This is the fourth time Pope Francis has been admitted to the hospital since 2021.
On the first occasion the pope underwent an operation to remove part of his colon. Two years later he was admitted again for breathing problems, and a few months later, in June 2023, he was admitted for an abdominal hernia.
He underwent surgery a month and a half before the WYD in Portugal. Everything went well but in order not to miss the appointment with the young people it was very important to take care of his rest before the trip.
DR. SERGIO ALFIERI
What is the problem? If in the following days we do not pay special attention to the healing process or we do not take care of the net that we put in the abdominal wall, if the net tears, to use a non-medical term, this forces us to operate again.
Pope Francis passed the test and attended the WYD that had already been postponed due to the pandemic.
But Pope Francis' health problems did not end there. In November 2023 he had breathing problems again.
POPE FRANCIS
Dear brothers and sisters, happy Sunday!
Today, I can't look out the window because I have this problem of inflammation in my
lungs and here to read the reflection will be Monsignor Braida, who knows it well because he is the one who makes them and he always does them so well! Thank you so much for your presence.
This situation continued for months, to the point that during Holy Week 2024 he did not deliver the Palm Sunday homily and even missed the Stations of the Cross at the Colosseum.
The bronchitis problem that landed him in the hospital on February 14 was a respiratory infection. The pope had been dragging that problem for months, although it was not the only one. His physical appearance underwent a change in just a few months. He was much more swollen. That's how he looked in February 2024. He walked and was visibly thinner.
This is the image he is presenting now.
He uses a wheelchair much more and has gained weight. Since 2022 he has had significant mobility problems due to a knee that he did not want to have operated on for fear, as he said, of anesthesia, since he had recently undergone another operation.
JH
