francis was told he could die if he did not go to a hospital.
The report noted that even if Francis survives this scare, the concept of who follows him is moving to the fore,
“He may not die now but of course he eventually will,” Politico quoted what it said was one Vatican official as remarking. “We all die — and he’s an 88-year-old man with lung problems.”
The pope has battled multiple health issues.
In 2021, the pope had 13 inches of his colon removed. In March 2023, he was hospitalized for what the pope later said was pneumonia. In June 2023 he underwent abdominal surgery. The pope also suffered falls in which he was injured in December and January, according to The Washington Post.
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