A Closer Call Than We Knew

[HagiaSophia]

I rec’d notice from an Italian publication which I subscribe to of this same story and so I think it is reasonably accurate:

THE Pope was just 10 minutes from death when he was rushed to hospital last week, a report has revealed.

The Pope’s condition was far graver than his spokesman let on, according to the US magazine Inside the Vatican due out this week.

He twice refused to be taken to hospital by a helicopter, the report said.

The Pope “shook his head decisively” after his powerful personal aide, Bishop Stanislaw Dziwisz, first suggested he go to hospital and then refused a second request from his doctor, Renato Buzzonetti.

Eventually, after another coughing fit that caused the Pope to gasp for breath, he relented.

“He had a feeling like he was suffocating,” the report said.

About 10.15pm he was taken to the Gemelli Hospital where a suite of vacant rooms on the 10th floor are kept ready 24 hours a day for papal emergencies.

It was the same ambulance that took him to the same hospital after he was shot in 1981.

Inside the Vatican says the Pope was taken to the hospital’s intensive care unit until his breathing spasms subsided - an action that also contradicted the account given by Vatican officials.

“We got him by a breath,” one medico tells the magazine.

Another says: “If he had come in 10 minutes later he would have been gone.”

news.com.au/story/0,10117,12170590-38200,00.html

 

[Fitz]

Wow! That was a close call! He probably won’t refuse next time they suggest he go to the hospital.

 

[Linda_H]

You could tell that they were down playing how serious his condition was, I am just grateful that he has pulled through this crisis. I only hope that it is Gods will for JPII to be with us for a while longer.

Linda H.

 

[gilliam]

THE words of Pope John Paul II’s Angelus blessing today were “probably recorded” after his voice faltered when he started to deliver the traditional blessing from his hospital window, Italian media reported.

In an exercise designed to show the Pope was recovering from the severe breathing difficulties and throat infection that caused him to be hospitalised last week, the Vatican appears to have resorted to a tape as the pontiff seemed to choke on the first few words of his blessing.

TV station Sky Italia said in a report the Pope’s brief blessing was “probably recorded”.

There was no immediate response from the Vatican.

Journalists suspicions were raised when the pontiff’s inaudible words at the beginning of the blessing were quickly followed by silence, clicks, and then a much clearer sounding - though still very hoarse - John Paul completing the blessing.

Meanwhile, the Pope’s mouth was blocked to the view of television cameras trained on the window because aides were holding up a sheet of paper on which he appeared to be following the full Angelus prayer, read out as arranged by the Vatican deputy secretary of state.

Earlier, as technicians made the usual sound tests ahead of the ceremony, Vatican correspondents were clearly able to hear a tape of the pontiff performing the blessing on loudspeakers in the Vatican press room. It was this tape which appears to have been substituted for John Paul’s extremely frail voice as soon as he faltered.

theaustralian.news.com.au/printpage/0,5942,12172012,00.html

 

[Church_Militant]

Linda H.:

You could tell that they were down playing how serious his condition was, I am just grateful that he has pulled through this crisis. I only hope that it is Gods will for JPII to be with us for a while longer.

Linda H.

Me too!

 

[HagiaSophia]

gilliam:

TV station Sky Italia said in a report the Pope’s brief blessing was “probably recorded”.

There was no immediate response from the Vatican.

]

The Vatican spokespersons are denying this and insisting it was John Paul speaking, admittedly weak and frail, but speaking.

 

[HagiaSophia]

Linda H.:

You could tell that they were down playing how serious his condition was, I am just grateful that he has pulled through this crisis. I only hope that it is Gods will for JPII to be with us for a while longer.

Linda H.

Actually I didn’t think so. To someone with this ailment, breathing difficulties often require medical appliances or care. It can go either way. At his age, it could have been just a bump in the road if liquid had gathered in the lungs complicating the ever present speaking difficulties or as it appears to have been, very serious.

I hope next time he will get to a hospital ASAP.

I’m just so glad he is still here.

 

[Digitonomy]

HagiaSophia:

Inside the Vatican says the Pope was taken to the hospital’s intensive care unit until his breathing spasms subsided - an action that also contradicted the account given by Vatican officials.

I heard in one report that the Pope’s floor at the hospital is very well equipped, so that it would be rare that they would need to move him to another floor. In other words, officials could deny he was in the ICU, even though he was receiving the same care that you or I would get in an ICU.

I suspect that may be the source of the confusion above. Or it may be that one side or the other is flat wrong, either through ignorance or outright lying.