Vatican: Pope ‘reacted well’ to surgery
VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis “reacted well” to planned intestinal surgery Sunday evening at a Rome hospital, the Vatican said, without giving much detail about the pontiff’s condition.
In a statement late Sunday, a Holy See spokesman, Matteo Bruni, said the 84-year-old Francis had general anesthesia during the surgery necessitated by a stenosis, or narrowing, of the sigmoid portion of the large intestine.
He didn’t say how long surgery lasted. Nor did Bruni indicate if the pope had regained consciousness after the anesthesia or how long Francis was expected to stay in Rome’s Agostino Gemelli Polyclinic. Francis was expected to convalesce in a special 10th floor suite reserved for popes.
“The Holy Father, admitted in the afternoon to A. Gemelli Polyclinic, underwent in the evening planned surgery for a diverticular stenosis of the sigmoid” portion of the colon, Bruni said in a brief written statement. “The Holy Father reacted well to the surgery conducted under general anesthesia,” the spokesman said, noting there was a four-person surgical team, plus a four-person anesthesiologist team.
It was a remarkable end to a day that began publicly for Francis when, during his traditional Sunday appearance to the faithful in St. Peter’s Square, he cheerfully announced he would go to Hungary and Slovakia in September. The pope made no mention of his impending surgery, but headed shortly after to Gemelli, a Catholic teaching hospital.
After he was admitted, the Vatican revealed that Francis had been diagnosed with a narrowing in the large intestine. The main surgeon was Dr. Sergio Alfieri, the director of Gemelli’s digestive surgery department.