According to the Vatican, Pope Francis is still recovering from pneumonia and is eating breakfast outside of bed following a sixth restful night in the hospital.
Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni released a new update after announcing late Wednesday that new blood tests revealed a “slight improvement” in several inflammation indicators for the 88-year-old pope, who suffered an acute episode of pneumonia in 2023 and is vulnerable to respiratory infections throughout the winter.
Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni paid Francis, 88, his first known VIP visit on Wednesday.
After their twenty-minute visit, she said Francis was in a good mood and had “joked around as always.” On February 14, Francis was brought to the Gemelli hospital in Rome as his bronchitis worsened. In addition to a polymicrobial infection (a mix of bacteria, viruses, and other organisms) in his respiratory system, doctors on Tuesday diagnosed him with pneumonia in both lungs. For what the physicians also determined to be asthmatic bronchitis, he is receiving a mixture of cortisone and antibiotics.
Due to his inability to adequately remove fluid from his lungs, doctors claim that pneumonia made the elderly, delicate patient more vulnerable to problems.
Francis has acknowledged that he has not always been the most cooperative patient. He has a wheelchair due to bad knees and had a portion of his lung removed when he was a young man.
