Pope Francis says he is still suffering from the effects of his recent anesthesia. He reported this when receiving members of the meeting of the Works of Aid to the Oriental Churches (ROACO), on June 22, 2023 at the Vatican, I.MEDIA found. Two weeks after his operation for an abdominal hernia with risk of occlusion, the Pope explained that his breathing was “not good.”
Since his return on June 16 from the Gemelli hospital, where he underwent surgery on June 7, the 86-year-old Pontiff has resumed the Sunday Angelus, as well as his audiences. Yesterday, June 21, he received the Brazilian president, and on June 20, the Cuban president. However, the general audience on Wednesday June 21 was cancelled ahead of time, to allow him to continue his convalescence.
But this morning, the Pope showed signs of fatigue. After a first speech, which he read to Assumptionist religious, he declined a second address to the ROACO, contenting himself with handing it over to the participants. “I’m still under the effects of anesthesia. My breathing is not good,” confided the Argentine Pontiff.
During this brief exchange, the 266th Pope then instructed Mgr Claudio Gugerotti, Prefect of the Dicastery for the Eastern Churches, to pass on his pre-prepared speech. “I’m still alive,” he added, however, to a participant who asked how he was doing.
The Pope, who has been missing part of one lung since he had a serious infection as a youth, has already had respiratory problems this year. On March 29, he was rushed to Gemelli, where doctors diagnosed him with “infectious bronchitis.” He underwent antibiotic treatment and left hospital on April 1.
He later confided that it was acute pneumonia. “If we had waited a few more hours, it would have been more serious,” he told Mexican television.
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