“Needs our prayers”: Pope Francis undergoes emergency surgery under general anesthesia Archenemies become partners: Bulgaria gets pro-Western government

Great concern for Pope Francis: the 86-year-old pope needs surgery on his abdomen. The urgent intervention was scheduled for Wednesday, as announced by the Holy See. The head of the Catholic Church arrived late this morning from the Vatican at Gemelli Hospital in northwestern Rome.

The operation under general anesthesia was scheduled for the afternoon. In 2021, Francis underwent complex bowel surgery there.

Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni announced that there would be no information on the pope’s condition until the end of the operation. However, hospitalization of “several days” is assumed.

Francis’ medical team has decided in recent days that the Argentinian must be operated on for a so-called laparocele. A laparocele is a rupture in the abdomen. The message from the Holy See spoke of recurring pain. There is also a risk of intestinal obstruction, it said. Therefore, the procedure called laparotomy, opening the abdominal cavity, became necessary.

Carsten J. Krones, board member of the Professional Association of German Surgery (BDC), said at the request of the German news agency that the operation described by the Vatican is a “standard procedure for scar hernias.” “The illness and the procedure are certainly serious for an elderly gentleman and, depending on the anatomy, also demanding, but not acutely life-threatening,” he added, but stressed that he did not know the rest of Francis’ disease profile.

“The Pope needs our prayers,” tweeted Vatican News, the Vatican’s official news platform. A number of journalists and teams of journalists gathered in front of Gemelli Hospital. Follow developments “with affection, with our prayers,” said Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Parolin, number two at the Vatican. He hopes the pope gets well soon.

On the morning of his hospitalization, the pope held his weekly general audience in St. Peter’s Square before thousands of people. When the Vatican’s press room broadcast the announcement of the operation, Francis was still in the square meeting with believers and newlyweds.

The day before he was already in the Gemelli Hospital in Rome for examination. There were still planned checks on Tuesday – but apparently the operation was being prepared.

In 2021, the Argentinian had already undergone surgery under general anesthesia for an intestinal disorder – a so-called diverticulitis. The doctors removed part of the colon. He was then hospitalized for about ten days. It was then said that he had not tolerated the general anaesthetic. But Francis also reported that the surgery probably saved his life at the time.

Also this year he had to be treated as an inpatient in the clinic, which has a special room with several rooms especially for the pope. At the end of March, he was hospitalized for three days because of pneumonia, as he later described. (sda/dpa)