Pope Francis surgery

This photograph taken on June 11, 2023, shows the statue of the late Pope John Paul II at the entrance to the Gemelli hospital in Rome. Pope Francis underwent an operation for an abdominal hernia on June 7, 2023, at the Rome hospital. / Credit: … […]

Pope Francis at his general audience in St Peter’s Square on May 31, 2023. / Adi Zace/EWTN

Rome Newsroom, Jun 8, 2023 / 05:25 am (CNA).
One day after Pope Francis’ abdominal surgery for an incisional hernia, medical staff report that the pope i… […]

Dr. Sergio Alfieri, the lead surgeon for Pope Francis’ abdominal surgery, speaks at a press conference at Gemelli Hospital on June 7, 2023. / Andreas Thonhauser/EWTN

Rome Newsroom, Jun 7, 2023 / 13:15 pm (CNA).

Pope Francis is awake after reacting well to both surgery and general anesthetic, an Italian surgeon said Wednesday afternoon.

Pope Francis “is well, awake, alert, and already made his first joke 10 minutes ago,” Dr. Sergio Alfieri said June 7 during a brief press conference at Rome’s Gemelli Hospital, where Pope Francis is recovering following abdominal surgery.

Alfieri, director of the hospital’s abdominal surgery department, is the same surgeon who removed part of Pope Francis’ colon during an operation to treat diverticulitis in July 2021.

The surgeon told journalists that from a medical point of view, there would be nothing preventing the pope from continuing with his planned travels to Portugal and Mongolia in August after his recovery.

The conditions treated by the surgery on June 7 and the prior operation of July 2021 were both benign and have been resolved, the surgeon said in response to questions.

“The pope does not have other illnesses,” he underlined.

Alfieri noted that Francis had been experiencing pain for several months due to an incisional hernia and decided June 6 to undergo the surgery to correct it.

An incisional hernia is a type of abdominal wall hernia at the site of a previous surgical incision. The surgeon said the hernia may have come about following past operations Francis underwent in Argentina, including for peritonitis, a redness or swelling of the lining of the abdomen often caused by appendicitis.

Alfieri said Francis was already cracking jokes and had asked him when the next surgery would be.

In a statement issued late Wednesday, Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni said “Pope Francis is alert and conscious and thankful for the many messages of closeness and prayer that have immediately reached him.”

Alfieri was assisted by Drs. Valerio Papa, Roberta Menghi, Antonio Tortorelli, and Giuseppe Quero. The anesthetist was Dr. Massimo Antonelli, who was assisted by Drs. Teresa Sacco, Paola Aceto, Maurizio Soave, and Giuseppina Annetta.

The head physician of the Vatican’s health and hygiene office, Dr. Luigi Carbone, was also present in the operating room.

Pope Francis left for the hospital immediately after greeting pilgrims at his Wednesday general audience June 7.

At the start of the audience, he had prayed before a relic of St. Thérèse of Lisieux.

The pope was taken to Gemelli Hospital in a white Fiat 500 with tinted windows with a police escort.

The operation took place in the early afternoon and lasted three hours, the Vatican said.

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Pope Francis at his Wednesday general audience in St. Peter’s Square June 7, 2023. / Daniel Ibanez/CNA

Rome Newsroom, Jun 7, 2023 / 10:50 am (CNA).

The Vatican said Wednesday evening that Pope Francis is out of surgery and that the abdominal operation he underwent “took place without complications.”

The 86-year-old pope will remain in Rome’s Gemelli Hospital for several days to recover after the surgery, according to the Vatican’s spokesman.

In a surgery lasting three hours, Pope Francis underwent a laparotomy and abdominal wall reconstruction using prosthetic materials in the early afternoon of June 7.

The operation under general anesthesia was planned by the pope’s medical team in recent days after it became necessary due to a hernia that was causing recurrent, painful, and worsening symptoms, according to Matteo Bruni, the director of the Holy See Press Office.

The surgery attempted to repair an incisional hernia, a type of abdominal wall hernia at the site of a previous surgical incision. In the pope’s case, this could be the result of the scarring caused by the pope’s colon surgery in July 2021.

The Italian newspaper Il Messaggero reported that the surgeon in charge of the pope’s operation was Sergio Alfieri, the same surgeon who operated on Pope Francis in July 2021 when the pope had part of his colon removed due to diverticulitis.

Pope Francis left for the hospital immediately after greeting pilgrims at his Wednesday general audience, where the pope prayed before a relic of St. Thérèse of Lisieux.

The pope was taken to Gemelli Hospital in a white Fiat 500 with tinted windows with a police escort. 

Once news of the pope’s surgery broke, people began to gather in front of the hospital where he was being treated.

“We follow him with our affection. We follow him with our prayers, hoping that everything will be resolved as soon as possible and he will return to the exercise of his ministry,” Cardinal Pietro Parolin told journalists when asked about the pope’s health.

The cardinal added that he expects that Pope Francis will continue to work from his hospital bed as he recovers.

“Even if from a hospital bed, he will resume the exercise of his ministry. So if there are things that need to be decided, urgently, they will be brought to him at the Gemelli hospital,” Parolin said, according to Sky News.

Pope Francis has been hospitalized three times in the past two years. The pope was hospitalized for four days in March for a lung infection and has also dealt this year with a recurrence of diverticulitis, a painful inflammation of bulges in the large intestine following his operation in July 2021.

Since early 2022 the pope has suffered from knee pain. He started to have difficulty standing and walking and has been using a cane and wheelchair for more than a year.

Pope Francis told the Italian bishops in May last year that he did not want to have his knee operated on because he did not want to recover from general anesthesia again following his last surgery.

An Italian diocese noted in a press release on June 7 that it had been notified by the Prefecture of the Papal Household that all of Pope Francis’ audiences, including general audiences, have been canceled until June 18 due to the pope’s surgery.

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