Pope Francis operated successfully and “without complications”, according to his surgeon

It’s a first. On Wednesday evening, June 7, after the three-hour operation undergone by the pope for an intestinal hernia with the risk of occlusions, at the Gemelli hospital in Rome, the Vatican gave the floor directly to the surgeon who operated on Francis, 86 years. Professor Sergio Alfieri was therefore able to give the press, without any filter, the details of the operation and elements on the state of health of his eminent patient. According to his surgeon, the patient “I’m fine”he is “aware” And “alert” after the surgery that took place “without complications” and who should ask “5 to 7 days” recovering in hospital.

“No other pathology found”

Francis has “reacted well” to surgery and general anesthesia, said Dr. Sergio Alfieri, director of the Department of Medical Sciences and Abdominal and Endocrine Surgery at Gemelli. The official press release published on Wednesday morning – indicated that François was going to undergo a general anesthetic to place a “prosthesis” on the “abdominal wall” in order to correct the effects of “incisor hernia” with risks of occlusions» Who “get worse” causing “pains”.

Dr. Alfieri, who spoke at 7:30 p.m., also recounted a “first joke” of the barely awake pope: “When’s the third one?” operation in reference to the abdominal intervention of July 2021. In addition, the surgeon assured that the pontiff “has no other illnesses” And “that no other pathology was found”. He also clarified that the Pope “never had a problem with general anesthesia, neither two years ago nor today”. But “nobody likes to be asleep”he underlined in reference to the statements of the pontiff saying to have “poorly supported” July 2021 anesthesia.

More technically Sergio Alfieri explained that he found “stubborn adhesions”, due to scars from old operations, notably for peritonitis when Jorge Mario Bergoglio was in Buenos Aires. These scars caused syndromes “painful ever more frequent”. The operation made it possible to “release these adhesions and repair the hernia syndrome” by plastic surgery of the abdominal wall, using a “prosthetic net”. The Secretary of State and number two of the Holy See, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, specified for his part that this operation did not involve “no vacation», «nor a temporary replacement of the pope in the exercise of his functions“. After the operation, the exercise of his ministry will resume, “even if it’s from a hospital bed“, he explained to reporters. “In case of urgent files, they will be brought to him at the Gemelli Hospital.As a precaution, however, the pontiff canceled all his audiences until June 18.

“Infectious Bronchitis”

The pope’s departure for the hospital came after the general audience that Francis normally held in front of hundreds of the faithful, in the exceptional presence of the relics of Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus, brought there for the 150th anniversary of her birth. The pope gathered in front of the reliquary where he announced an upcoming apostolic letter on the world-famous French saint. On March 29, the pope was hospitalized for a “infectious bronchitis“. He had, however, been hospitalized in July 2021 in the same establishment for ten days for a heavy colon operation where 33 centimeters of intestine had been removed from him.

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The Vatican did not seem particularly worried about this new intervention, since it confirmed, on Tuesday, the trip of Francis to Portugal from August 2 to 6. In addition, the maintenance of the general audience on Wednesday morning – which the pope led to the end, taking his time – as well as an appointment with a cardinal and another with a senior Muslim official at the very beginning of the morning , indicate that this operation, decided on Tuesday following a scanner, was not of an absolute emergency character as in July 2021, because Francis would not have returned to the Vatican in this case.