New health scare for Pope
Pope John Paul II has a high fever caused by a urinary tract infection, his spokesman said tonight.
“The Holy Father was today struck by a high-fever affliction caused by a documented infection of the urinary tract,” spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said.
“An appropriate antibiotic therapy has been started. The medical situation is being strictly controlled by the Vatican medical team that is taking care of him.”
Italian news agencies Apcom and Ansa tonight said the Pope had suffered an alarming drop in blood pressure.
Infections are sometimes accompanied by a drop in blood pressure.
Earlier today, the Vatican dismissed suggestions that the Pope was wavering in his decision to carry on in the papacy as he struggled to regain his health, and a cardinal said the best measures would be employed to keep him alive
“Everybody will do all the best to keep him alive, to feed him the way it can be done,” said Cardinal Renato Martino, an Italian who heads the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace.
The Vatican said yesterday that John Paul was given a nasogastric tube to improve his nutrition as he recovers from throat surgery to insert a breathing tube on February 24.
He is battling Parkinson’s disease, which can make breathing and swallowing difficult.
| Related Stories: |
|
