The ability treating Pope Francis

Outdoors the Gemelli Hospital in Rome stands a big statue of one in all its most well-known sufferers, Pope John Paul II.

Fabricated from white Carrara marble, it depicts the pontiff in his later years, stooping and clutching a crucifix, his forehead furrowed in ache.

Docs on the Gemelli hospital helped save John Paul’s life, after he was shot in a failed assassination try in St Peter’s Sq. in Could 1981. He underwent a six-hour operation to take away a bullet from his stomach.

It was the primary time a Pope had been handled at Rome’s largest hospital.

Among the many hospital’s present sufferers is Pope Francis, who was admitted final week with a respiratory an infection. He has been recognized with pneumonia in each lungs.

Over the course of his 25 year-long hold forth, John Paul was admitted round 10 occasions, typically for extended stays. He acquired therapy for numerous diseases, together with a benign intestinal tumour, a damaged hip and a tracheotomy, when his Parkinson’s illness was at a complicated stage.

The Gemelli, which is a Catholic instructing hospital, opened within the Nineteen Sixties. With greater than 1500 beds, it is without doubt one of the greatest personal hospitals in Europe.

Constructed on land donated by Pope Pius XI to the theologian and doctor Agostino Gemelli in 1934, it has develop into often known as the “Pope’s Hospital.” John Paul II even nicknamed it “Vatican Three,” with St Peter’s Sq. being Vatican One, and the papal residence at Castel Gandolfo, Vatican Two.

Within the Nineteen Eighties, the Gemelli arrange a particular Papal suite, which continues to be in use at this time.

It is a small condo on the tenth flooring, an all-white suite with austere, easy furnishings. In addition to the bed room and loo, there’s a front room, with a settee mattress for his aides and a chapel with a kneeler and a big crucifix, the place the Pope can attend or have fun mass and say prayers.

The lengthy entry hall, resulting in the suite is guarded by Italian State Police, the Vatican Gendarmerie and hospital safety.

The Papal suite is reserved for popes, however different sufferers are handled on the identical flooring.

There is a balcony the place the Pope can seem to greet the devoted and say the weekly Angelus prayer.

Properly-wishers usually collect within the sq. outdoors the hospital to hope for the well being of the pontiff. Flowers, playing cards, photographs and candles are sometimes laid on the foot of the statue of John Paul II.

In accordance with official bulletins, Pope Benedict XVI was by no means admitted to the hospital throughout his 8-year papacy, though he visited when his brother acquired therapy there in 2014.

Pope Francis has been handled on the Gemelli a number of occasions. In 2013, he had an operation on his colon. He was handled for infectious bronchitis in March 2023, and had surgical procedure for an intestinal hernia later that yr.

He has usually been seen thanking his medical workforce and different hospital employees. On the finish of 1 keep, he baptised a new child child, and shared a pizza dinner along with his docs, nurses, assistants and Vatican safety personnel.