Pope 'may never speak again'

2005-03-29 16:45

Vatican City - A frail Pope John Paul II could be hospitalised for a third time in two months amid deepening concerns that he is failing to recover from a recent throat operation, Vatican watchers said.

The pontiff missed Easter Holy Week ceremonies for the first time in his long pontificate and did not pronounce his traditional Easter Sunday "Urbi et Orbi" blessing.

The notion of re-hospitalisation began at the beginning of last week but gained momentum in the past 24 hours after the pope failed to appear for an annual Easter Monday blessing.

Milan daily Corriere della Sera said on Tuesday that John Paul II could be readmitted to Rome's Gemelli hospital at the end of this week or early next week. Doctors need to check the tube that was placed in his windpipe in February and readjust his diet, it said.

May never speak again

The pope was hospitalised on February 1 for nine days, and again on February 24, when he underwent a tracheotomy to ease acute breathing problems caused by a combination of the flu and his long-time Parkinson's disease. He was discharged after 18 days on March 13, but has been unable to address pilgrims since.

Early last week, as preparations for Holy Week gathered pace, a Vatican source said the pope had been feeling unwell, and was experiencing increasing discomfort and congestion.

"As well as that, he is feeding less and less, which is making him anaemic. To compensate for that, he is taking iron (supplements), but that is giving him headaches and making him nauseous," the source said.

"If the problem isn't resolved after Easter, he will have to be hospitalised again."

The pope has suffered from Parkinson's disease for the past 15 of his 84 years, and has been breathing through a tube doctors inserted into an opening in his throat on February 24.

According to medical sources, the pope is having increasing difficulty swallowing.

Hoever, despite the latest scare, his personal physicial Renato Buzzonetti was upbeat on Tuesday.

"As his personal doctor, I can say we are reasonably tranquil about his post-operative condition," La Repubblica daily quoted him as saying, though he declined to elaborate.

His suffering was obvious on Sunday. The pope tried to give his traditional blessing, but despite considerable and obviously painful effort, he could not manage to speak.

La Repubblica quoted neurologist Stefano Ruggieri as saying the pope may never be able to speak again because his breathing is too feeble to stimulate his vocal chords.

According to Ruggieri, a specialist at Rome's La Sapienza university, the tube placed in the pope's windpipe may never be removed because without it, the pontiff could not receive sufficient air.

- AFP