Pope Francis has had a severe breathing crisis today that required giving him high-flow oxygen and blood transfusions, according to the latest medical report from his doctors at the Gemelli Hospital released this evening at 7:30 p.m. Rome time. The report, from the Vatican press office said, “The prognosis is reserved.”
“The Holy Father’s condition continues to be critical, therefore, as explained yesterday, the Pope is not out of danger,” the report said.
It explained that “he had an asthmatic respiratory crisis of prolonged magnitude over time” this morning, “which also required the application of oxygen at high flows.” The statement also said that blood tests found low platelet counts associated with anemia, “which required the administration of blood transfusions.”
The Vatican statement, based on information from the pope’s medical team, offered an important comforting note by reporting that “The Holy Father continues to be alert and spent the day in an armchair even if he is suffering more than yesterday.”
It concluded, “At the moment the prognosis is reserved.”
Dr. Anna Lisa Bilotta, who works in the Salvator Mundi hospital and is not treating the pope, told America, it is clear that Pope Francis has had “a serious breathing crisis, and great difficulty in breathing” that required “high levels of oxygen” and also “an unspecified quantity of blood transfusions.”
This shows clearly that “the situation is more serious than yesterday. It is not so good.”
She noted that, as Dr. Alfieri had explained yesterday, the pope has “chronic bronchitis” and “pneumonia in both lungs” and she thinks that the two together could have caused the breathing crisis that he suffered today.
Dr. Bilotta said the expression that “the prognosis is reserved” means “the situation is unpredictable and has to be monitored.”
Earlier today, before this news broke, the Vatican announced that “Pope Francis will not lead the Angelus prayer at noon, instead the text [of his message] will be made public at that time, as happened last week.”
Dr. Alfieri said yesterday that the pope’s recovery will take some time, “at least the entire next week.” Since the week ends with the beginning of March, this suggests that almost certainly Pope Francis will not preside at the Ash Wednesday ceremony at the church of Santa Sabina on March 5 that opens the Lenten season, as he had been scheduled to do for the Jubilee Year.
Dr. Alfieri is the surgeon who operated on Francis twice, in July 2021 and June 2023, and now is head of the medical team of some seven specialists that is caring for the pope. At a press briefing held at the hospital yesterday, at the request of Francis to let people know his current state of health, Dr. Alfieri explained that the 88-year-old pope has pneumonia in both lungs with a variety of germs that the doctors have clearly identified and are combating with a pharmacological therapy, which is “a lot of medicine.”
He said, “The pope is not out of danger yet, but neither is his life in imminent danger.” He warned that it would take little to have a setback at any time, as has happened today.
Dr. Alfieri explained yesterday that “there is also a risk that one or more of the germs in his lungs could enter his blood and that would cause sepsis,” which would be a serious problem and could even be life threatening. But, Dr. Alfieri said, the pope’s medical team is prepared for this eventuality. But Vatican sources said that nobody spoke about sepsis in relation to today’s crisis.
The Mayo Clinic website explains that sepsis “is a serious condition in which the body responds improperly to an infection. The infection-fighting processes turn on the body, causing the organs to work poorly.”
It adds, “Sepsis may progress to septic shock. This is a dramatic drop in blood pressure that can damage the lungs, kidneys, liver and other organs. When the damage is severe, it can lead to death” but says, “Early treatment of sepsis improves chances for survival.”
The Vatican press office reported that Francis had “a restful night,” his eighth night in a suite on the 10th floor of the Gemelli Hospital. He was admitted around lunchtime on Feb. 14.
Although it was not included in the briefing as it has been in the past, Vatican sources report that the pope did eat breakfast and was sitting in an armchair.
