Pope Francis is responding well to hospital treatment for double pneumonia and his doctors no longer fear for his life, the Vatican says.
The Vatican added on Monday that the 88-year-old pontiff’s condition was “stable” with doctors lifting their earlier prognosis of “guarded”, indicating he is now out of danger and could soon leave hospital.
Francis has been in Rome’s Gemelli University Hospital for more than three weeks. He was admitted on February 14 with a severe respiratory infection that has required evolving treatment.
The pope’s doctors said they had recorded “improvements” in previous days, which had been “consolidated” by “blood tests and clinical assessments, as well as a good response to his drug treatments”, the Vatican said.
It added that doctors expected Francis “to continue medical drug treatment in a hospital setting for further days”.
An exact timeframe for the pope’s discharge was not provided.
Francis had been under the “guarded” prognosis, meaning he was not out of imminent danger, for most of his hospital stay.
The pope has been described as being in a stable or improving condition for the past week after two crises of “acute respiratory insufficiency” on March 3.
The Vatican said earlier on Monday that Francis was continuing with his treatment and was undergoing respiratory physiotherapy to help with his breathing.
The pontiff, who has used a wheelchair in recent years due to knee and back pain, also continued with some physical therapy to help with his mobility, it said.
Francis is receiving oxygen in hospital, using a small oxygen hose under his nose during the day and noninvasive mechanical ventilation at night while he sleeps.
The pope has experienced several bouts of ill health over the past two years and is prone to lung infections because he had pleurisy as a young adult and had part of one lung removed.
Double pneumonia is a serious infection in both lungs that can inflame and scar them, making it difficult to breathe.
The leader of the world’s nearly 1.4 billion Catholics has been working on and off in hospital and following the news when possible, including deadly floods that have hit his homeland of Argentina.
