Pope Francis is “not out of danger”, his doctors have warned, a week after he was admitted to hospital with chronic bronchitis before also developing pneumonia.
However, the 88-year-old pontiff’s condition is not life-threatening and he is not currently at risk of death, his medical team confirmed on Friday in their first in-person update on his condition.
They said he would remain in Rome’s Gemelli Hospital for at least all of next week after he was admitted there on 14 February with a worsening case of bronchitis.
He was later diagnosed with a complex respiratory infection – involving bacteria, viruses and other organisms – and the onset of pneumonia in both lungs on top of asthmatic bronchitis, with his doctors prescribing “absolute rest”.
Dr Sergio Alfieri, the head of Francis’s medical team, and Dr Luigi Carbone, his personal physician, gave a detailed update on his condition on Friday.
Dr Carbone said Francis was responding to the drug therapy that was “strengthened” after the pneumonia was diagnosed earlier this week.
He also continues to fight the multipronged infection of bacteria and viruses in the respiratory tract.
Doctors said there was no evidence the germs had entered his bloodstream – a condition known as sepsis – that they said would be the biggest concern. Sepsis is a complication of an infection that can lead to organ failure and death.
Francis is also receiving supplemental oxygen when he needs it through a nasal cannula, a thin flexible tube that delivers oxygen through the nose.
As his hospital stay drags on, some of Francis’s cardinals have started responding to the obvious question now circulating: whether Francis might resign if he becomes irreversibly sick and unable to carry on.
Francis said he would consider it after Pope Benedict XVI “opened the door” to popes retiring, but has shown no signs of stepping down and has recently asserted the role of pope is for life.
Before the medical team’s update on Friday, the Vatican said Francis marked the one-week point in his hospital stay by getting up and out of bed to eat breakfast. Late on Thursday, the Vatican reported a “slight improvement” in his overall clinical condition, with his heart working well.
