← Autodidact Archive · Original Dissent · RowdyRoddyPiper
Thread ID: 17566 | Posts: 1 | Started: 2005-03-30
2005-03-30 03:57 | User Profile
Doctors Consider New Operation for Pope -- Report
[url]http://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory?id=623533[/url]
[QUOTE]Mar 29, 2005 — VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Doctors are considering performing a new operation on Pope John Paul to insert a feeding tube directly into his stomach, Corriere della Sera Web Site said on Tuesday, quoting a report by an Italian news agency.
The report said a final decision had not yet been taken but that the doctors thought the tube, known as a PEG, might be needed because the Pope was having problems swallowing.
Such an operation would involve doctors placing a tube into the interior of the stomach through which food would be directly inserted, bypassing the mouth and throat.
The report by the Apcom Italian agency cited "an authorative source." The report did not say if the source was from the medical or Church community.
Vatican spokesmen were not immediately available for comment.
Earlier on Tuesday, Corriere della Sera newspaper said the 84-year-old Pope would probably have to return to hospital in the coming days for medical checks amid fears that his health was worse than the Vatican was admitting.
John Paul has spent two spells in hospital in the past two months following breathing crises. He underwent a tracheotomy on Feb. 24 to help air flow more freely into his lungs and still has a tube inserted in his windpipe to aide his breathing.
The Pope, who also has Parkinson's disease and suffers from severe arthritis, has not spoken in public since March 13, shortly before he was discharged from hospital.
A Parkinson's expert told Reuters that PEGs were relatively common for long-time sufferers of the dehabilitating disease.
The Pope's poor health cast a long shadow over Holy Week celebrations. He failed in his efforts to speak on Easter Sunday and skipped a traditional blessing on Easter Monday for the first time in his papacy, now in its 27th year.
"His condition is perhaps less encouraging than the (Vatican) would like to let on," Corriere wrote on Tuesday. "Indeed, another persistent fact is circulating. The Pope in the coming days should be taken back to the Gemelli." [/QUOTE]