Pope Francis's 'clinical conditions confirmed to be improving', says Vatican

LAST UPDATE | 27 Feb

POPE FRANCIS’S “CLINICAL conditions” have been “confirmed to be improving”, the Vatican said in an update this evening.

He also “alternated high-flow oxygen therapy with a ventimask” and has undergone “more respiratory physiotherapy”.

Francis has also been engaged in “prayer in the chapel of the hospital suite”, has  received the Eucharist, and has been at work.

From his hospital bed, Francis has approved the canonisation of two new saints and has also been in touch with the only Catholic parish in Gaza. 

Since October 9, 2023, two days after the bombings began in Gaza, Francis has been in daily contact with the Holy Family Church, bar a few days recently due to his hospitalisation.

A doctor treating Francis previously told a press conference that he cannot be allowed back to the Vatican for the time being as he would continue to work as before.

Francis has been battling pneumonia in both lungs, and the Vatican said he slept well last night.

Francesco Blasi, head of pneumology at Milan Polyclinic, and Stefania Vaglio, director of the Immune-haematology unit at the Sant’Andrea Polyclinic in Rome, said the pope’s prognosis remains reserved because “the respiratory problem has not been resolved.

“For an 88-year-old who was already suffering from a chronic respiratory disease before the pneumonia, (his condition) remains critical at least until the improvement is defined as stable,” they said in a joint interview with the Corriere della Sera daily.

“We are not there yet. More days of waiting are needed”.

In the meantime, the “respiratory physiotherapy” Francis is doing is key for patients with severe pneumonia, Blasi and Vaglio said.

The exercises help them learn how to best use the muscles involved in breathing, they added.

The Vatican has been providing updates twice a day on the health of the 88-year-old pontiff, yesterday evening remarking that his condition was improving. 

In a short statement this morning, the Vatican said: “The Pope slept well during the night and is now resting.”

But while there have been some improvements in his condition, the Vatican this afternoon confirmed that due to Francis’s prolonged hospital stay, the Jubilee Audience scheduled for Saturday has been cancelled.

The Pope was admitted to Rome’s Gemelli Hospital on Friday, 14 February, following a bout of bronchitis, with his doctors later diagnosing bilateral pneumonia. 

His condition had been described as “critical” but yesterday evening’s update noted some improvement over the previous 24 hours.

“The mild kidney insufficiency observed in recent days has subsided,” read a statement.

“A chest CT scan carried out [on Tuesday] night showed a normal progression of the lung inflammation. Blood tests conducted [on Wednesday] confirmed the improvement seen [Tuesday].”

Pope Francis remains on high-flow oxygen therapy, but as of Wednesday evening he had not experienced any asthma-like respiratory crises.

Born as Jorge Mario Bergoglio in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 1936, Pope Francis was elected as head of the Roman Catholic Church in March 2013 following the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI.

-With additional reporting from Diarmuid Pepper