pope Francis He was admitted to the Gemelli Hospital in Rome due to a respiratory infection.

The unexpected hospitalization of the Argentine Pope raised questions about Fr Your actual state of health.

Sources at Rome’s medical center reported that the pope arrived by ambulance after suffering heart or respiratory problems and underwent a CT scan.

The Jesuit Jorge Mario Bergoglio, who took the name Francisco when he was elected head of the Catholic Church, already has a long history of long-term health problems.

When he was only 21 years old, he suffered a lung infection, which required emergency surgery. to remove the upper lobe of his right lung.

“When I became seriously ill at the age of twenty-one, I had my first experience with a limit, with pain and loneliness. The guidelines have changed. For months I didn’t know who I was and whether I was dying or not.“, recounted Francisco in the book ‘Let’s dream together’. “Even the doctors did not know if he would survive. I remember that one day, hugging her, I asked my mother if I was going to die.“, he added.

Francisco remembers being in the second year of the diocesan seminary in Buenos Aires. “I remember the date: on August 13, 1957. A prefect, seeing that I didn’t have the kind of flu that aspirin treats, took me to the hospital.. From the beginning, they took a liter and a half of water from my lungs and I stayed there fighting for my life.“, he indicated.

The Pope remembers above all two nurses from that time, one of them, Sister Cornelia Caraglio, who saved his life. “I will always be in their debt. They fought for me until the end, until I got better“, he stated in the book.

Francisco is currently using a wheelchair as of May 2022 due to a arthritis in the right knee.

In July 2021, he spent ten days at the Gemelli Hospital for a delicate operation on the colon, an intervention which, according to him, left “consequences”. this led him to rule out knee surgery recommended by his doctors.

The world already knew about his ailments as he suffered from chronic sciatica which caused him to limp, forcing him to forego official ceremonies on some occasions. He even had “personal health assistant” it says, the nurse.

The health of popes has always been a “reserved matter” for the Vatican and generally kept secret.

Argentine doctor and journalist Nelson Castro, Bergoglio’s friend since he was archbishop of Buenos Aires, recently presented a book on the health of the popes in Rome. He listed the diseases from which they suffered from Leo XIII. (1878-1903) and reported on conversations with Francisco.

In these conversations, Francisco revealed that while living in Argentina, he was treated with Chinese acupuncture for back pain, from which he suffered “stones in the gall bladder” and that in 2004 he had “temporary” problems with his heart due to a slight narrowing of the artery.